Inlet Jetty and Dog Beach Photos

It’s now March, and we are dealing with closures, cancellations and long lines at the grocery store thanks to the Corona Virus.

But back in February I took a late afternoon walk at my favorite local place. I’ve taken similar photos before, but can you ever get tired of beach scenes? I’m lucky to live near such a beautiful place.

At Smyrna Dunes Park, on my February visit, I took the counter-clockwise route. That path leads past the ocean with a couple of walkways veering off to the right that take a walker onto the ocean side, with drive-on traffic. You can see it here, but I didn’t get photos of the ocean side this time. I was headed to the Inlet.

The new boardwalk is extremely nice, and signs are posted on the railing in a few places to remind visitors of closing time. The times change as the seasons change and sunset comes later, or earlier. The park closes at sunset.

The rocky jetty is something I seldom photograph, but since it was low tide I wanted to look into the little tide pools by the rocks just in case something interesting had washed up.

This is where the fishermen go and navigate those big rocks to the end. On the other side, to the right in this photo, the surfers find the biggest waves. It’s also the location for the most shark bites – probably because there are lots of yummy surfers around! Just kidding – but it’s known as a big shark bite area.

My shadow looks bizarre, as if I am wearing a trench coat! Actually, I had my long sleeve cover-up shirt tied around my waist. Lots of people had on long sleeves. It was windy and cool, but very nice. Just the way I like Florida weather to be. It won’t last.

I found a few shells to collect along the beach. This broken whelk (above) made for a good photo. If you want to see what I collected, read my post here.

The Dog Beach

Although dogs can be found on any part of this beach, all the way to the Jetty, this “river side” beach area is where most of them are. A dirt path runs alongside the boardwalk on the West side and has a few offshoots that lead out to this part of the beach.

Below is one of the sandy paths that lead between the boardwalk and the dog beach area. It’s not an easy walk in that soft sand.

My beach photos make the place look deserted, but there were people (and dogs) everywhere. Up near the dunes people were sitting in the sand with their dogs tied to posts. Dogs are supposed to be on leashes at all times, but I always see them running free, playing catch or swimming when the weather is hotter.

Before my February walk, I visited this same place with my youngest son who had come to visit in January. He always enjoys practicing his photography skills with sunsets and beach scenes. He got a few nice photos and found me a couple of nice shells. Read more about that here.

Also, in “winter” my boating son and I took a frightening boat trip through dense fog in this very area at the Inlet.