Canaveral National Seashore — Attraction in Titusville

If you follow us you know that overall we like national parks. This sea shore is another good example of the love hate we have with them. First the good. The beaches are amazing and very few people even when the surrounding area is over run with tourists. You can see manatee on the bay side near the eldora house which is also a nice stop if you're new to the park. They even offer guided canoe tours and nature hikes, but you have to call or go online for the schedule and then preregister to save your spot. We enjoyed this park on a cool November day.

As a bonus you can take your well behaved and leaked dog on the trails but not on the beach ⛱️. And if you want to see a rocket launch, this is a great place. You can see launch pad 39 and the rocket leave the ground but remember, the park is only open during certain times and if the launch is not during that time you will not be allowed in.

Now the not so good. There is a line to get into this park and it moves very slowly, seriously very slowly, the govt workers are mostly lazy but they have no incentive to speed the line as they want to keep you out of the park in order to preserve the land and habits. At first this seems like a good idea until you realize that the govt owns more than 26% of all land in the US. I mean if you already have your national parks pass or entrance fee paid online why not have a lane to waive you through? Seriously why not? You federal tax dollars at work.

The park closes at 5, how can you enjoy the stars or the beach in the evening to unwind, you can't, again your tax dollars at work. Why don't they have trash cans anyplace but at the visitor center. They want you to pack out your trash, so they don't have to do it, but hello 👋 some people are just lazy if there is no trash they leave dirt diapers on the ground for the birds turtle and other animals to get tangled in.

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• Visited on Friday morning in late December. Most kids still in school so it wasn’t busy at all. • We stopped at turtle mound before park visitor center, and views were great and worth the stop. • We also did the castle windy trail after the visitor center and even though it was December there were still a few mosquitos out. Sadly, at the end of the trail there was a picnic table, but it was completely overgrown and zero view of anything but a small bit of water. Would not recommend if you’re looking for nice views. But if you wanted to walk though a different ecological biome, I guess it’s very nice walk. • We went down to pier 5 just to see what all the fuss was about nude sun bathers. There was decent amount of parking. We saw one “old” guy obviously nude way way down the beach to the left. That was it. It was a little cold the day we visited but sunny. Wife said it was a bit too windy and chilly to be sunbathing. On the other side we saw kite-surfer(not sure what to call it?) That was cool to watch. • We did not see any tortoises as we were hoping for but saw at least 6 armadillos on the side of the road driving down and back up from the beaches. • At the visitor center we did watch the video. The store was nice size. The people behind the counter and the rangers were nice. • The NPS passport cancellation stamps were available at the back right side of the visitor center. • We did do the junior ranger and were able to do it in about 90 mins at the park. This including collecting garbage on the beach. This was easier than we though as there was plenty of trash we found. There were 3 levels of difficult with the junior ranger and you could earn not just the badge but also a sticker and patch. Picture included in review. We would visit again just to go to the beach. • You do pay at the gate and/or check your...

NUDE BEACH ALERT- Not much in the literature for this location tells you that at any given time you will see nude sunbathers. Most of the time they stay near Parking Area 5 at Apollo Beach, and north of the Brevard County line at Playalinda Beach. However, sometimes a bus load of naturists arrives and they'll be seen everywhere. Ask about nudists before you pay your entrance fee if it bothers you or your children. Factor in fully nude seniors looking a lot like Magda from Something About Mary. The nudity downgrades this site from 5 stars to 3 or less. The Federal Govt and the State of Florida do not require clothing on beaches as long as the exposure is non-sexual. In this case Volusia County doesn't either, and there are no other jurisdictions that apply. The Canaveral National Seashore is a great place to visit if you like the natural beauty of an Atlantic barrier island beach complex without the clutter of resort-style amenities, but with plenty of nude old people. It's a great beach/boating location for adults and teens, but not setup to make things easy for toddlers and the gear that comes with them. There are hiking trails and Manatee viewing areas in the back lagoon areas of the park, with a pristine beach that stretches for miles. For kayaking, we liked the northern Apollo Beach access (3 launch areas) and the mini archipelago of islands and twisting waterways on the lagoon side. The southern Playalinda Beach has a single kayak launch point (Eddy Creek), but the ocean side beach was stellar. On several trips we saw bottlenose dolphins, seaweed-disguised long-nose spider crabs, various hermit crabs, Atlantic stingrays, fish and birds aplenty, plus lots of really leathery dark brown naked...