A quiet gem on Oklaloosa Island adjoining recreation-focused Ross Mahler Park, Veterans Park is largely accessible thanks to boardwalks and paved paths.
Natural surface trails access soft white sand beaches along Choctawhatchee Bay with picnic tables and fabulous panoramas towards Eglin Air Force Base.
Choctawhatchee BayThe easternmost loop circles a great blue heron rookery and has a bridge over a brackish cove with nearby benches for birding.
To its west, a quarter-mile loop through the Women’s Veteran Memorial pays homage to women in the military with sculpture stops within a natural setting.
Eight women were honored along the loop during our visit in 2024. More memorials may be in place now, along with expansion of the rookery boardwalk.
Women’s Veteran MemorialResources
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Overview
Location: Okaloosa Island
Length: 0.9 miles
Trailhead: 30.397720, -86.593577
Address: 1300 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE, Fort Walton Beach
Fees: Free
Restroom: At adjoining Ross Mahler Park
Land Manager: Okaloosa County and City of Okaloosa Island
Phone: 850-689-5790
Open dawn to dusk. No pets, please. Boardwalks and pavement provide accessible surfaces through most of the park.
Directions
From downtown Fort Walton Beach at Eglin Pkwy and US 98, follow US 98 east a mile to the Okaloosa Island Convention Center on the left. Park on the east side of the convention center in the far northeast corner of the lot.
Hike
A boardwalk starts at the corner of the parking area at the fence along its edge, crossing a drainage swale. Walk past a pollinator garden and pass through the gate.
To the left the walkway leads to the Women’s Veteran Memorial. Start your hike by turning right to tackle the coastal flatwoods first.
Tall longleaf pines rise beyond the oaks and cabbage palms. A picnic bench rests in the shade of the sand live oaks.
Start of the flatwoods loopFollowing the low boardwalk, pass a bench on a curve. Note the first of many wooden birdhouses swaying in the trees.
One of the last patches of wooded uplands on Okaloosa Island, this corner of the park is a bird sanctuary.
BirdhouseThe boardwalk gently curves to a T intersection under the tall pines. Turn right and peer upward to see the nests in the high branches.
In late winter and early spring, this rookery is a cacophony of squawks as great blue herons raise their young.
Great blue heron rookeryThe forest thins and the Okaloosa Island water tower looms on the horizon. At the next junction, the boardwalk splits.
The near end of the bridge was closed on our visit. Continue to the right, circling around a cove off Choctawhatchee Bay.
The water is clear enough to discern fish in the shallows, which attract osprey to hunt.
Bridge over the coveEdging a thin line of forest along the park’s perimeter, the boardwalk reaches the bridge spanning the cove.
If open, cross it for the views towards the bay and into the rookery. It’s also an excellent perch for watching wading birds along the sandy shoreline.
View from the bridge towards the bayReturn to the shoreline boardwalk and continue past benches. Curving through the woods and along a sand bluff, it ends after a third of a mile.
Step onto the sand and follow the bayfront past a picnic table. A small bridge crosses the outflow of the cove.
Benches on the coveA second picnic table sits on a small white sand beach on Choctawhatchee Bay.
With the horizon largely water, this spot gives an excellent perspective of how large the bay is.
Join another low boardwalk on the far side of the beach, curving through the coastal flatwoods to the top of an ancient dune.
Picnic on the beachAt a T intersection, a ramp leads into the sand to the right. Turn right to walk a sandy swale to another beach on Choctawhatchee Bay.
This one is much larger, but erosion has bitten into the forested bluff, home to some enormous sand live oaks.
Florida rosemary along the bluffReturn to the boardwalk and continue straight ahead. Return to the pines with the rookery to complete the loop.
Turn right and return past the pond to the entrance gate. Take the walkway west to a second crossing to the parking area, 0.6 miles into this walk.
Entrance pondTurn right to enter the formal portion of this park, the Women’s Veteran Memorial, dedicated Veterans Day 2021.
At the plaza where the military flags fly in a semicircle, turn right. The broad accessible path to the right beyond the memorial wall enters the coastal dunes.
Entry to memorial from rookery sideAlong this nature trail are niches with unique presentations of the stories of female armed services veterans across United States military history.
