Resources
Resources for exploring the area
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Exploring Cocoa Beach
Most visitors to Cocoa Beach head straight to the beach, especially if they’ve followed the Beachline from Orlando to the coast to get here.
But that’s not all that Cocoa Beach and its surrounding communities of Cocoa, Rockledge, Cape Canaveral, and Merritt Island have to offer.
In the Banana River Aquatic Preserve, paddlers can follow a marked blueway through the Thousand Islands, a puzzle of mangrove tunnels between tiny islands just offshore.

Land-based trails lead along the edge of the Thousand Islands in one of several natural areas the city of Cocoa Beach maintains.
Lori Wilson Park provides a natural oceanfront, as does Jetty Park at Cape Canaveral, with the only walk-to-the-beach camping in the region.

Between the Banana River and the Indian River Lagoon, watercraft have miles of waterways to ply.
On Merritt Island, windsurfers launch from Kelly Park because of the persistent breeze there. Sailboats dot the expanse on both sides of the causeways.
Across the island and neighboring Cocoa, there are county natural lands and open space parks to explore, all the way west to the St. Johns River.
Along its banks, put in to paddle the puzzle of marshes, or jump on an airboat tour offered out of Lone Cabbage Fish Camp, not far from the Florida Trail.

Trails and Parks near Cocoa Beach







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INCLUDES: Cape Canaveral, Cocoa | NEARBY: Melbourne, Merritt Island, Orlando, Titusville | ALONG: Atlantic Ocean , Indian River Lagoon | PART OF: Central Florida, Florida’s Space Coast