Visitors have been touring Florida for so long, they think they know it.
They’ve seen the postcards; they’ve toured the popular destinations. Been there. Done that.
But Florida still holds plenty of secrets, even for those who have vacationed or lived here for years. The state is just so big and diverse. It still has plenty of places that have the capacity to surprise and delight, to educate and to entertain.
Here are a half-dozen places that belong to that secret Florida — the Florida you haven’t heard about.
The Florida national park you’ve never heard of
For years, I thought the only national park in northern Florida was the wonderful Spanish fort in St. Augustine, Castillo de San Marcos.
Wrong. There’s the Timucuan Preserve, a part of the National Park Service northeast of Jacksonville.
The Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is 46,000 acres of salt marshes, coastal dunes and hardwood hammocks, and it preserves key sites in Florida’s history.
The preserve is named for the Timucuan Indians, who lived in this region when French explorers landed here in 1562. The Timucua-speaking tribes inhabited Central and North Florida and southeastern Georgia, and archaeologists believe their culture had remained essentially unchanged for more than 1,000 years. That is, until the Europeans arrived. The tribe disappeared by 1800.
The preserve is all free, and it would be easy to spend an entire weekend just exploring and hiking.
The park is on several parcels separated by the St. Johns River. South of the river is Fort Caroline National Monument and several excellent hiking trails. North of the river are Kingsley Plantation and the Ribault Club.
A scenic way to cross the river is the St. Johns River Ferry, which carries vehicles as well as pedestrians, connecting State Road A1A in Mayport and Fort George Island.
The highlight of the Timucuan Preserve? Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island. You can tour the original home to Zephaniah Kingsley and his wife, Anna, a slave from Senegal he bought in Havana and freed. They lived here from 1814 to 1837. You also can tour 25 slave cabins. You will not soon forget the stories you hear about the people who lived here.
Details: nps.gov/foca
The ‘little’ Spanish fort and its free boat ride
It’s not huge and grand like its older, bigger brother, the St. Augustine fort.
But Fort Matanzas, 14 miles south of St. Augustine, has charms all its own. Built in 1742, about 50 years after St. Augustine’s Castillo de San Marcos fort, it is on a spectacular inlet with expansive views of water and marshland. Wildlife is abundant: Dolphin, wading birds and osprey are common. You reach the fort by a short boat ride across the Matanzas River. You can climb a very narrow ladder to get to the top of the tower — people were smaller then!
And did I mention? It is all free.
Fort Matanzas is operated by the National Park Service and is right off a scenic stretch of A1A. A tour takes an hour — that includes the boat trip to the fort, a talk by a park ranger and the trip back. It’s worth allowing more time, though, to walk the short trail, explore the beach or have a picnic. Families with kids, in particular, should enjoy this outing.
I think it’s better to visit Fort Matanzas before Castillo de San Marcos. That way, you’re not comparing the little fort to the big one you just saw. Cannon demonstrations take place during the regularly scheduled tours (except for the first and last) on the first Saturday of the month.
Details: nps.gov/foma
Fort Matanzas National Monument
8635 A1A S., St Augustine
904-471-0116
Lakeland’s surprising trove of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
Picture the most beautiful college campus in the country. A New England scene with traditional brick and ivy quadrangles, right?
Not necessarily. Florida Southern College in Lakeland won that title two years in a row from Princeton Review, and it was based on a very different sort of beauty: the largest collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on one site.
Florida Southern College draws Frank Lloyd Wright fans from around the world, but beyond that group, it’s not a well-known destination.
Even if you don’t know a lot about architecture, however, the lovely Florida Southern campus makes an interesting stop when you’re near Lakeland. A free brochure with a walking tour gives essential background. You can stroll the campus at your own pace and go inside three buildings. There are also several guided tours. The least expensive tour ($7) is of a “new” Frank Lloyd Wright building, the Usonian House, designed in 1939 but not built until 2013.
Details: flsouthern.edu/fllw-visitors.aspx
A Cracker fish shack beloved by locals
Here’s a secret the restaurants around Chesapeake Bay want to keep: Some of their fresh crabs are actually imported from the Peace River of Florida.
The Peace River at Punta Gorda is a thriving nursery for blue crabs, and longtime crabber Jimmy Beall takes advantage of the local bounty with an authentic Florida crab shack: Peace River Seafood.
Located in a weathered wooden 1927 Cracker cabin, Peace River Seafood is 2 miles off Interstate 75 between Naples and Tampa, but coming here, you’re entering an Old Florida world. You hear the squawks of the parrot on the porch and the “bam! bam! bam!” of wooden mallets cracking open blue-crab claws. The doors and windows are open to the breeze, shaded by sprawling live oaks.
