Tag: New Smyrna Beach

Perfect Lettered Olive Seashell Found at the Inlet

While visiting New Smyrna Beach today, my son did some fishing from shore while I walked north to the Inlet. While there, I found this gorgeous, uninhabited, lettered olive shell! It was such a great find for me.

The shell is brown and very shiny. It was partially buried in a small tide pool and it was just lucky that I noticed it. I never see hermit crabs at this beach, and they can’t live inside the small opening of the olive. So, unless the snail is inside the shell, it will most likely be empty, and this one was. I rinsed out the mud and marveled at my collector’s item.

Perfect gray-brown olive shell

Just before I found this beauty, I had come across a living olive shell and the snail was digging upward out of the sand. I didn’t have my phone with me on my walk, and I missed out on some great photos, but carrying a drink of water was more important than my phone. I watched that living olive and thought how gorgeous it was, never expecting to find an empty olive shell within the next few minutes!

I was so very pleased with the find of this pretty, and perfect, olive shell. Most shells I find, and especially the rare olives, are old and broken. I say rare, because finding olives where I live is not usual.

Other shells I collected today were a worn slipper shell, big (broken) angel wing, ark, cockle, piece of sand dollar, and an ark bivalve attached – both parts.

  • Today’s shell collection from the inlet
    Collection from the day
  • beautiful brown gray olive shell
    Inside the olive

After I found the special brown olive, I came across this orange olive shell as I walked back to meet my son. It was lying on the edge of a tide pool so I took it. The shell is very worn and has some tiny shells stuffed inside the opening. the very top of the spire is broken off and the shell is turning orange. This is more like the olives I see, when I see them.

I’ve written about why seashells turn black, but I have yet to figure out why they turn orange. I assume it also has to do with the sediment where they are buried.

  • olive shells
    Lettered olive shells
  • olive shells

A Beautiful Day at the Beach

The beach today was not crowded, and the water was clear and blue-green. It was amazingly wonderful. This is a good time of year to head to the beach because the kids are in school, and many people are no longer vacationing. Also, it’s still too hot here for the snowbirds to move south.

The water temperature was in the 80’s, and the rolling waves were perfect for enjoying. This is the Florida I enjoy.

New Smyrna Beach September low tide
New Smyrna Beach in September

My son wanted to fish from the shore, so after a nice swim in the very warm ocean, I took a walk to Ponce Inlet. That is my favorite place to search for shells, but the walk was a long one from where we parked. No one was at the Inlet beach, except for a lady and her dog hanging out under an umbrella. I had the place to myself, so I began looking for shells.

I sat down in a little tide pool and right beside me was a tiny shark’s eye so I picked it up. It was alive so I put it back down, but it was a nice thing to see.

Like I said, I had no camera with me and I surely wish I had. While I searched the low tide beach, I discovered a large sea star – just a bit smaller than my hand – at the bottom of a pool. It would have been a great photo for this blog, but doesn’t that figure?

I’ve only found two sea stars – one very tiny sea star in the wild and one that I think was possibly dead. Both were found at low tide in the backwater areas where we boat. So this one was my third find, and I didn’t get a photo…!

We had a great day and I came home with a fabulous treasure.

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What Happened to the Stairs at Smyrna Dunes Park?

Often I will write about Smyrna Dunes Park and Ponce Inlet because it’s such a wonderful place to beach-comb, swim, fish, and walk. The park had built a new stairway, to replace the old one, which emptied onto the beach near the jetty. The stairway was replaced when the rest of the boardwalk was replaced, only a short time ago. I’m talking like less than two years. Now this stairway is gone. The boardwalk now ends up high on the dunes as a “lookout” only with no beach access.

Here is a link to an article, written in May, 2019, about New Smyrna Beach on the “Travel Pulse” website where you can see this stairway from the side. It was a beautiful, and probably expensive, set of stairs. Suddenly, they were taken out and I’m wondering why.

The New Stairway Which is Now Missing

Here is my photo of that staircase which was built over the dunes. The old boards were replaced with something like Trex boards to hold up to the elements better. The whole boardwalk was re-done like this. Now, these stairs no longer exist. There is no way to get onto the beach at the end of this part of the boardwalk.

stairway to the beach

The only sensible explanation for the missing stairs is that they didn’t want anyone gaining access from the beach up to the park. But because there are about 4 or 5 other access points on the ocean side, and about three on the river side of this peninsula, that really doesn’t make sense. This does not keep people from doing that, it just makes it more difficult. Maybe that was the point?

Below is my first time trying the “compare images” block with a center slider. It shows the top of the stairway compared to the nothing that is left.

(A reader left a comment that the sand was washed away and the stairs no longer touched the beach so the stairs were removed. If this is the reason, it’s pretty stupid that the builders did not realize that this happens. I’ve taken lots of “after a storm” photos that show the eroding of the beach. Maybe there have been too many hurricanes and they decided not to deal with this problem. But they left the other access points over on the ocean side which certainly must also be affected by hurricanes.)

Erosion of Beach at Ponce Inlet Jetty

  • beach erosion florida
    Beach Erosion at Ponce Inlet 2016
  • Jetty at Ponce Inlet 2016
  • Jetty 2017

Stairway, and Stairway Removed

Smyrna Dunes Park missing stairway to the jetty beach
Stairs… and no stairs

I’d love to know the reasoning behind this move. My favorite thing to do at the park was to walk 1/2 of the oval and then go down at this point to the beach. The jetty is to the right and I would begin my beach walk there and travel around the inlet over to the river and return to the boardwalk by using the dog access trails.

