Hillsboro Light

On our first venture down the ICW, we went out through the Hillsboro Inlet bridge by mistake. I knew it was near Lighthouse Point, but couldn't find a town named Hillsboro (except for Hillsboro Beach). I eventually determined that Hillsboro Inlet and also Hillsboro Lighthouse were in Pompano Beach



This is what I wrote at the time of that first trip.



The reason we were so afraid to actually go out this inlet is that the inlet has a well deserved reputation for chewing up boats and spitting them out on the rocks.

After that, the only time we saw this lighthouse was from out in the ocean as we went offshore from Miami to Fort Pierce



This is a series of pictures which I took of a relatively large cruising sailboat after going through the bridge, approaching the inlet, in the inlet, and successfully outside the inlet.





The wind was from the east, and the tide was going out (going west).

I knew where the inlet was on the charts, but I could not figure out from the internet exactly where I could go to see it. One of the sites gave places along the road to the south of the inlet where he said views could be had, but that area was completely built up. We drove down US A1A



and across the drawbridge and the whole length of the road and back without finding any place that looked like we could get to the coastline without going across someone's property.

On the way back we almost ran into



This park had free parking, playground equipment


benches and people (and some birds) were fishing from beside the inlet, and it also had a really good view of the Hillsboro Inlet bridge



and the lighthouse (with a heliocopter)






and we could watch the sports fisher boats come in through the washing machine that was the inlet and tread water waiting for the bridge to open.

The yellow dinghy type boat is the Sea Tow boat.



The bridge tender gets her own parking space



Fishing piers



Parasailing boat going out of the inlet



We stayed at the park about an hour talking to an old man that was fishing and taking pictures. And also we used the bathrooms. Then we drove on down toward Miami to visit grandchildren.

Rosalie,

We got a view of this lighthouse several years ago from the edge of a propety that was being built on at the time.

The house wasn't up yet so we had a clear view. We just spent a few minutes there and one of us stayed in the car at all times so it could be termed "standing" not parked.

It did take a bit of driving around to find that spot- can't say I recall the park though. I had a brother who lived about 4 miles away at the time.

Dennis

Rosalie,

Nice photos!!! I like the one taken from offshore that shows the rough waters.

Actually that was a fairly calm day. We usually go down the coast overnight in the dark, so we don't see the lighthouse much (except the light). We did once see a man come out of the inlet in a sailboat and struggle to put his sails up, but he was too far away to get a good picture. That picture was zoomed and cropped as far as could be done - as was the one of the sailboat going out the inlet.

There have been lots of stories of people who came to grief on the rock jetties of this inlet.

After we finished taking pictures of the inlet, we drove down to Miami and stayed a couple of days doing the grandchildren thing. We went to the Chihuly at Fairchild exhibit



at the insistance of this grandchild who was sure we would love it, and wanted to go back (she had been once)



And of course she was right



This was another occasion where I took over 100 pictures and Bob even took some.



Then we drove to Winter Haven via Lake Okeechobee and visited Highland's Hammock State Park on the way. They have a great exhibit on the CCC which of course also built Fort Clinch on Amelia Island.

While we were in Winter Haven, we drove by the old Cypress Gardens (which we visited in 1965 when it was just a water ski place), and went to see Spook Hill and Bok tower in Lake Wales (which were also on the 1965 trip)



We happened to be there on the anniversary of Mr. Bok's death and there was a special carillon concert. I watched the carillon player on the TV (outside under a tent), but Bob just sat in the gardens and listened.

After that, we drove to Amelia Island (we met and had lunch with some friends in Ocala on the way) where we traded in one rental car for another.

Long story short - it would have cost more than twice as much to rent a car for two weeks from Ft. Lauderdale where we got off the cruise ship to Leonardtown MD as it did to rent a car from Ft. Lauderdale to Amelia Island and then get another rental car to drive from Amelia Island to Leonardtown. Crazy right?

After we traded the car in, we were finally able to visit Fort Clinch, which we had only seen from the water before



I put one of the lighthouse from there in the other thread, but I'll start another topic for the St. Mary's River.