By Carlos Harrison

Approaching the bridge on A1A, Sebastian Inlet State Park looks like something out of a 19th-century painter’s dream.

A blue-green ribbon of water sparkling with speckles of white slices across a sliver of barrier island, connecting ocean and lagoon. Seagulls, white and gray, sheer through the air overhead. Yellow-billed pelicans dive-bomb into the sea. A kaleidoscope of beach umbrellas make half-moon splotches on the sandy shore — red, orange, yellow, and blue.

To one side of the bridge, surfers crouch and swivel their boards, cutting and twisting, carving their way along the white-capped breaks, spinning over the peaks. On the other, beachgoers in brightly colored swimsuits sit sprinkled on the sand or bob in loose huddles in the calm green water of the protected cove.

It's one of Justin Kelly’s favorite places. But nearly impossible to enjoy on his own. Or would be if the state park didn't offer a beach wheelchair to make it more welcoming for folks who need assistance getting across the sand.

“I was born disabled,” he said. “So getting to where I don’t have to struggle like that to go to saltwater, that makes it a lot nicer for me. That’s where I prefer to spend my time is on the water.”

Kelly has cerebral palsy. He uses a special walker to get around. But the walker bogs down in the thick sand, turning a pleasurable outing into a taxing slog.

Before he found out the park offered the wheelchair with its oversized tires, he had to rely on friends to help him navigate his heavy walker to the water’s edge.

“Now that we found it it’s awesome. It makes it ten times easier. I’m able to go to the saltwater on a regular basis compared to having to plan one trip a year. This year, I’ve been three times already. I can go two or three times because I’m not wearing everybody else out.”

Even better, his friend Jessica Jarvis said, “They make it very, very easy.

“If we give them a call about fifteen minutes before we arrive, they have the wheelchair at the guard station. It takes about two minutes to fill out the form and then they follow you to your parking spot and unload it for you there.”

Then, when you’re done with it, she said, “You call them again and they send someone around in a pickup truck and they collect the wheelchair from you. So there’s no loading or unloading on the family.”

Dredged to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Indian River Lagoon, the inlet is a deliberately engineered wonder offering a variety of delights.

 Sebastian Inlet State Park features ADA accessible jetties.
-Carlos Harrison

 

Jetties north and south of the cut stretch like long fingers into the Atlantic Ocean — 1,000 feet toward the horizon on the north, 575 on the south. Built to keep sand from blocking the inlet, the structures inadvertently created one of the best surfing spots on the East Coast, and a training ground for World Tour competitors such as Kelly Slater, Cory and Shea Lopez, and Damien and C.J. Hobgood.

The ADA accessible jetties also attract anglers from all over looking to hook snook, redfish, bluefish, mackerel and more. Open 24/7, the inlet is considered Central Florida’s premiere saltwater fishing location.

The west end of the inlet opens onto the mangrove-lined Indian River Lagoon. It’s one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America, home to some 4,300 plant and animal species, and a popular spot for kayakers and paddle-boarders hoping to glimpse the many manatees and dolphin. 

Eddie Cason doesn’t need a wheelchair, but a blood clot in his left leg three years ago affected his mobility. Keeping his balance across the uneven sand would make the trek to the water an ordeal. The gray, five-foot-wide Mobi-Mat next to the handicapped parking spots beside the cove fixes that.

“It would be tough walking without it,” he said. “My foot would be rolling over in the sand.”

The park is also part of the Great Florida Birding Trail, full of osprey swooping down to snatch fish from the water, and spoonbills, herons, egrets, and storks plying the shore for food. Park rangers offer guided walks along the shore during the loggerhead turtle nesting season in June and July. Lucky nature lovers might also spot a gopher tortoise, opossum or raccoon. And, on occasion, a stealthy bobcat or river otter.

Many, though, come to enjoy a different kind of wildlife.

The beach wheelchair allows Feliz Castillo to bring his 87-year-old grandmother along on family outings to the park. She gets her joy from watching the kids frolic in the water. It's particularly significant for them, coming from a city in the Dominican Republic overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

“In reality, for us, it’s marvelous,” he said. “Without it, it would be impossible for her to get to the water. Having that wheelchair, honestly, for us, it’s life-changing. In fact, we had so much fun we went back the next day. And we really wouldn’t have been able to go back if we hadn’t had that ease.”

When You Go…

Sebastian Inlet State Park
9700 South Highway A1A
Melbourne Beach FL 32951
321-984-4852

Additional accessible state parks in Central East Florida
 

St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park

A roughly half-hour drive from the oceanside Sebastian Inlet State Park, the preserve sits inland, just outside of Fellsmere. It’s a place of lush pine woods, sand hills, cypress domes, and a strand swamp, providing habitats for a variety of native wildlife. The visitor’s center and picnic pavilion are accessible. So is the 9-mile-long (you don’t have to do all of it) Green Trail. The tree-lined path winds through the flatwoods, offering the possibility of spotting everything from swallow-tailed kites, hawks, hummingbirds and Florida scrub jays to deer, coyote, bobcat, Eastern indigo snakes, and gopher tortoises. In the cooler months, West Indian manatees gather by the accessible observation deck on the C54 Canal. Service animals are welcome in all areas of the park. 1000 Buffer Preserve Drive, Fellsmere, 321-953-5005

