John Prince Park - Visit #1

The beaches were closed for the Independence Day weekend, but fortunately the other county parks were not. We spent the holiday exploring John Prince Park in Lake Worth, and quite enjoyed our visit. There’s still a lot to experience – including a couple of exercise circuits, an interpretive nature trail, tennis courts, and even a campground (although that’s closed for the foreseeable future). We look forward to returning again many times, and maybe someday the playgrounds will be operational and we can have our grandchildren join us for a picnic.

The goal for this first visit was to get an overview of what was available by walking the 4 1/2 mile bicycle/walking path from the “amenities” list. We printed out the map (also see below) and were set to go!

We decided to park at the designated picnic area just off of Lake Worth Avenue, since that was closest to our house. There was parking, but there weren’t any picnic tables! However, it was also close to the walking path, so we donned our masks (there were some baseball players finishing up a game at the nearby field) and started on our way.

The main boat ramp was close to our starting point (which turned out to be at the 1 1/2 mile marker), and we decided Lake Osborne looks like a great place to use jetskis, and probably canoes and kayaks as well. We came across a few fishermen also.

 

 

It really is a pretty lake. I wonder how often the nearby neighbors take advantage of it. 

There’s a mini “island” (connected by land and not a bridge) that would be a lot more fun to visit as a family if the playground was open!

We saw lots of birds and iguanas and a variety of beautiful trees, including several poinciana trees. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Any idea what this one is called? It was the most intriguing to me.

 

We were having a delightful time when we saw the “end” sign for the 4 1/2 mile path and realized it really wasn’t a loop! However, we wanted to complete the goal, and knew the “beginning” had to be somewhere on the other side of the park. So, we continued along the busy road (fortunately there was a wide sidewalk), past the airport and hospital (now I know where Wayne’s specialty doctors’ offices are) to the park entrance on Congress Avenue.

 

Three miles later, we saw the official beginning for the walking path, but there was still a loop through another picnic area we wanted to take, so we did that one first. 

It was nice to finally know we only had 1 1/2 miles to go!

We’ll be back to check out the exercise circuit. I wonder if the homeless camp will still be there then?

We’ll also check to see if they’ve finished the renovations of this picnic area.

There were several playgrounds scattered throughout the park, all of them off limits for now. So sad!

Passing the sports courts and fields, we made it back to our car.

 

We finished! And I was very glad I decided to add the additional bottle of water to my knapsack! Although our walk was more than twice as long as we originally expected – it ended up being 10 miles – we still had a great time. (The 4 1/2 miles follow the red line from X to X. We started the loop at the arrow on top of the map. Because there are the two little arrows marked “to Lantana Road” at the bottom we thought that was part of the walking path. As you now know, it’s not, and it required 2 miles of city street walking, plus another mile or two within the park boundaries, to complete the loop. We hope this information helps someone else!)

And we knew where to find a picnic table and grill, (not at the top check on the map – where we parked – but at the bottom one) where we thoroughly enjoyed our grilled burgers.