Came hiking here the day after new years with my 6yo for his first ever hike. The trails were nice and easy for beginners, and the old school playground was nice and still going strong after I’d guess at least 30 years since it was built. My only complaint was since we went on a Tuesday apparently they don’t sell travel patches/pins/hiking medallions in the park entrance office, only the gift shop over by the beach, but because it was a weekday, no one was working the gift shop, so we weren’t able to get the souvenirs we’d planned on to commemorate our goal of hitting as many state parks as possible this year. In the future, they should make sure to sell more souvenirs in the entry shop if they don’t have enough staff to run the gift shop all week.

Starting off our year trying to visit as many state parks as we can with our pass. This was the 3rd and by far had the best playground, as well as a great gift shop for those who collect patches/pins, etc. they have it ALL here. My 3 kids made it difficult to do a ton of hiking so I can only assess the 40 mile trail and the short one to the observatory across from the nature center but my family had a great time, esp with the baby alligator they let my sons pet. I will prob come back another time with my oldest son to do more hiking 🥾 10/10