A quiet gem on Oklaloosa Island adjoining recreation-focused Ross Mahler Park, Veterans Park is basically accessible due to boardwalks and paved paths.
Pure floor trails entry mushy white sand seashores alongside Choctawhatchee Bay with picnic tables and fabulous panoramas in the direction of Eglin Air Drive Base.
Choctawhatchee BayThe easternmost loop circles an important blue heron rookery and has a bridge over a brackish cove with close by benches for birding.
To its west, a quarter-mile loop by way of the Girls’s Veteran Memorial pays homage to ladies within the navy with sculpture stops inside a pure setting.
Eight ladies have been honored alongside the loop throughout our go to in 2024. Extra memorials could also be in place now, together with enlargement of the rookery boardwalk.
Girls’s Veteran MemorialAssets
Overview
Location: Okaloosa IslandLength: 0.9 milesTrailhead: 30.397720, -86.593577Address: 1300 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE, Fort Walton BeachFees: FreeRestroom: At adjoining Ross Mahler ParkLand Supervisor: Okaloosa County and Metropolis of Okaloosa IslandPhone: 850-689-5790
Open daybreak to nightfall. No pets, please. Boardwalks and pavement present accessible surfaces by way of many of the park.
Instructions
Hike
A boardwalk begins on the nook of the parking space on the fence alongside its edge, crossing a drainage swale. Stroll previous a pollinator backyard and cross by way of the gate.
To the left the walkway results in the Girls’s Veteran Memorial. Begin your hike by turning proper to deal with the coastal flatwoods first.
Tall longleaf pines rise past the oaks and cabbage palms. A picnic bench rests within the shade of the sand dwell oaks.
Begin of the flatwoods loopFollowing the low boardwalk, cross a bench on a curve. Notice the primary of many picket birdhouses swaying within the bushes.
One of many final patches of wooded uplands on Okaloosa Island, this nook of the park is a chicken sanctuary.
BirdhouseThe boardwalk gently curves to a T intersection beneath the tall pines. Flip proper and peer upward to see the nests within the excessive branches.
In late winter and early spring, this rookery is a cacophony of squawks as nice blue herons elevate their younger.
Nice blue heron rookeryThe forest thins and the Okaloosa Island water tower looms on the horizon. On the subsequent junction, the boardwalk splits.
The close to finish of the bridge was closed on our go to. Proceed to the fitting, circling round a cove off Choctawhatchee Bay.
The water is obvious sufficient to discern fish within the shallows, which magnetize osprey to hunt.
Bridge over the coveEdging a skinny line of forest alongside the park’s perimeter, the boardwalk reaches the bridge spanning the cove.
If open, cross it for the views in the direction of the bay and into the rookery. It’s additionally a wonderful perch for watching wading birds alongside the sandy shoreline.
View from the bridge in the direction of the bayReturn to the shoreline boardwalk and proceed previous benches. Curving by way of the woods and alongside a sand bluff, it ends after a 3rd of a mile.
Step onto the sand and observe the bayfront previous a picnic desk. A small bridge crosses the outflow of the cove.
Benches on the coveA second picnic desk sits on a small white sand seashore on Choctawhatchee Bay.
With the horizon largely water, this spot provides a wonderful perspective of how massive the bay is.
Be a part of one other low boardwalk on the far aspect of the seashore, curving by way of the coastal flatwoods to the highest of an historical dune.
Picnic on the seashoreAt a T intersection, a ramp leads into the sand to the fitting. Flip proper to stroll a sandy swale to a different seashore on Choctawhatchee Bay.
This one is way bigger, however erosion has bitten into the forested bluff, residence to some monumental sand dwell oaks.
Florida rosemary alongside the bluffReturn to the boardwalk and proceed straight forward. Return to the pines with the rookery to finish the loop.
Flip proper and return previous the pond to the doorway gate. Take the walkway west to a second crossing to the parking space, 0.6 miles into this stroll.
Entrance pondFlip proper to enter the formal portion of this park, the Girls’s Veteran Memorial, devoted Veterans Day 2021.
On the plaza the place the navy flags fly in a semicircle, flip proper. The broad accessible path to the fitting past the memorial wall enters the coastal dunes.
Entry to memorial from rookery aspectAlongside this nature path are niches with distinctive displays of the tales of feminine armed companies veterans throughout United States navy historical past.
Every is accompanied by a barely larger-than-life sculpture introduced inside a vignette pertaining to their service.
Memorial wallInitially is Margaret Corbin, who accompanied her husband John when he joined the Continental Military.
She was by his aspect aiding when he was killed whereas manning a cannon to defend Fort Washington on Manhattan Island.
Taking up, she drew the Hessian fireplace away from different troops because of her glorious purpose and accuracy. Severely wounded, she survived. She turned the primary American lady to obtain a navy pension for her service.
Margaret CorbinCurving up by way of the pines, come to the warrior pose of Cathay Williams, a former slave who served within the Civil Battle.
There’s a cause she seems to be like a boy: at age 17, she handed herself off as “William Cathay.”
Two years later, a submit doctor in New Mexico found her gender. Honorably discharged, she was allowed to hitch a unit of the Buffalo Troopers.
Cathay WilliamsProceed atop the ridgetop on the broad concrete path to the following department as much as the caped determine of Lenah Higbee.
She joined the Navy in 1908 as certainly one of their first “Sacred Twenty” nurses. For valor in World Battle I, she was the primary lady to obtain the Navy Cross.
This was at a time the Navy didn’t allow ladies to carry rank. Serving because the second superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, she formed the look and way forward for the Corps.
When she died in 1941, she was buried at Arlington. Earlier than World Battle II was over, a fight warship was commissioned the USS Higbee.
Lenah HigbeeCurve downhill off the sand ridge onto a gently descending boardwalk with a view of the bay within the distance.
A broad spot within the boardwalk holds a statue of flier Jacqueline Cochran, born close to Pensacola. She set main data in aviation each earlier than and after her navy service.
Boardwalk in the direction of the bayShe is finest generally known as the director of the Girls Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) throughout World Battle II.
Retiring from the Air Drive Reserves as a colonel in 1970, she turned a marketing consultant to NASA.
Jacqueline CochranPast a pond in a deep swale, the boardwalk ends amid the tree-topped dunes.
A paved path resumes previous a view of the seashore on Choctawhatchee Bay on the plaza that includes Captain Jonita Ruth Bonham.
Curving alongside the dunesServing within the Military Air Corps Medical Corps in World Battle II, she was assigned to a Medical Evacuation Squadron in the course of the Korean Battle.
When the C-54 transport she was on slammed into the ocean and began sinking, she and her sufferers have been submerged within the plane.
She saved 17 survivors earlier than permitting herself to be rescued. For her valor, Captain Bonham was the primary lady to obtain the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Jonita Ruth BonhamAlongside a low retaining wall topped with forest, the pathway ascends, curving alongside the opposite shore of the pond to the following cease.
Newly educated within the Military Nurse Corps, Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane was assigned to the ICU of the 312th Evacuation Hospital in Chu Lai, Vietnam.
Regardless of the emotional challenges, she declined transfers and spent her off-time caring for sufferers. On June 8, 1969, the hospital was struck by a Viet Cong rocket
Twenty-seven have been wounded; two died, together with Lieutenant Lane. She was the one American nurse killed by hostile fireplace in the course of the Vietnam Battle.
Sharon Ann LaneOne other area of interest off this climb honors Silver Star recipient Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester.
A crew chief for the 503rd Navy Police Battalion in Iraq, she suppressed heavy enemy fireplace when the convoy her crew was shadowing was ambushed by insurgents.
Her fast motion saved the lives of quite a few convoy members. She was the primary Military lady to obtain this award for valor after World Battle II. Hers was awarded in 2005.
Leigh Ann HesterThe pathway sweeps uphill into the sunshine, reaching the ultimate cease inside view of the fluttering flags of the Memorial Plaza.
A local of Afghanistan, Main Naseema Dada joined her father in America as a teen and enlisted within the Air Drive instantly after highschool.
Shortly rising into officer ranks, she was assigned to translation work as the one Pashto speaker within the Air Drive.
Naseema DadaAfter the September 11 assaults, she was despatched on fight missions over Afghanistan as an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist.
Her data of the panorama and language offered intelligence assist to prime commanders and deployed forces, saving numerous lives.
Wrapping up the memorial loopThe loop ends within reach of Cathay Williams statue. Flip proper to cross by way of the Memorial Plaza again to the walkway alongside the sting of the park.
Both cross to the car parking zone right here or return to the decrease gate to exit, finishing a 0.9 mile stroll.
Entry to the memorial from the parking spacePath Map
Discover Extra!
Video
A stroll by way of Oklaloosa Island Veterans Park
Slideshow
See our images from Oklaloosa Island Veterans Park
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Creator of 45 books, Sandra Good friend established FloridaHikes.com in 2006 to broaden on the sphere analysis she’d accomplished for her first six mountain climbing guides. She has been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Florida Path Affiliation and the Florida Out of doors Writers Affiliation.
