Indian Riverside Park – Florida Hikes - Primal Outdoor Members Portal

Breathtaking views, shocking elevation modifications, and an immersion in each tradition and historical past bounded by a mangrove tunnel and a seaside.

Historic houses, a kids’s museum, splash pad, and waterfront enjoyable are all part of Indian Riverside Park.

Lagoonfront seaside and pier

Their scenic linear walkway above the Indian River Lagoon is a should for all ages and skills; the Mangrove Boardwalk fairly an immersion.

Probably the most literal of the park’s excessive factors? Mount Elizabeth, a burial and ceremonial mound as soon as towering 60 ft above the lagoon.

Waterfront walkway

Sources

Overview

Location: Jensen BeachLength: 1.3 milesTrailhead: 27.228591, -80.214523Address: 1707 NE Indian River Dr, Jensen BeachFees: FreeRestroom: In a number of locationsLand Supervisor: Martin CountyPhone: 772-288-5745

Open dawn to sundown. Leashed canines welcome. Splash fountain closed Tuesdays for upkeep.

Instructions

From US 1 in downtown Stuart, cross the St. Lucie River bridge and switch proper on Wright Rd. On the mild with Outdated Dixie Rd flip left. Keep on Outdated Dixie Rd till it ends at Indian River Dr. Flip left. The park entrance is on the best. As soon as contained in the park, flip left and drive to its north finish, passing a historic marker for Mount Elizabeth and the Tuckahoe Mansion atop it on the way in which to the parking space on the left by the Sewall Home.

Hike

Begin your stroll by approaching Captain Henry Sewall’s Home, which was as soon as each a residence and the put up workplace for close by Sewall’s Level.

Constructed 1889 on the tip of the purpose, the pier fronting it was a navigational support to these coming into the St. Lucie River from the Atlantic.

Boat zipping across waterways with background of inlet

Sewall’s Level as seen from Twin Rivers Park

Moved off Sewall’s Level in 1910, it was to be demolished in 2003 when the county Historic Preservation Board stepped in.

Relocated to this park and restored, it opens for docent-led excursions twice a month November by means of Might.

Sewall Home from the Mangrove Boardwalk

Behind the home, the Mangrove Boardwalk begins. Observe a straightaway surrounded by crimson mangroves. Marsh ferns add a splash of inexperienced.

An interpretive panel tells the story of how this mangrove forest got here to be, a story of unintended penalties.

A wonderland of prop roots

Settlers on this space have been familar with a freshwater swamp right here, a thicket of Virginia willow, pond apple, and loblolly bay timber.

In 1939, Willaford and Anne Bates Leach moved from Atlanta into their grand mansion Tuckahoe, constructed atop Mount Elizabeth, tackled later within the hike.

Interpretive cease

As a Coca-Cola heiress, Mrs. Leach and her husband moved within the higher social strata of the Atlantic Coast, entertaining officers from Camp Murphy and the Navy.

Stuart Airfield was being expanded for wartime pilot coaching, however the scraped sand dunes wanted grass for pilots to land on. The Leaches informed them “take our muck!”

Tunnel by means of the mangroves

Practically 450 dump truck a great deal of wealthy black soil have been eliminated, turning the freshwater swamp right into a lake whereas offering the Navy what they wanted to make Witham Subject grassy.

Connecting the brand new lake’s waters to the Indian River Lagoon was its undoing. Turning brackish, it grew to become an extension of the lagoon.

Mangroves moved in, as did invasive species that the county eliminated earlier than constructing this boardwalk. This mangrove forest is a historic relic of World Conflict II.

Eight many years of development

Broader on the interpretive signal, the boardwalk jogs left to the subsequent straightaway. A bumpout with a bench hovers over a damper portion of the swamp.

Beneath, tiny fish wriggle in tannic however clear shallows. At its very finish, the boardwalk opens into a big sq. platform with a chickee hut shading benches under.

Chickee at boardwalk’s finish

Edged by a tangle of prop roots, the waterway that flows previous this level displays the sky.

Return alongside the boardwalk to the Sewall Home. Ending this 0.3 mile round-trip by means of the mangroves, cross the parking space close by of the royal palm circle.

Royal palm circle

Flip proper to observe the sidewalk alongside the fence to the parking space behind Tuckahoe. Constructed 1936 to 1939, it steps up the crest of Mount Elizabeth.

The Mediterranean Revival structure mirrors how earthen houses swarm the volcanic slopes of Santorini in Greece.

Tuckahoe

This was not the primary residence to be constructed atop this coastal excessive level. It succeeded a three-story wooden body home in-built 1891 by Charles Racey.

Racey grew pineapples and citrus on the encompassing land alongside the lagoon, its waters moderating a microclimate.

Begin of the boardwalk

Observe the broad walkway between the mansion and the parking space to the lagoon, passing the staircase climbing to deal with degree.

Be a part of a riverfront boardwalk alongside the Indian River Lagoon, a perpetually breezy stroll on the base of the mound’s sharp slope to the water’s edge.

Historic marker

Whereas now solely 40 ft tall, it’s the highest remaining coastal mound in South Florida.

Archaeological excavations uncovered pottery shards, instruments, and shell ornaments among the many mixture of shell and sand making up this spectacular mound.

Stairs to Tuckahoe

Go a staircase descending from Tuckahoe. It doubtless led to a dock. When the Leaches moved on, they bought Tuckahoe to the Catholic Church.

It grew to become a girls’s school, St. Joseph, and later was bought by the Florida Institute of Know-how for adminstrative workplaces.

Boardwalk under Tuckahoe

The broad boardwalk provides an impressive perspective throughout the Indian River Lagoon.

A bump-out adjoins a curve because the walkway follows the pure circulate of the bottom of the mound, now backing away from the seawall.

On the subsequent curve, a pathway splits off to the best to a grassy out of doors occasion house. Search for for one more perspective on the mansion.

Alongside the seawallhr/>

After FIT departed, Tuckahoe sat vacant for a decade earlier than Martin County bought it and commenced turning the grounds into Indian Riverside Park.

Restoration of the mansion was accomplished in 2009. It opens for excursions concurrent with these on the Sewall Home.

The mansion and this out of doors house may be rented for particular occasions.

Grassy slope on Tuckahoe’s south aspect

Stick with the boardwalk at this junction. Whereas under the occasion house, it continues to offer excellent panoramas.

Views throughout the lagoon are framed by cabbage palms and enormous clumps of mangroves.

Gumbo limbo tree shading a bench along paved path

Tropical hammock

Rounding a pointy nook, depart the waterfront for a tropical hammock, sea grapes and gumbo limbo shading the trail.

Each time the walkway splits, keep left, together with at a big curved constructing, residence to the Youngsters’s Museum of the Treasure Coast.

Observe the trail behind it, passing amusingly outsized greens in an outside play space.

Giant carrot in play area outside childrens museum

Large carrot

Circle the sting of a pure seaside on the Indian River Lagoon, its shallows a favourite for households. The boardwalk resumes on the strategy to the fishing pier.

Reverse the pier is the showy Frances Langford Dockside Pavilion, a two-story occasion venue with public restrooms.

People playing on beach with pier in distance

Park seaside

Turning into a broad sidewalk once more, the pathway slips previous a hand launch into the Indian River Lagoon at a Martin County Blueways signal.

A aspect path earlier than the curve results in a tiny seaside on the fringe of the park. Though the park path continues to Indian River Drive, it leaves the waterfront right here.