Each is accompanied by a slightly larger-than-life sculpture presented within a vignette pertaining to their service.
Memorial wallAt the start is Margaret Corbin, who accompanied her husband John when he joined the Continental Army.
She was by his side assisting when he was killed while manning a cannon to defend Fort Washington on Manhattan Island.
Taking over, she drew the Hessian fire away from other troops due to her excellent aim and accuracy. Severely wounded, she survived. She became the first American woman to receive a military pension for her service.
Margaret CorbinCurving up through the pines, come to the warrior pose of Cathay Williams, a former slave who served in the Civil War.
There’s a reason she looks like a boy: at age 17, she passed herself off as “William Cathay.”
Two years later, a post physician in New Mexico discovered her gender. Honorably discharged, she was allowed to join a unit of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Cathay WilliamsContinue atop the ridgetop on the broad concrete path to the next branch up to the caped figure of Lenah Higbee.
She joined the Navy in 1908 as one of their first “Sacred Twenty” nurses. For valor in World War I, she was the first woman to receive the Navy Cross.
This was at a time the Navy did not permit women to hold rank. Serving as the second superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, she shaped the look and future of the Corps.
When she died in 1941, she was buried at Arlington. Before World War II was over, a combat warship was commissioned the USS Higbee.
Lenah HigbeeCurve downhill off the sand ridge onto a gently descending boardwalk with a view of the bay in the distance.
A broad spot in the boardwalk holds a statue of aviator Jacqueline Cochran, born near Pensacola. She set major records in aviation both before and after her military service.
Boardwalk towards the bayShe is best known as the director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II.
Retiring from the Air Force Reserves as a colonel in 1970, she became a consultant to NASA.
Jacqueline CochranBeyond a pond in a deep swale, the boardwalk ends amid the tree-topped dunes.
A paved path resumes past a view of the beach on Choctawhatchee Bay at the plaza featuring Captain Jonita Ruth Bonham.
Curving along the dunesServing in the Army Air Corps Medical Corps in World War II, she was assigned to a Medical Evacuation Squadron during the Korean War.
When the C-54 transport she was on slammed into the sea and started sinking, she and her patients were submerged in the aircraft.
She saved 17 survivors before allowing herself to be rescued. For her valor, Captain Bonham was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Jonita Ruth BonhamAlong a low retaining wall topped with forest, the pathway ascends, curving along the other shore of the pond to the next stop.
Newly trained in the Army Nurse Corps, Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane was assigned to the ICU of the 312th Evacuation Hospital in Chu Lai, Vietnam.
Despite the emotional challenges, she declined transfers and spent her off-time caring for patients. On June 8, 1969, the hospital was struck by a Viet Cong rocket
Twenty-seven were wounded; two died, including Lieutenant Lane. She was the only American nurse killed by hostile fire during the Vietnam War.
Sharon Ann LaneAnother niche off this climb honors Silver Star recipient Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester.
A team leader for the 503rd Military Police Battalion in Iraq, she suppressed heavy enemy fire when the convoy her team was shadowing was ambushed by insurgents.
Her quick action saved the lives of numerous convoy members. She was the first Army woman to receive this award for valor after World War II. Hers was awarded in 2005.
Leigh Ann HesterThe pathway sweeps uphill into the sunshine, reaching the final stop within view of the fluttering flags of the Memorial Plaza.
A native of Afghanistan, Major Naseema Dada joined her father in America as a teen and enlisted in the Air Force immediately after high school.
Quickly rising into officer ranks, she was assigned to translation work as the only Pashto speaker in the Air Force.
Naseema DadaAfter the September 11 attacks, she was sent on combat missions over Afghanistan as an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist.
Her knowledge of the landscape and language provided intelligence support to top commanders and deployed forces, saving countless lives.
Wrapping up the memorial loopThe loop ends within sight of Cathay Williams statue. Turn right to pass through the Memorial Plaza back to the walkway along the edge of the park.
Either cross to the parking lot here or return to the lower gate to exit, completing a 0.9 mile walk.
Entry to the memorial from the parking areaTrail Map
Explore More!
Video
A walk through Oklaloosa Island Veterans Park
Slideshow
See our photos from Oklaloosa Island Veterans Park
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