Last updated on December 12th, 2024 at 02:53 pm
Kayak trails are more fun when there’s a destination. And few destinations are as intriguing as a secret beach or a hidden lagoon on a wild island.
That’s what makes the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park such a great kayak outing.
There’s a scenic kayak trail through mangroves teeming with fish and osprey. The kayak trail is on the undeveloped, wild northern end of Jupiter Island. From the kayak trail, you can find a narrow path to a spectacular beach where we walked for miles on a sunny Saturday and saw only two other people.
On a second kayak outing to the park, we paddled into the Hole in the Wall, a lagoon you reach by briefly paddling along the shore of the St. Lucie Inlet. (You’ll see it on the kayak trail map below.) From there, we left our kayaks and walked a trail to a crumbling jetty along the inlet that is inaccessible except from the kayak trail.
The whole park is a hidden paradise that we felt lucky to explore. It will never be crowded because access is only by boat.
St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park is located about a half hour north of West Palm Beach. It’s the northern tip of a barrier island, ending where the St. Lucie River enters the ocean. As one of the few undeveloped barrier islands on Florida’s east coast, it’s a rare and special place.
There are no roads on this part of the island and no bridges to reach it. The park adjoins the remote Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, so it is well-insulated from people and development. Access is only by boat.
On the island, there are restrooms, picnic shelters and a 3,300-foot boardwalk connecting the dock and beach. On weekends, a free tram whisks visitors arriving by boat from Intracoastal to ocean. We walked; the better to admire the thick coastal hammock of live oak, cabbage palms and ferns.
Tips on kayaking at St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park
Plan this kayak outing around high tide, because the trail can be impassable at low tide. The best time to leave is two hours before high tide, because that gives you four hours to paddle and explore.
Also be aware that the tidal currents through some of these narrow waterways can be quite strong. An hour after high tide on a perfect December day, it felt like we were paddling upstream on a river.
A sandy beach-like launch site is located directly across the park in a small Martin County park at the end of Cove Road. (Exit I-95 at SR 76 and take a right on Cove Road in about two blocks. Go to the end of the road.) This attractive little park is a magnet for kayakers – four people were launching at the same time we were — and it’s a beautiful place for a picnic too. (There are no restrooms.)
From the launch site, you might face a challenge: Crossing the Intracoastal, about a third of a mile wide here, with its cruising yachts and zipping personal watercraft. This open water can get windy too; we paddled mightily against the wind but even on a sunny March Saturday, boat traffic was light and the island worth the challenging crossing. On our second visit, there was no wind and it was an easy paddle.
Print out the accompanying map and bring it with you. (There are maps in the park office on the island, but it is frequently unmanned and you probably don’t want to go to the park office first anyway. ) We did not have this map on our first visit and missed sites as a result.
There are several kayaking options you’ll see on the trail map. If you’re interested in the beach and kayaking is secondary, you can land at the kayak area adjacent to the pier and boat dock. (It’s on the north side.) From here you can take the lovely boardwalk to the beach. You’ll find restrooms at both ends of the boardwalk and picnic tables near the beach.
You can make the trail into a four-mile loop by entering one of the two access points that will take you to the Narrows through the mangroves. When the tide was going out, we found the current in the Narrows flowing strongly north toward the inlet. You might have an easier trip is you planned your loop around the tides. (Head south during the incoming tide and north during the outdoing tide.)
The trail itself is shallow with a sandy bottom where you can often peer in to see schools of fish or a fleeing ray. You paddle through some very narrow, twisty sections and come to some broader lagoons.
We loved the abundant wildlife: We startled ibises and watched three ospreys fishing in the same area.
There are no trail signs. We started at the north end of the trail and headed south, and we always took the channel on the right to stay on the trail. The trail is entirely lined with mangroves so there is no place where you can step out onto land. (While you do paddle under the boardwalk, you cannot reach it from the water because the mangroves are impenetrable.)
If you paddle to the very last lagoon at the trail’s southern end, there is a narrow path between the kayak trail and beach. We would have loved to have stopped here, but we didn’t know it existed. (We didn’t have the map at this point.) The map with this article shows this trail as South Kayak Landing and it is also visible via satellite view on Google maps.
This makes an excellent stop to stretch your legs and have a picnic. The path will take you to the beach at a point where you are likely to have it almost to yourself.
While doing the four-mile looping kayak trail, you can extend your paddle by adding the two-mile Hole in the Wall loop.
Kayaking to the Hole in the Wall lagoon off the inlet
We returned to the park for a second outing to explore the northern half of the park and the lagoon off the St. Lucie Inlet called the Hole in the Wall.
As you enter the kayak trail on it’s northern end, you’ll see a waterway fork off to the left to the inlet.
The thing we lived best about the lagoon was a trail marked by PVC pipes stuck in the water. The pathway is barely passable, but if you bring your kayak over some roots and leave it, you’ll soon emerge on foot into a sunny, sandy pathway that leads to the inlet.
From the beach along the inlet, you can follow the shoreline to an area where the coast has been shored up with boulders and where we were surprised to reach a disused jetty.
On the jetty, there is a large granite tablet marking the St. Lucie Inlet. The jetty is a curious thing. It doesn’t appear you can reach it any other way. At its southern end it is crumbling, and would be harder to reach.
We loved the view of waves crashing against the rocks and sat down on the jetty for our picnic.
Visiting the beach
On both kayaking trips, after paddling the kayak trail, we tied up near the main dock and walked the boardwalk to the beach. And what a beach it is: Pristine, wide, quiet and virtually deserted. If you’ve always wanted a beach all to yourself, this is your chance.
The state park’s beach is 2.7 miles long, but the southern boundary is with Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, and thus the beach actually continues uninterrupted for more than five miles.
During the summer , the island is an important nesting area for loggerhead, leatherback and green turtles.
Observe well where you entered the beach. There are no signs and the wild shoreline scenery doesn’t provide many clues. It’s easy to walk past your return path – we did, and for a while we wondered if we’d be sleeping on the island. We did find our return route, but we walked more of this beach than we had originally planned !
Near the beach is a large covered picnic pavilion and restrooms.
Scuba divers should note that an extensive Anastasia rock reef is located just offshore of the park extending 4.7 miles along the coast and up to one mile offshore. Depths range from 5 feet to 35 feet. This reef is the northernmost limit for the ranges of several species of corals found in South Florida. (The reef is too far for snorkelers from the beach to reach it.)
Planning your outing to St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park
St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park website
Across from the east end of Cove Road Park on Jupiter Island in Stuart
(772) 219-1880
PDF map of park to download or print out
Honor-box entrance fee: $2 per kayak
Hours: 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year
More paddling in the Stuart area:
- Three kayak spots along the St. Lucie River waterways.
- Another nearby great kayak trail: St. Lucie River South Branch
Things to do in the nearby Jupiter area:
- Overview of outdoor and natural outings in Jupiter, including restaurants and hotels.
- Jonathan Dickinson State Park for hiking, biking camping, cabins, kayaking, birding and more.
- Kayaking the wild and scenic Loxahatchee River
- Blowing Rocks Preserve: Dramatic beach is unique
- Jupiter Inlet and Lighthouse Museum
- The “secret beach” at Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge
- Kayaking to St. Lucie Preserve State Park and its remote, pristine beach
- Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, free park with native animals
- Riverbend Park is great for family bicycling, picnics, walks
- Biking Jupiter Island, scenic low-traffic beachfront road
More great places to kayak
