Most likely essentially the most distinguished choices of Florida’s nationwide park web sites are coasts and seashores. Prolonged seashores, crystal clear water, coastal wildlife, and limitless alternate options for water actions. Nonetheless that’s not all these eleven nationwide park web sites provide. You might uncover America’s oldest fort, fly in a seaplane to an important fort, and go to the placement the place De Soto’s expedition landed throughout the 1500s.

Florida is known as the “Sunshine State,” a moniker that exactly describes the tropical native climate. The nationwide park web sites capitalize on this attribute with seashores, coastal campgrounds, climbing trails, and water trails.

Some nationwide park web sites are good for day journey visits whereas exploring Florida. Nonetheless others, like Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, require planning to get primarily essentially the most out of your journey.

Be taught this file of the 11 Florida nationwide park web sites to review what to do at each site, uncover hyperlinks to further knowledge, and save the cope with to your Google Maps account.

Discover | The nationwide park web sites are listed in order of look on the map from left to correct. This is not a score of the nationwide park web sites.

Florida Nationwide Parks Map

Learn to use this map | Click on on the icon throughout the top-left nook to open the Map Legend, then click on on on any of the legend objects to indicate further knowledge. If in case you have got a Google account, click on on the (very faint) star on the end of the map’s title to keep away from losing this map to your account, then entry the map out of your smartphone all through your journey.

Nationwide Park vs. Nationwide Park Unit

When any individual searches for a “nationwide park,” they’re usually looking for particulars about one among many 63 nationwide parks—the highest of the Nationwide Park System. Nonetheless, nationwide parks solely account for 15% of the system’s objects.

What about nationwide monuments, nationwide seashores, and nationwide navy parks? What are these parks collectively often called?

The Nationwide Park Service explains, “Whereas there are on the very least 19 naming designations, this stuff are generally called parks.” Nonetheless, two adjectives have been used of their clarification: objects and parks.

I make the most of the time interval “nationwide park unit” to clarify any of the 429 specific particular person named objects of the Nationwide Park System, after which I make the most of the time interval “nationwide park” significantly for these vaunted parks.

After I write a roundup of Nationwide Park Service web sites, I embody all the nationwide park objects on account of each park is value visiting for its private trigger.

Be taught Additional | Full Guidelines of All 429 Nationwide Park Fashions | Interactive Map + NPS Internet sites

Nationwide Park Service App

The official Nationwide Park Service app is an all-in-one system for planning a nationwide park journey and discovering your method throughout the park. The app has particulars about every nationwide park site all through the nation, mainly inserting all the web knowledge at your fingertips.

The free app choices interactive maps, self-guided excursions, services like restrooms, and lists of points to do. The extremely efficient app has an offline mode – with a single faucet, it might probably prevent the park for offline use to entry all of the data later. You’ll even have entry to very important knowledge like alerts, contacts, fees, and dealing hours.

Get hold of the free app on iOS and Android.

America the Beautiful Go

Lots of the Nationwide Park Service’s objects are free to go to, nonetheless some require an entrance value. Fortunately, there are strategies to economize on these fees once you frequent the objects.

The Commonplace Go permits one particular person to enter one park for seven consecutive days. The Annual Go presents entrance to 1 park for a 12 months.

The America the Beautiful Go is the golden ticket hidden in a chocolate bar. This transfer covers the doorway and day-use fees for as a lot as one vehicle or 4 adults for all Nationwide Park Service objects.

There are a selection of sorts of America the Beautiful Passes catering to completely totally different segments of society and with completely totally different worth tags:

• Annual Go is accessible for everyone for $80
• Annual Senior Go is accessible to US residents 62+ for $20
• Lifetime Senior Go is accessible to US residents 62+ for $80
• Annual Navy Go is accessible to full of life obligation US navy and dependents with out spending a dime
• Lifetime Navy Go is accessible to Gold Star Family members and veterans with out spending a dime
• Entry Go is accessible for US residents with a eternal incapacity with out spending a dime
• 4th Grade Go is accessible to US fourth graders with out spending a dime

The perfect place to purchase an America the Beautiful Go is at a nationwide park unit. Go to the Nationwide Park Service’s site to review further about interagency passes.

Gulf Islands Nationwide Seashore

Gulf Islands Nationwide Seashore is an fascinating mixture of nature and historic previous on barrier islands in Mississippi and Florida. Uncover historic previous at places like Fort Barrancas and Fort Pickens, forts constructed in the midst of the nation’s early years. Then, spend a day on the seaside at Okaloosa, Perdido Key, or Santa Rosa.

Spend a few nights in coastal comfort on the 200-site Fort Pickens Campground. The campsites perform electrical hookups and are acceptable for tents or RVs.

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Shield

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Shield covers 46,000 acres of wetlands and waterways near Jacksonville, Florida. Established in 1988, the shield is an excellent various to watch coastal wildlife and luxuriate in water actions like kayaking and scenic coastal views.

Go to Kingsley Plantation, the oldest extant plantation throughout the state, after which take a self-guided tour of Fort Carolina Nationwide Memorial.

Fort Caroline Nationwide Memorial

In 1564, René Goulaine de Laudonnière established a French settlement on the banks of the St. John River. A 12 months later, Spanish troops from St. Augustine, led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, captured the settlement and at last destroyed it.

Fort Carolina Nationwide Memorial preserves the placement of the French settlement. Nothing stays, nonetheless the shopper coronary heart has reveals regarding the early colonial historic previous and the battle between France and Spain.

Castillo de San Marcos Nationwide Monument

In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés based mostly St. Augustine, Spain’s first settlement in North America. After 100 years of relative peace, the settlement was brutally attacked by English pirate Robert Searle. Queen Regent Mariana of Spain ordered the Florida governor to assemble a masonry fort – the Castillo de San Marcos.

Improvement on “Fortress of Saint Mark” began in 1672 and was achieved in 1695. It’s America’s oldest fort throughout the oldest metropolis.

Be taught Additional | Exploring America’s Oldest Fort – Castillo de San Marcos Nationwide Monument

Visitors to Castillo de San Marcos Nationwide Monument can take self-guided excursions of the fort’s inside, uncover the canons mounted alongside the fort’s partitions, and go to the cell the place Patriot Christopher Gadsden was held in solitary confinement in the midst of the Revolutionary Warfare. It takes about two hours to see all of the issues throughout the fort.

Skilled Journey Tip | A giant automobile parking space on the nationwide park site’s entrance is often crammed early throughout the day. The Historic Downtown Parking Facility behind the St. Augustine Buyer Center is likely one of the finest place to park. It’s a 10-15 minute stroll from the parking storage to the fort.

Fort Matanzas Nationwide Monument

In 1742, Fort Matanzas was constructed alongside the Matanzas River to protect St. Augustine from a southern technique. The fort is not typical – there will not be any partitions, motes, or courtyards to find. It’s a blockhouse constructed from native coquina.

Visitors ought to journey a free ferry from the park’s buyer coronary heart on Florida Freeway A1A. The ferry takes about 10 minutes to cross the river to Fort Matanzas.

Canaveral Nationwide Seashore

At 24 miles prolonged, Canaveral Nationwide Seashore is the longest stretch of undeveloped beachfront remaining in Florida. The seashore stretches from the Kennedy Space Center to New Smyrna Seaside.

One in every of many park’s hottest actions is watching launches from Kennedy Space Center. Playalinda Seaside is the closest viewing spot on the seashore. Nonetheless arrive early once you plan to watch a launch – there are a restricted number of parking spots, and the park workers closes the doorway when it’s full.

Apollo Seaside is the closest parking area to the northern end of the seashore. There will not be any roads for 13 miles between Apollo Seaside and Playalinda Seaside. It’s a unusual various to take pleasure in a spectacularly peaceful Florida seaside.

De Soto Nationwide Memorial

In 1539, Hernando de Soto landed on Florida’s Gulf Coast with over 600 troopers. Lustful for gold and under orders from King Charles V to beat the natives, de Soto led the expedition on a 4,000-mile journey all through North America.