The prettiest sight, though, is the array of buckets on the tables piled with bright-orange crabs — they’re blue before they’re cooked — and yellow cobs of corn.
Peace River Seafood serves fresh local shrimp, stone crabs, crab cakes, clams, grouper and mahi mahi as well as fresh fish from outside the area, such as salmon and lobster. But crabs are king.
The fresh seafood here is primarily sourced from local Punta Gorda fishermen, and it is also a wholesale market.
Be aware: It is closed Sundays and Mondays, and crabs aren’t served after 7 p.m.
Peace River Seafood
5337 Duncan Road, Punta Gorda
941-505-8440
The little beach house where sailors took refuge
When Florida was a wild and impenetrable wilderness, sailing ships moved along its coast, fearing hurricanes, reefs and shipwrecks. Were the worst to happen, the stranded sailors could die on shore before anyone knew what happened. And so 10 buildings were constructed along the Atlantic coast from Daytona Beach to Key Biscayne between 1876 and 1886. These Houses of Refuge were manned by hardy souls committed to saving the shipwrecked. The system of houses of refuge was unique to Florida, and only one remains: Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island.
Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge is on a picturesque section of beach called the St. Lucie Rocks, an outcropping of Anastasia limestone similar to what you see at Blowing Rocks on Jupiter Island and Washington Oaks Gardens beach near Palm Coast.
It’s a gorgeous spot: The 1876 cottage is surrounded by an award-winning garden of native plants and flowers and has broad views of both the ocean and the Indian River Lagoon.
The best documented shipwreck in the House of Refuge museum is the wreck of the Georges Valentine on Oct. 16, 1904. A hurricane blew the Italian barque all the way from Havana to Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge, where it smashed into the rocks, killing five on board. Seven were rescued.
The wreck of the Georges Valentine is now a popular snorkeling and scuba-diving site about 100 yards off the House of Refuge.
If you visit the House of Refuge, it’s a good deal to buy a buy a joint ticket with the nearby Elliott Museum. Combo tickets are $16 for adults; separately, they are $8 for House of Refuge and $12 for the Elliott Museum.
Details: houseofrefugefl.org
Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge
301 S.E. MacArthur Blvd., Stuart
772-225-1875
A wild and pristine ‘secret’ beach
If any aspect of Florida feels known and familiar, it is Florida’s famous beaches.
That’s why I was surprised to stumble upon this spectacular beach.
Between Jupiter and Stuart, Jupiter Island is a 25-mile-long barrier island with only a two-lane road and a population of 850 very rich people living in mansions along the ocean.
It’s a popular place to bicycle, and that’s what I was doing when I pedaled up a dead-end road to the northern tip of the island. There was a small parking lot and a sign for Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. On the other side of the dune vegetation stretched a magnificent beach — more than 5 miles of wild, broad, unspoiled sandy shore, lined with thick native vegetation and without a condo or T-shirt shop in sight.
On a hot and sunny Saturday morning, there were more turtle nests than people on the beach. We saw four beach umbrellas, eight surfers and two fishermen. We walked for miles, often with a vast expanse of beach, ocean and sky ahead of us without another person visible.
Note: There is no lifeguard, and the water can get deep within a few steps, so this won’t be the perfect place for children to swim.
The quickest route is to exit I-95 at County Road 708, also known as Bridge Road, and drive 2 miles east. Once you cross the Intracoastal, you pass through a lovely section of road lined with arching ficus trees. At the ocean, there is a free parking lot for an excellent public beach, Hobe Sound Martin County Beach Park. Turn left and drive 3 miles north. The road dead-ends at Hobe Sound NWR.
Bonnie Gross is co-founder of FloridaRambler.com, where you can find new ways to experience natural and authentic Florida.
![NEW YORK (AP) — A cruise ship sailed into a New York City port with a 44-foot (13-meter) dead whale across its bow, marine authorities said. The whale, identified as an endangered sei whale, was caught on the ship’s bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn on Saturday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration […]](https://www.courant.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2021/09/17/YNEADLAFKNBKPIRMBZSJEKNB5Q.jpg?w=535 "NEW YORK (AP) — A cruise ship sailed into a New York City port with a 44-foot (13-meter) dead whale across its bow, marine authorities said. The whale, identified as an endangered sei whale, was caught on the ship’s bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn on Saturday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration […]")