For backpackers headed to the urban southeastern part of the Florida, Jonathan Dickinson State Park provides more than 11,000 acres to roam on a series of three trails maintained by the Florida Trail Association. Although the East Loop took some severe battering during the hurricanes of 2005, losing the sand pine scrub canopy along the ancient dunes, it’s still a popular destination for hikers and has had its campsite (Scrub Jay campsite) rebuilt and relocated. Along its length, you’ll traverse some of the highest hills in South Florida, enjoy sweeping views across pine flatwoods, scramble through the scrub forests, and encounter some of the remains of Camp Murphy, a World War II era military installation. The 9.8-mile loop can be tackled as a long day hike or an overnight trip, or in conjunction with hiking the larger double-loop system (using the connector to the Kitching Creek Loop) or the Ocean-to-Lake Trail, all of which are maintained by the Florida Trail Association.
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Overview
Location: Hobe Sound
Length: 9.8 miles
Lat-Long: 27.003877, -80.101422
Type: Loop with connectors to other trails
Fees / Permits: state park entrance fee, camping fee
Difficulty: moderate
Bug factor: moderate
Restroom: available in the park but not along the trail
You must check in with park rangers before backpacking to ensure that there is space remaining at the backcountry campsite. There is an extra fee for camping. Take plenty of water, as water is scarce along the loop. There is a pitcher pump at the campsite but it doesn’t always work.
For more information: Jonathan Dickinson State Park
Directions
Take Florida’s Turnpike exit 116 or I-95 exit 87A, SR 706 (Indiantown Rd), Jupiter. Drive east 5 miles to US 1. Turn left and continue north 5.1 miles to the park entrance on the left. Park your car at the parking area adjacent to the ranger’s station at the entrance
Hike Details
Just past the park entrance, turn right to park at the far end of the large parking lot. Also known as the “Scrub Jay Loop” (due to the name of its sole campsite), the trail is in some of the highest rolling hills in South Florida. Once a shady sand pine scrub, it was stripped bare by hurricanes to expose bright white sand and young scrub plants reclaiming the ancient dunes. You can hear the hum of cars on US 1 and catch glimpses of the highway, and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other side of it, from the highest hills.
After a mile, the trail heads straight down a hill facing the observation tower atop Hobe Mountain, the highest natural point south of Lake Okeechobee. The tower is reached from a different trail, however, so the East Loop leads you past the foundation of an old building – part of World War II era Camp Murphy – and past some park housing. You cross a paved road, the original A1A, after 2.1 miles. Turn right and follow the blazes a short stretch before the trail jogs left back into the scrub.
Crossing a double set of railroad tracks – yes, they are used for freight trains, so be cautious – the trail continues its zigzagging as you enter a transition into scrubby flatwoods. Fragrant tarflowers rise above an understory of gallberry. You see a sawgrass prairie off on the left, and the trail follows a tight corridor along the ecotone between prairie and flatwoods—it’s spots like these that can get downright wet underfoot after heavy rains, sometimes an ankle-deep wade. Skirting a chain of wet prairies, the trail is flanked by Virginia willows and wax myrtle. To your right, a canopy of sand live oaks rises above silvery-green saw palmettos.
After 4.1 miles, you reach a fork with a jeep trail. The blazes lead you left, into the shade of a mixed pine-palm flatwoods, where shoelace fern and golden polypody drape from the cabbage palm trunks. A series of bridges leads you over drainage from marsh into prairie, and you cross a concrete culvert over a waterway. It’s damp and lush and mosquito-laden in this low spot. But the trail quickly rises back into scrubby flatwoods with limited shade, following a broad jeep track. The trail turns right at a junction and crosses a stretch of open scrub, aiming right for a cypress dome. The orange blazes lead you towards the cypresses and into a narrow corridor edged by thick vegetation. Passing the Scrub Jay Campsite, you reach the Cross Trail at 5.4 miles at a T intersection. This trail connects the East Loop with the Kitching Creek Loop, and there is a series of benches here so a group and sit and take a break.
Turn left to continue on the East Loop. The trail leaves the pine flatwoods to become a shaded causeway between walls of cypress trees, crossing several bridges. Emerging back into scrubby flatwoods, you turn right at the T intersection, rising up into open scrub where deer moss and reindeer lichen grow at the feet of rosemary bushes. Turn right at the next T, and keep alert for the flash of blue that indicates a Florida scrub-jay, as they frequent this area. Also keep alert so you follow the blazes properly, as they jump off one jeep trail and onto another. Skirting a depression marsh, the trail crosses the main park road at 7.4 miles.
Pine flatwoods greet you on the south side of the asphalt ribbon as the East Loop follows a broad jeep path. Keep alert for a double blaze where the trail makes a sharp left into a sand pine forest. You cross a stream lined with giant leather fern and swamp lilies at 8.2 miles, and immediately rise up into sand pine scrub. After some twists and turns through the scrub, the trail parallels the railroad tracks and reaches the crumbling ruins of Camp Murphy. Built here in 1942 by the U.S. Army to take advantage of the high hills overlooking Hobe Sound, the better to watch for German submarines, Camp Murphy housed nearly 10,000 men. Their primary mission was to invent what we know today as radar. After the war, the Army transferred the land to the state of Florida, and it became Jonathan Dickinson State Park in 1950.
Crossing the railroad track, you’ve walked 9 miles. The East Loop briefly follows part of the Camp Murphy bike path before diving into the scrub to the right. It emerges on the edge of a large pond, with Pine Grove Campground on the far shore. A boardwalk with a bench dedicated to my friend Sunny, who was the trail master for this park before cancer claimed her, overlooks the pond and keeps your feet dry. Rising up into the scrub again, the trail crosses the bike trail and emerges at the park entrance road after 9.5 miles. Walk up towards the ranger’s station to return to your car in the parking area, completing a 9.7 mile walk.
Mileage
0.0 start @ parking lot
0.3 cross firebreak into open scrub
0.6 under powerline
1.0 cross firebreak
1.4 cross park road
old dry well
2.1 cross ancient road
2.2 cross railroad
bench
4.1 jeep trail to right
4.2 Jeep trail comes in from right, go left
4.2 bridge
4.3 concrete culvert
4.3 bridge
4.4 Jeep trail comes in from right
4.4 bridge
4.7 trail jct, keep right
4.8 leave jeep trail, straight into cypresses
4.9 bridge
4.9 scrub jay campsite to right
5.0 campsite
hand pump
5.4 T, cross trail to right, go left
5.6 bridge
5.6 bridge
5.7 bridge
5.7 T, right
5.8 T, right
7.1 fork, right
7.2 sharp left
7.4 park road
7.7 left off jeep trail into woods
log bench
7.8 T, left
7.9 bridge
8.2 bridge
T, left
8.4 jeep trail jct, right
8.7 fork, right
8.7 left off jeep trail into woods
9.0 camp murphy ruins
9.1 railroad tracks
9.2 right, into woods
9.4 post, left
9.5 T, right
9.5 entrance road
9.7 end @ trailhead
[...] back-packers or long-distance hikers, there is the 9.8 mile East Loop Trail. Ask for a trail map at the ranger station and consult the links above to [...]