Beach beckons sand strollers at Avalon State Park

A rare 1.7-mile stretch of pristine beach beckons visitors to Avalon State Park on North Hutchinson Island.

Come to the park located on S.R. A1A, and you’re likely to see hundreds of shorebirds such as roseate spoonbills, wood storks, terns, black skimmers and egrets.

Once, the U.S. Navy used this stretch as a top-secret training ground for exercises later put into action in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Once coastal development threatened the oaks, bay trees and sea grapes in the 1990s, the state of Florida bought these 650 acres between the Indian River Lagoon and the ocean.

– Anne Geggis, Florida Politics, The South FL 100