De Soto Nationwide Memorial in Bradenton, Florida, preserves the extensively accepted site of De Soto’s landing. Visitors can uncover historic artifacts and research regarding the expedition’s historic previous on the shopper coronary heart.

Massive Cypress Nationwide Shield

In 1974, Massive Cypress Nationwide Shield in Florida and Massive Thicket Nationwide Shield in Texas grew to develop into the first nationwide preserves throughout the Nationwide Park System. The 720,000-acre Massive Cypress Nationwide Shield covers an infinite area of southern Florida between Miami and Fort Myers.

The most suitable choice to find the massive shield is the 27-mile Loop Road Scenic Drive or the 17-mile Turner River / Wagonwheel / Birdon Roads Loop Drive. It’s a beautiful various to learn from the shield’s wildlife and landscapes.

Completely different actions embody bicycling, kayaking, and climbing alongside dozens of trails all by way of the shield.

Biscayne Nationwide Park

95% of Biscayne Nationwide Park’s 172,000 acres is underwater. The park preserves Biscayne Bay, islands and keys, and coral reefs, along with the northern portion of the Florida Reef. Ten thousand years of human historic previous lay all through the park’s boundaries – most of it in sunken ships on the bottom.

One in every of many park’s hottest actions is scuba diving to the shipwrecks on the ocean floor. Completely different actions embody snorkeling, kayaking, boating, and fishing. The Biscayne Nationwide Park Institute provides a sequence of guided excursions to find the watery elements of the park.

Everglades Nationwide Park

The 1.5 million acre Everglades Nationwide Park is an important tropical wilderness within the US and the third largest unit of the Nationwide Park Service. The park preserves 20% of the southern Florida Everglades south of Miami.

The popular actions throughout the park are climbing, birding, kayaking, and fishing. Ought to of the park is a licensed Darkish Sky Park, good for astronomers of all ranges to take pleasure in stargazing.

The park’s tropical native climate not usually sees in a single day lows underneath 40 ranges. Widespread highs all yr lengthy range from 78-94 ranges. The perfect time of 12 months to go to Everglades Nationwide Park is February, March, October, and November.

Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park

Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park is among the many most uncommon objects throughout the Nationwide Park Service. Nonetheless, that uniqueness moreover makes it the costliest nationwide park throughout the nation.

The nationwide park is 70 miles west of Key West throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The 100-square-mile park consists of a lot of keys – Loggerhead Key, Yard Key, Bush Key, Prolonged Key, Hospital Key, Middle Key, and East Key.

Fort Jefferson was constructed between 1846 and 1861. Comprised of 16 million bricks, it’s an important masonry fort throughout the Western Hemisphere. Whatever the heavy funding in setting up the distant fort, it was solely used for a few years until 1874. All through its temporary tenure, the fort was a jail for Confederate troops captured in the midst of the Civil Warfare.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Fort Jefferson Nationwide Monument. The abandoned fort was stabilized and renovated. In 1992, the placement was redesignated as Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park.

Visitors to the distant nationwide park take pleasure in snorkeling the crystal clear water, taking self-guided excursions inside Fort Jefferson, and spending a few hours on one among many keys. A primitive campground with eight campsites, each site large ample for 3 2-person tents.

There are solely two strategies to get to Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park; each chance makes it the nation’s most expensive nationwide park to go to. One chance is a 4-hour roundtrip journey on the Yankee Freedom III, a passenger boat with a functionality for 150 passengers. The boat journey is $220 per grownup and $165 for children aged 3 to 17.

The second chance is a 2-hour roundtrip flight on a seaplane. Tickets for the half-day tour are $466 per grownup and $372 for children aged 2 to 12. Tickets for the full-day tour are $820 for adults and $655 for children.

Skilled Journey Tip | Although the seaplane is the quickest choice to Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, I wish to advocate taking the additional cheap boat. The boat has two completely stocked bars, sodas, and snacks for the prolonged journey.