Lovers Key State Park’s popularity grows every year. Since its founding in the late 1960’s, the Park is perennially the #2 or #3 most visited Park in the entire Florida State Park system. Serving the local community, students, fishermen, beach goers, families and more, the one thing the Park has never had is an indoor facility. Dramatically, that is about to change.

Lovers Key State Park “Welcome and Discovery Center” is now open. The structure rises from pristine habitat to serve to educate and inform visitors to the Park. An impressive exhibit hall will highlight the many different habitats in the park. Interpretive and interactive displays are professionally designed to immerse visitors and cultivate the desire to explore the actual areas in the Park depicted. The large Community Room compliments the exhibits and gives the Park its first indoor space to conduct classes, programs and hold events. State of the art projection and audio equipment is being installed to enhance the experience.

Not to be forgotten are the areas under the building that will allow for ‘touch tanks’ and other such outdoor experiences for all. For the first time, weather will play a less important role.

Experience the wonders of the park in the Welcome and Discovery Center.

Many visitors to the park—over a million people a year—see only the beach. This new facility will orient visitors and show them all that the park has to offer.Through this new facility, visitors can explore hidden perspectives, dive deeper,and discover a view of Lovers Key that you never thought possible—unlocking the park’s treasures!

One of the key areas of the facility is a 2100 sq. ft. exhibit hall. A centerpiece display at the entrance to the exhibit area introduces the dynamic nature of our barrier islands.Visitors can get an overview of the park as it is today and also select different time frames to display how the barrier islands at Lovers Key have shifted and moved over the past 50 years.

The beach is what brings many visitors to Lovers Key State Park. But the beach is so much more than swimming and sunbathing. The exhibits allow visitors to look at the unique habitat and wildlife that can be found along the park’s coastal shore. One of the exhibits highlights the dunes and intertidal zone of the beach. Hands-on interactives and unique theming allows visitors to peer beneath the sand to find critters that live along the wrack line. They can examine sand up close to see the amazing and beautiful minerals that compose the beach and they can discover how the root systems of pioneer and other tenacious plant species help hold the dunes in place.

To the left of the entrance, on a long span of wall is a large display highlighting the cultural history, settlement of the local area, and ultimate development of the park. Through historical and modern images, oral histories, objects, and text, visitors are be taken back to see the park as it was in the past and also meet some of the people who have called this area home.

These are just a few of the exciting exhibits that will be offered. As you will see, there’s lots more to discover, learn and do in this great new adventure at Lovers Key.