Birch State Park

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is located just between the ocean and the Intracoastal right on one of the most popular beaches in Fort Lauderdale.

The land was given to the city by Hugh Taylor Birch to preserve the natural environment for the future. He has quite a story. He was a lawyer in Chicago and came to Fort Lauderdale in 1893 looking for a secluded place to build his retirement home. He bought ocean front property for a dollar an acre and ended up owning 3 ½ miles of ocean front land. By the time he built his home in Fort Lauderdale, he was 90 years old. The house that he built is a simple two story sort of Art Deco style. I don’t believe that he actually ever got to live in it. Now it is a small museum called the Terramar Visitor Center.

There is a pedestrian tunnel running under A1A that goes from the park on the West side of the road to the beach on the East, or you can risk your life crossing A1A by foot. A1A is a 4 lane street with parking and sidewalks on both sides so there is a lot of traffic both on wheels and foot.

Until recently parking was free on this strip of the beach. Can you imagine, free beach parking?? But alas greed won out and the city installed “Smart Park” meters where you purchase a ticket and place it on your dashboard. The price, a hefty $1.75 an hour! To appease the local peons, (we were in an uproar over the meters) the city offered parking passes if you lived in the city limits for $5.00 a year. Guess they don’t feel guilty about sticking it to the tourists or the western suburbanites. In order to get one of these prized passes, one has to bring proof of residency, a Florida drivers license and take a blood test, no just kidding about the blood test. But they are rigid about the proof of residency.

Funny Beach Pass story; a friend of ours got his beach parking pass and went to the beach to walk with us one morning. First he had trouble using the machine, lucky that we were there to give him a crash course in parking meter manipulation. When we returned from our walk, he discovered that he had a parking ticket. What the hell? Guess what. He put the ticket on his dash like you are supposed to do, but with the time stamp facing down. Guess this system is just too complicated for us. He had to go to the parking ticket office with his proof of purchase and they finally let him off the hook. I wonder how many of these incidences they face each day?

Oh well back to the park. There is a 2-mile paved loop that is perfect for walking, jogging, skating, or riding a bike or our scooters. Also several hiking trails run through various native habitats. There are 3 different pavilions for picnics and the part of the park that runs along the Intracoastal is great for watching boats and cooking out. There are picnic tables scattered all around. And dogs are allowed so people have their hounds and their kids; it is a great family place.

The West side of the park borders the Intracoastal and lots of people picnic there and watch the boats. One sees everything from big sail boats to yachts to fishing boats to the functional water taxi. Somedays it can seem like a traffic jam on the water. But the boats are not allowed to stop at the park. Guess they don't have anyone to take their money, so no docks on the Intracoastal side of the park.

There is a PDF brochure at this link http://www.floridastateparks.org/hughtaylorbirch/docs/brochure.pdf

One of the neat things that we discovered on the Florida Park’s website was that they have a photography contest every year and show some of the winners. You will appreciate the beauty of some of these images. They are quite spectacular. Check it out. http://www.floridastateparks.org/PhotoContest/default.cfm

You can rent a canoe and paddle along a mile long fresh water lagoon. The coastal hammock trail provides an up close look at many exotic plants and an occasional wild inhabitant. We have been living here for many years and never realized all the different activities that go on in this park. They just opened a concession at the main beachside entrance that rents Segways, and gives a Segway tour, been wanting to try one of those. They also rent bicycles and tandem bikes.

Camp Live Oak is an educational environmental day camp for children ages 5 to 13. The next camp event is called “Leave No Trace” spring program that will run from March 31st – April 4th. The kids get to experience hands-on environmental science projects while canoeing, fishing, hiking, swimming and having fun at the park. They have their own website: http://www.campliveoakfl.com/

So if you find yourself with nothing to do one weekend, a trip to the Birch State Park is a great bang for your buck. In fact Florida has a State Park’s Pass that allows you free admission to any Florida State park and costs only $40 a year for an individual and $80 a year for a family. There are 160 parks in our state covering 700,000 acres and 100 miles of white sandy beach.

Since July the state has made available a Florida State Park Passport. Each of Florida’s 160 award-winning state parks is represented on a page of the passport and visitors document their state park visits with a stamp. They are hoping that once you get one stamp you will be motivated to visit many other state parks and fill up your passport.