Happenin’
Places › Florida › Treasure Coast › Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge
Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public domain (U.S. federal government work)

Beaches

Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge

Hobe Sound, FL · Treasure Coast$$5 daily entrance fee; $25 annual pass

About

The refuge's 3.5 miles of Jupiter Island beach had 2,332 loggerhead nests in 2025, along with 1,624 green and 189 leatherback. The beach lot on North Beach Road is the only part of the refuge that charges a fee, and cell service there can be weak, so download the pass before you leave home. Pets of any kind are banned on the sand. Across the lagoon on US 1, the free mainland side has a half-mile loop that starts at the Hobe Sound Nature Center and passes through sand pine scrub to a lagoon overlook and a shell mound.

Highlights

3.5 miles of Atlantic beachLargest undeveloped beach in Southeast FloridaMajor sea turtle nesting beachFree nature center and trail on US 1

Getting there

13640 SE Federal Hwy, Hobe Sound, FL 33455

Related places

Vero Beach Beaches

Vero Beach

Vero Beach, FL · Treasure Coast

From Humiston Park, at 3000 Ocean Drive in Vero Beach, you can walk off the sand to the beachside shops and restaurants. Lifeguards are on duty there and at two other city…

Blowing Rocks Preserve Beaches

Blowing Rocks Preserve

Hobe Sound, FL · Treasure CoastFree

On the Atlantic side of Jupiter Island, the largest limestone outcropping on Florida's east coast runs jagged along the sand, a 125,000-year-old wall of coquina shot through with…

Bathtub Reef Beach Beaches

Bathtub Reef Beach

Stuart, FL · Treasure Coast

Tube-building sea worms cement grains of sand into the reef just off Bathtub Reef Beach, at the south end of MacArthur Boulevard on Hutchinson Island in Stuart. Lifeguards watch…

More in Treasure Coast

Others worth the drive in this corner of Florida.

All of Treasure Coast →
Jonathan Dickinson State Park Forests

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Hobe Sound, FL · Treasure Coast

Climb the wooden tower atop Hobe Mountain, an 86-foot ancient dune that counts as the highest natural point in South Florida, and the sand pine scrub rolls out to the Atlantic in…

Part of these collections

Undeveloped Beaches on Florida's East Coast14 places

Undeveloped Beaches on Florida's East Coast

For the days you'd rather carry your own water than hunt for parking. All of it is protected land of one kind or another.