Fort Pierce Inlet State Park

A little farther south along the Atlantic Coast next to, as the name says, Fort Pierce, this park offers the tranquil beauty of a coastal hammock and the natural wonder of ocean waves lapping at the dune-lined shore. Plus, there’s some history. This was the birthplace of the Navy’s Frogmen program, the predecessor to today’s Seals. In fact, “Dynamite Point” on the southeast corner of the beach got its name thanks to the Navy Underwater Demolition Team’s training activities there. (The National Navy Seal Museum, which is also wheelchair accessible and allows service animals, lies just a little north of the park.) There’s a coquina shell path through the dunes to the beach, and the park offers a beach wheelchair. It could also come in handy on the unpaved Oak Hammock Trail that winds through a forest of native gumbo limbo, red bay, and, of course, oaks. You can ask for a large-print guide and map at the ranger station. Service animals have to be on a leash and can’t go in the water. 905 Shorewinds Drive, Fort Pierce, 772-468-3985

Avalon State Park

Less than five miles up the road on North Hutchinson Island you’ll find Avalon State Park. It was yet another top-secret Naval training area in World War II, so much so that visitors still are cautioned to be aware of the underwater steel and concrete hazards used to train for D-Day. Covering more than 650 acres, the park spans the width of the island — over the beach dunes fronting the mile-long beach and through a pristine mangrove forest to Indian River Lagoon. You can get a beach wheelchair from the rangers and the showers, picnic pavilion, and restrooms are all accessible. You can request a large-print map and guide at the ranger station. Service animals are allowed. State Road A1A North, North Hutchinson Island, 772-468-4007

Tomoka State Park

This 2,000-plus-acre park on a pristine peninsula rests farther north, past the rockets at the Kennedy Space Center and just outside the city of Ormond Beach. Some of Florida’s earliest Native Americans first discovered this idyllic haven at the intersection of the Tomoka and Halifax rivers some 7,000 years ago. Archeological evidence of their early settlement remains in an impressive collection of 10 burial mounds and shell middens — the Tomoka Mound Complex — that stand as much as 40 feet tall. It’s easy to see the attraction. There are game fish galore here: red and black drum, sheepshead, tarpon, spotted sea trout, and more. Bird-watchers have spotted more than 160 species, including swallow-tail kites, loons, and bald eagles. Wildlife ranges from white-tailed deer and gopher tortoises to bobcats and a variety of snakes. That includes plenty of rattlesnakes, and rangers advise you to keep a sharp eye out. They’re great at hiding in the leaves and grass, and they hate to get stepped on. A paved half-mile nature trail leads through the hammock, and there’s an accessible full-facility campground with restrooms and hot showers. The fishing pier, dock, picnic pavilions, and park concessions area are accessible, too. They offer a large-print guide and service animals are welcome throughout. 2099 N. Beach St., Ormond Beach, 386-676-4050

Hontoon Island State Park

Grab a spot on this park’s accessible island ferry or bring your own boat. That’s the only way to get to this hideaway on the St. John’s River, just outside of DeLand. (Unless you’re a really strong swimmer … but, no.) Shell mounds and artifacts prove that some of Florida’s original natives inhabited this island as long as 12,000 years ago. Dredgers making way for the marina found three of their totem poles buried in the muck — the only ones ever found outside the Pacific Northwest. Those got shipped off to the University of Florida, but Fiberglas replicas stand by the picnic area. You can learn more about them and the island’s habitats in the accessible visitor center/museum. The main 3-mile Hammock Hiking Nature trail may be hard to handle in a wheelchair, but rangers say the flat firebreaks leading through much of the park work well for folks in a beach or fatter-tired chair. The park offers canoes and kayaks for rent. And you can drop a line from the shore to reel in freshwater game fish ranging from catfish, bream, crappie, and sunfish to largemouth bass, bluegills, and speckled perch. Want to stay overnight? The park has six accessible cabins for rent. They’re rustic, meaning no indoor bathroom, heat or a/c, but they do have screened in porches, ceiling fans, lights, and bunkbeds, and you’ll find accessible showers and restrooms close by. Service animals are welcome. 2309 River Ridge Road, DeLand, 386-736-5309

De Leon Springs State Park

Once upon a time, wealthy northerners came by steamboat and train to bathe here in what they called the “Fountain of Youth.” Well, it may not turn back your body’s clock, but it’s sure to make your spirit young again. The water is naturally climate-controlled at 72 degrees year-round and they have a swimmer chairlift for folks needing help getting in and out. There’s also a paved half-mile nature trail with interpretive signs winding through the cypress and hardwood forest, and they offer an all-terrain wheelchair for folks who might stray a little off the beaten path. The visitor center houses interpretative exhibits spanning the park’s 6,000-year history, including a touch table with bones and shells and — get this! — an open-captioned home movie of a water-skiing elephant. Go figure. There are sidewalks and boardwalks connecting all the park’s facilities, including the 100-year-old replica of the original sugar mill and a horse-drawn road grader from 1900. Oh, and did we mention the 600-year-old cypress tree and the butterfly garden? You can ask for a large-print guide at the ranger station and service animals are welcome. Plan ahead, though; this popular park often fills to capacity and won’t let late-comers in. 601 Ponce de Leon Blvd., De Leon Springs, 386-985-4212

Places to Remember