The Great Wander

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

We did take a day and a night over Christmas to get away from the boat.  Getting away from all of the work was good for all of us.  We watched the Space X Falcon Heavy launch.  On the way back, we found a great gem called Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  

It really was a fluke that we found it, I didn’t search for wildlife refuge near me and find it.  We actually stopped at a unique little place called the Florida Key Lime Pie Company  and as we were enjoying one of the best pieces of key lime pie I’ve ever had, we looked at the little tourist map that they had.  We were heading home, so I was looking for things to do on our way, and I saw the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

At the visitor center, there’s a great little boardwalk that’s about a half mile or so.  It wanders through the forest there, over the ponds.  This place has some really crystal-clear water.   You can see the fish swimming around, if you sit in one spot for a bit, turtles will crawl up out of the water onto logs to sun themselves.  We didn’t see any gators, but they did have signs saying not to feed the gators.

It’s also a very dog friendly place too.  Keep the dog on a leash and clean up any messes is all they ask.  Oh, yeah, don’t use your dog as gator bait!  Seriously, no one did that, but like I said, the signs said don’t feed the gators, so really, if you go, keep your dog out of the water.

The boardwalk is well maintained, easy walking, no need for hiking boots.  You can also find some other trails nearby that you are not as well maintained as the boardwalk, but that’s also the point of wildlife refuge.  We are going into their world and while there are some trails, it’s not about making it easier for us to explore the world of the animals. 

We stuck to the boardwalk for this trip, but, it does sit on the Intracoastal Waterway, so maybe we will stop by there again.  You can’t get to the visitor center by dinghy, but there’s plenty of shoreline.  I’ll have to do a little research and see about beaching your dinghy there.  

When we lived in Wyoming, we loved to go out to a wildlife management area and hike around and run the dogs.  It was great.  Rico doesn’t really run anymore, but he did enjoy being out and we enjoyed the visit through nature.  Very different from our other hiking, but just being able to stand look out over the lakes and ponds, and meander on a ‘trail’ sure felt good.

If you find yourself near Titusville, Cape Canaveral, that general area, make sure you stop by and check it out. It’s worth it. We’ve got more boat projects going on, hopefully soon, we’ll be on our way and maybe can visit the refuge again. The next time, it’ll be just a little bit different perspective, since we’ll be finding shoreline access!