When sand dunes waving with sea oats and daisies meet the sea in a seemingly endless stretch of greens and golds, it seems the way the beach was meant to be.

Standing on a boardwalk passing over these dunes on Canaveral National Seashore, it's not hard to imagine that early Spanish explorers saw the very same thing as they sailed up the Florida coast.

Here waves roll up the beach and scatter a dazzling variety of shorebirds searching for tasty tidbits.

No cars, trucks or beach patrol officers roll up the shoreline. It's just swimmers, sunbathers, birds and the sea.

But this national park is more than just the ocean and beach. On the lee side, trails traverse saw palmettos and coastal hammocks and take hikers down to the edge of Mosquito Lagoon. There, careful observers might see a variety of sea creatures ranging from large and playful dolphins to tiny delicate sea horses.

A boat ramp near the park's entrance allows boaters access to one of the more pristine estuaries in the world and a variety of uninhabited islands and canoe trails.