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Bathtub Reef Beach

Photo: Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch / Used with credit · source

🏖️ Beaches

Bathtub Reef Beach

Stuart, FL · Treasure Coast

About

At the wild south tip of Hutchinson Island, where the road runs out near the St. Lucie Inlet, an offshore Sabellariid worm reef arcs across the shallows like a low stone wall, built grain by grain by tube-dwelling sea worms. At low tide it tames the Atlantic into a calm, clear lagoon over honeycombed reef rock, with sea oats nodding on the rebuilt dunes and more than 500 marine creatures, sea turtles among them, working the water just offshore. Come early for the solitude: rust-dark rock, a splashing reef line, and a wide empty horizon with no resort wall in sight.

Highlights

Sabellariid worm reef (a living natural breakwater)Calm, clear low-tide lagoon over honeycomb reef rockSnorkeling among 500+ reef species and sea turtlesSea oats and rebuilt dunes at the wild south tip of Hutchinson IslandQuiet sunrise solitude near the St. Lucie Inlet

Getting there

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Wild Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches14 places

Wild Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches

The Atlantic coast keeps its wild stretches tucked between the beach towns: undeveloped barrier islands, a national seashore, and refuge shores where sea turtles still outnumber people. Walk past the last parking lot at Canaveral and the crowds vanish; wander Big Talbot's boneyard beach where storm-felled oaks bleach white in the surf. No high-rise wall, no boardwalk, just dunes, driftwood, and open ocean. Bring water and shade, and leave South Beach to everyone else.