Have you ever been to Smyrna Dunes Park, located in New Smyrna Beach? If not, be sure to check it out! This is a great park. The park features a dog area, if you want to take your dog. It also has a 1.5 mile boardwalk trail that you can use to make your way through the dunes. Along the way there are stops for viewing the area, picnic areas, and plenty of places for taking great pictures. 

Smyrna Dunes Park is also a habitat for many gopher tortoises, and other animals. As you walk along the trail you will find many gopher tortoises throughout the area, as well as see the holes where they live. The boardwalk is also an ideal place if you have someone in a stroller, wagon, or wheel chair. You don't have to leave the boardwalk throughout the walk. If you do want to, you can make a quick stop off to walk down to the beach, as there is acess to it from the boardwalk.

What my family has done periodically for the last several years is to pack a picnic lunch and head out to Smyrna Dunes Park. We walk about halfway on the boardwalk and stop to have our picnic lunch. There's a great picnic area about half way through where you can sit and eat your lunch with an ocean view, watching the surfers as you chow down. It's hard to beat that view!

This is a great place to take the kids and get out into some nature. There is a park entrance fee of $5 per vehicle (of up to 8 people). However, there is no charge if you have the Volusia County beach pass on your windshield that also includes parks (when you get your pass you pay a little extra for that option, but it gives you unlimited free access to these parks for the year). There are some great ecosystems to check out at this park and you will notice how you enter different ones as you are walking along.

Smyrna Dunes Park is located at 2995 North Peninsula Avenue in New Smyna Beach. 

Here are some pictures I took at Smyrna Dunes Park: