Are you up for the challenge?
April 24-25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the Forgotten Coast Lighthouse Challenge. Visit Cape San Blas Lighthouse, Cape St. George Light, Crooked River Lighthouse and St. Mark’s Lighthouse. Tickets are $10 per person (over the age of 10) or $25 per family up to five people. All the lighthouses have tickets available. Receive a souvenir at each location and a special something if you climb or visit all four lighthouses.
Visit Lighthouses on the Forgotten Coast
Crooked River Lighthouse, Forgotten Coast
Can’t remember where the Forgotten Coast is? Easy. Drop straight down south from Tallahassee until you run into the Gulf of Mexico. The coastline from Mexico Beach to Carrabelle is Florida’s Forgotten Coast.
St. Marks Lighthouse, Forgotten Coast
Lighthouses are welcome sights for mariners, beacons in the night and day that make the difference between traveling safely or meeting an untimely demise. Did you know every lighthouse has its own color code pattern? By day a mariner can see the colors, look on his chart and know that location. The St. Augustine Lighthouse for example is painted in curving black and white stripes.
St. Augustine Lighthouse
These tall structures, with spiraling stairs that make a gym Stairmaster look tame, are just plain cool. Climbing them is a challenge. Puff, take a break at landings, keep going, make it to the top and see an amazing 360 view.
Climbing Ponce de Leon Lighthouse stairs
Here is a link to a Visit Florida video I did on climbing Ponce de Leon Lighthouse, Florida’s tallest lighthouse with 203 steps (one way). Make it back down and you are ready to buy the t-shirt!
The lights that pierce the darkness are creations of beauty. The Ponce de Leon Lighthouse has a museum with lighthouse keeper lore and examples of these Fresnel lights.
Lighthouses have history and height, both are a delight
Fresnel lens
Many lighthouses are still active but now they are automated. The lighthouse keepers and their families are gone. When you visit a lighthouse gift shop look for a map you can buy called “Florida Lighthouses Illustrated Map & Guide. It is also available online at Bella Terra Maps. Price is $6.95 folded and $12.95 laminated. Keep this as a guide to your lighthouse adventures.
With three sides of Florida surrounded by water we have an abundance of lighthouses. There is even one inland. Mt. Dora has a working lighthouse. Built in 1988 standing 35 feet tall the blue pulsing light guides boaters on Lake Dora after dark.
The Florida Lighthouse Association helps preserve the historic lighthouses along Florida’s 1200-mile coastline and keep the magic of these tall towers alive. There is a state license plate available for purchase to help generate funds for restoring our lighthouses.
This group is gearing up for a change of ownership at one lighthouse. On April 21 at a 1 p.m. ceremony the Sanibel Lighthouse will pass hands from the Bureau of Land Management into ownership by the City of Sanibel.
Whether answering the lighthouse challenge or going to the lighthouse nearest you – Combine visiting lighthouses with sampling local seafood and you have the perfect recipe for a day trip.
©2010 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved.