When scheduling a trip to Florida, you’re going to need a great place to bring the whole clan together for a day of fun on and off the water. Okeeheelee Park, one of many spectacular Florida spots, is a perfect destination to take your West Palm Beach boat rental for a day of family-friendly fun. When you make it to Okeeheelee Park, you’ll see why it’s such a popular destination for Florida visitors and residents alike.
At 900 acres, the sprawling Palm Beach County regional park on the north side of Forest Hill Boulevard, east of Florida’s Turnpike, is bigger than the 850-acre Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton. Like many places in South Florida, it gets its name from the Seminoles. Reports at the time said county commissioners named it the Seminole word for “pretty waters.” The county now says the word means “quiet waters.” The Seminole tribe says that because Miccosukee is an unwritten language, exact translations are hard, but the closest might be “okee-hee-thee,” which means “good water.”
The park should have been named “big delays.” Bought in 1973, it didn’t open its first phase for eight years and $6 million in work and wasn’t officially completed until 1996.
For eight years, only junk cars and squatters used the tract while the county planned and eventually completed landscaping, waterways, athletic fields and buildings. Its first phase was dedicated in 1982. The nature center opened in 1992 and the golf course in 1995. The park was officially completed with the opening of the racquet center in 1996.
Today, the park offers fishing, water skiing, boating, 14 athletic fields, six volleyball courts, five children’s play areas, eight tennis courts, a nature center and trails, a golf course and 40 picnic shelters.
The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Lighted basketball and tennis court facilities are open until 10 p.m., and lighted athletic fields are open until 11 p.m. So why not take your West Palm Beach boat rental to Okeeheelee Park for a day of exhilarating fun on and off the water?
Photo Credit: http://discover.pbcgov.org
