States: Florida
Start near: Orlando (about 50 min to Titusville)
rockets north, shipwreck gold south
The Space & Treasure Coast is a ~135-mile back-roads route from Titusville to Jupiter on US 1 and A1A, driven in 1–2 days, that stays off I-95 through the Florida Peninsula.
The Indian River Lagoon carries this whole route: rocket launches mirrored in the water at the top, and at the bottom the reason they call it the Treasure Coast. A hurricane wrecked Spain's 1715 silver fleet along these beaches, and coins still wash up after storms. In between, Fort Pierce gave America the Highwaymen, Black landscape painters who sold Florida dreamscapes from their car trunks and ended up in the Smithsonian.
📍 1715 fleet markers dot A1A from Sebastian to Fort Pierce; launch-viewing pullouts line US 1 in Titusville.
Space View Park's launch sightlines, the Merritt Island refuge sharing a fence with the pads, and old Cocoa Village.
The classic free launch-viewing spot across the lagoon from the pads, wrapped in the US Space Walk of Fame: handprints of Mercury through Shuttle crews.
A seven-mile dirt loop through the refuge that shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center: roseate spoonbills, gators, and a launch gantry on the horizon.
Sebastian's treasure museums, Vero's old-money beach town, and the wreck line running just offshore the whole way.
Built on the actual survivors' camp of the 1715 fleet disaster. Eleven ships, a hurricane, and Spanish silver that beachcombers with metal detectors still find.
The Highwaymen's hometown, the last House of Refuge on the coast, and the 1860 red lighthouse at the inlet.
Backus taught a generation of Black painters who, shut out of galleries, sold fast, glowing Florida landscapes door to door. The Highwaymen made 200,000 paintings; this is their shrine.
The frogmen trained on this beach for D-Day. The only museum dedicated to the SEALs, on the sand where their story started.
The last of ten 1876 houses of refuge built to shelter shipwrecked sailors on this empty coast. Oldest structure in Martin County, sitting on bare rock over the surf.
Lit in 1860, designed by a pre-war George Meade, who would be busy at Gettysburg three years later. Climb it for the whole Treasure Coast in one look.
The Space & Treasure Coast is about 135 miles and takes 1–2 days at a back-roads pace.
It runs from Titusville to Jupiter.
It follows US 1 and A1A.
It avoids I-95, using US 1 and A1A instead.
7 stops are mapped, including Space View Park, Black Point Wildlife Drive, McLarty Treasure Museum, A.E. Backus Museum & the Highwaymen and Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.
Connects with: A1A: Flagler's Coast · Old Dixie: Cassadaga to Kissimmee · The Florida Cracker Trail
More in the Florida Peninsula: A1A: Flagler's Coast · Old Dixie: Cassadaga to Kissimmee · Cross Creek & the Springs · The Nature Coast · The Florida Cracker Trail · The Big Water · The Tamiami Trail · The Overseas Highway · US 41: The Tamiami Trail North, Tampa to Naples