It’s a longer walk, through the soft beach sand, to get onto the beach and do the same thing.

Smyrna dunes park boardwalk
Before: End of boardwalk at stairs leading to Inlet and Jetty
boardwalk end where stairs were
After: Walkway ends as an overlook to the beach below

Since you can’t get down to the beach, I suppose standing there in the shade and reading a sign about local wildlife will have to do.

sign wildlife sea animals
Something to read while you stand and look out over the inlet and beach

The Smyrna Dunes Park boardwalk is an oval shaped boardwalk with beach access ramps along the ocean side. Because the stairway at the end of this path (photo below) is no longer an access to the jetty, a new sign points walkers on down the oval where access leads to the ocean side.

See a map of the park at the Volusia County site. The info in this brochure is old because a one day pass is now $10.00. That doesn’t keep visitors away, in fact often it’s usually difficult to find parking. I used to buy a year long resident’s pass for $20, but with the crowds and now this new change, I won’t be doing that.

At this point I’d rather drive onto the beach and park near the jetty. My son and I did this the other day and he fished while I did some beachcombing.

beach access sign
New sign points further on to gain beach access

The old wooden boardwalk – before the “fake wood” replacement

boardwalk black and white

The Very Old Boardwalk

The photo below was taken when the old boardwalk was still showing. Hurricanes and extremely high tides easily destroy anything that is built near the ocean, so it’s understandable that the boardwalk would need replacing. This bit of the wooden walk is no longer there and I don’t recall when this photo was taken.

There are many, many more people coming to this area and using the boardwalks. Florida no longer has that “Old Florida” feel. Everything caters to the newer, wealthier crowds. The boardwalks cannot be rustic, they must be pristine. And now I suspect the city of New Smyrna has the tax money to upgrade.

With lots of condos nearby and the fact that everyone has a dog these days, this is a popular park. Dogs can be seen all around the beach from the jetty to the river side. Although they are supposed to be on a leash, many people ignore that, and let their dogs run.

Ponce Inlet dunes beach water
Ponce Inlet dunes and old boardwalk

I don’t understand, or much like, the way things are being done these days in this area. Daytona Beach to the north used to be very popular and the place to visit. Now it is known locally as a place to avoid. That brings everyone south to New Smyrna, which has been written about endlessly as the place to visit on Florida’s east coast.

The high rises are going up and the restaurants are doing valet parking. Florida caters to the visitors who like the idea of living the laid-back life in paradise and live in big expensive condos which are ruining the landscape.

The laid back Florida feel has been gone a long time for me.

Winter Walk Near the Jetty

I was lucky to have my youngest son come for a visit recently. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t good, with cloudy skies and rain much of the time. We did manage a day at the beach lodging in our chairs and walking in the tide pools, but it was not swimming weather.

Visiting the Park

My son had not been to Smyrna Dunes Park since the boardwalk had been updated. All the old boards have been replaced – rebuilt with long lasting boards and metal sides. He mentioned how nice it looked.

I bought my resident year-long pass which now goes year to year and not just to the end of the year.

We went up to the top of the first lookout area, and the only one on the west side of the walkway, to get some photos. My son dislikes heights and even being this high gave him the willies!

The photo below is looking back toward the parking area with the condos near the beach.

Smyrna Dunes Park view from the two-story lookout
Smyrna Dunes Park view of ICW
Looking west toward the Intracoastal Waterway

These two photos show the view of the ICW, inland waterway. The dirt trail that runs alongside the walkway is where the dogs go for their walks. Dogs are only allowed on the boardwalk early in the morning. Farther up the path dogs and owners can get onto the beach.

Smyrna Dunes Park view from the two-story lookout
View towards Disappearing Island on the inland waterway

I’ll share more photos of our trek out on the beach in a post to come. I found some pretty good shells.

New Smyrna Beach Walk

The first day my son arrived we took a drive onto New Smyrna Beach. I live close and it’s the thing to do. It was cool and windy but we did wear our suits although there was no one swimming. A lone lifeguard looked bored out of her mind.

New Smyrna Beach
New Smyrna Beach
  • New Smyrna Beach
    New Smyrna Beach
  • Breakers Restaurant from the beach
    Breakers
  • Winter low tide at New Smyrna Beach in Florida
    New Smyrna Beach looking south
More views of New Smyrna Beach

We found this tiny blue jellyfish, which looks like a man-of-war, just sitting on the sand near the road.

tiny blue jellyfish on the beach
Baby man-of-war?

My son and I scanned the sand for good shells. He has collected them often enough to know I like certain ones. He found this awesome Dosinia – which I don’t think I have ever encountered on this beach – and little scallop, which is also a fairly rare find for this beach.

Dosinia and scallop shells
Dosinia and scallop shells found on ocean beach

In between our beach visits we went out on the boat and had an adventure trying to cook hotdogs over oyster shells. Don’t ask – and don’t try it!

The following day my boys went fishing and caught three keepers – two drum and one trout. Fresh fish for supper! Yum.

He had a nice visit and was glad to have some warm weather to enjoy, then he went back to the New Hampshire winter.