Hobe Sound Beach

Drive across the Bridge Road drawbridge, turn left at the end and the road finishes in a parking lot with a lifeguard tower and the ocean. Hobe Sound Beach is a small county park, a few hundred yards of guarded sand with restrooms, showers and picnic tables. What makes it different from every other beach in the guide is what is north of it.

The Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge beach runs three miles up Jupiter Island from the park, a strip of dune and sea grape and Atlantic with no buildings in sight. Walk ten minutes and you are alone with the shorebirds. The refuge keeps its own lot at the north end of North Beach Road, with a fee station and a boardwalk over the dune.

The refuge beach has no lifeguards, no shade and no fresh water. The swimming is the same ocean as the county beach, with the same rips after a front, and the turtle nests from March to October are thicker here than almost anywhere. Walk north at low tide, when the sand is firm, and turn back before the heat or the tide make the return a slog.

Good to know

• The county beach has lifeguards and facilities; the refuge beach has neither.
• The refuge lot charges a small vehicle fee at an honor station.
• The Bridge Road drawbridge opens on demand; allow a few minutes.
• Jupiter Island’s other beaches are private; use these two.
• Shade is nonexistent north of the park: umbrella, hat, water.