Sunrise in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.
By David McRee of BlogTheBeach.com.
One of the quietest morning beach walks I’ve ever taken was in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, south of Melbourne Beach. The refuge encompasses about 20 miles of beach established in 1991 largely for the protection of nesting sea turtle. As you can see from the photo above, there is no one else on the beach. The tire tracks on the beach are from the all-terrain vehicles used by the scientists and volunteers that monitor nesting sea turtles.
Sea oats frame another beautiful Atlantic Ocean sunrise. Can you see the sea turtle tracks on the beach indicating a false crawl?
Dunes on the Atlantic Ocean, south of Melbourne Beach.
The dunes on the Atlantic coast are much larger than the ones I’m used to over on the southwest coast of Florida. These dunes are covered with saw palmetto, sea grape trees, sea oats, and numerous flowering plants like railroad vine and dune sunflower.
Railroad vine (purple flowers) and dune sunflower mix it up on the dune.
Railroad vine, which looks very much like beach morning glory, is one of the toughest plants on the beach, and one of the most beautiful.
