Parks of the Space Coast: Osteen Park

Merritt Island is home to some delightful parks. Here's one that we visited this weekend: Samuel A. Osteen Park. This park was named after a citrus fruit farmer who lived in Merritt Island until he passed in the 1950s.
Parking and Entrance
Here's a view of the park entrance from the parking lot. Notice there are mature Oak trees with Spanish Moss.
Located on the road called South Tropical Trail, it's easy to pass by this park without noticing it, even with the full sized sign. With enough parking for several cars, this is clearly more than the tiny neighborhood park that we expected.
Within the park we found a plaque where we learned a little more about the funding sources for this beautiful park.  These include the State of Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program and the Brevard County Beach and riverfront program.
Walk or Roll
We wandered down the central paved path with plenty of shade and picnic tables... Wait... did we read the word riverfront? Yes! We did! Just follow the central path and you'll find yourself at the dock, perfect for fishing.
While we didn't bring our stroller today to test it out, I noted that the clean concrete path led right to the dock in a seamless fashion that would be accessible for all of our family. It's fun to stand at the dock to fish and watch the boats sail by.

Look to the Sky!
Since this park is directly on the flight path to and from the Merritt Island airport (COI), we saw planes. This small airport has a lot of hobby pilots flying through. This park is a great place to go and watch the airplanes.
Picture of a clear blue sky with a silver airplane. I have no idea what particular plane this was, but on the morning when we visited there was a new and interesting plane flying over every 5 minutes. If you're looking for wildlife instead of aircraft, you will notice beautiful birds, and plenty of rambunctious squirrels in the park.
Playground
This park has a playground, which is located close to the parking lot. The ground cover under the playground is a soft cushion of fallen leaves, wood chips, and under those layers is sand. The playground is shaded by oak trees.
Some neat features of this woodland themed playground include a slide, a log--shaped tube to crawl through, an unexpected magnifying glass, and a spyglass.
Here is a photo of our child looking at things she found on the ground with the magnifying glass.
Do you like to swing? We do. There are swings, too! Under the swings is a soft layer of sand.

We found some unexpected wildflowers, too. The one pictured is Tradescantia, also known as spiderwort.
But there are other treasures to be found all around the playground, like acorns and sticks! Perfect for activities like these. 
Here's a lesson about how to practice multiplying using sticks:
Here's how we practice division using acorn tops:
Here's another blog post I wrote about using sticks, leaves, and acorn tops to teach math outdoors. 

Pavilion and Other Facilities
Other features of this park include many shaded picnic tables scattered under trees, a pavilion with a grill, and a restroom with flush toilets and running water (bring your own soap). If you forgot your water bottle, there is a water fountain by the restroom and another by the playground, though the water fountain beside the playground was not functioning at the time of our visit. 
This is a beautiful park that will be fun to enjoy through even the hottest Summer days. We're looking forward to our next visit. 

Credits
We took all of the photos presented here. If you would like to learn more about this park or reserve the pavilion, visit the Brevard County website: 

Other Parks of the Space Coast
We hope you enjoy our review of this fantastic local park. I hope this inspires you to explore your local parks. In case you are planning a trip to the Space Coast, here are links to our reviews of other Space Coast Parks. 
Kiwanis Island Park:
Pineview Park:
Go play!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts