Juan Ponce de León Landing Park
Melbourne Beach, FL
Juan Ponce de León Landing Park marks the spot Brevard County believes the Spanish explorer may have first come ashore in Florida in 1513, marked today by a life-size roadside statue at the parking lot's edge. Loggerhead turtles nest on the beach each fall, and a boardwalk crosses the road to a small sanctuary trail through scrub, hammock, and river habitat.
The Ponce de León history and the habitat sanctuary across the road give it more to see than its small size suggests, though it's a modest, low-amenity beach park rather than a destination in its own right.
How we score beachesCross the road to the sanctuary side after the beach, the short trail loop through three distinct Florida habitats is easy to miss if you only stop for the statue and the sand. It's genuinely uncrowded even in season, one of the quieter beach parks on this stretch of Brevard County.
Parking is free, with about 40 spaces at the lot. One of the two beach accesses is ADA accessible.
One of the park's two beach crossovers is ADA accessible, the other a natural sand path. The sanctuary trail across the road is packed dirt through several habitat types, easy walking.
Dogs aren't allowed anywhere in the park.
Fall brings the loggerhead nesting season along with milder temperatures for the sanctuary trail. Summer's heat and hurricane season, June through November, are the main things to plan a visit around.
More Atlantic Coast beaches
Coast Guard Beach
Eastham, MA · Atlantic Coast
A National Seashore beach backed by grassy dunes and a tidal marsh, with clean Atlantic surf and one of the Cape's most scenic approaches on foot from the parking area.
Surfside Beach
Nantucket, MA · Atlantic Coast
Open Atlantic swell and a wide sandy shoreline about three miles from Nantucket town, popular with locals for its bodysurfing waves and quieter, less commercial feel.
Jones Beach State Park
Wantagh, NY · Atlantic Coast
A classic Long Island beach with six and a half miles of shoreline, a landmark water tower, boardwalk, and a large outdoor amphitheater that hosts concerts through the summer.