Free Things to Do in Hudson

The Beach That Belongs to Everyone

Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park is the town’s beach, built in the 1960s and still doing the job. That is a long run for a stretch of sand. It is the place where the gopher racing capital of the world went to cool off, and it remains free to use. The Gulf of Mexico does not charge admission. Neither does the park.

West of 19

SunWest Park sits on Old Dixie Highway, a name that sounds older than the road feels. It is the big one—4.5 stars from nearly four thousand reviews. People come for the water, the sand, the sheer width of the sky. There is also The Lift Adventure Park on the same grounds. You pay for the ropes course if you want it, but walking the park costs nothing.

North of that, Hudson Beach is the other public stretch of shore. It is a working beach more than a resort one. Shrimp boats have used these waters since the 1930s. The rating is a modest 4.3, which suits it. Hudson Beach does not need to impress anyone.

The Quiet Green Spots

Veterans Memorial Park on Hicks Road is where the town goes for a slow afternoon. 4.6 stars from fifteen hundred reviews. It is a park with a purpose—memorials, open grass, room to think. No entrance fee, no time limit.

Arthur F. Engle Memorial Park on Denton Avenue is smaller and quieter. 4.6 stars from 280 reviews. The kind of place you find by accident and then keep to yourself. It is not trying to be anything more than a neighborhood park.

Aripeka Sandhills Preserve is the odd one. It is at the northern edge of town on Aripeka Road, and it protects the kind of scrubland most people drive past. 4.6 stars from fewer than five hundred reviews. It is free, it is dry, and it has actual hills—sandhills, but hills nonetheless. The name is accurate.

The Gardeners' Free Show

Canterbury Farms Nursery & Garden Center on Hays Road is technically a business. But it is also a place you can walk through without spending a dime. 4.7 stars from 406 reviews. It is a garden center, not a park, but nobody is counting. The plants are the attraction.

The Potted Plant on US-19 is the same idea. A perfect 5.0 from 111 reviews. You can browse, you can look, you can leave. The plants will still be there tomorrow.

The Honest Listings

Some places on the map are free to visit and still not worth it. Forest Green Acres has a 2.6 rating from 368 reviews. It is on Hudson Avenue. It is a mobile home park. It is free to look at, and that is about all you can say.

Winter Paradise RV Resort on US-19 manages a 3.6 from 296 reviews. 72 Shady Acres gets 3.2 from 264. Club Wildwood does better—4.2 from 218—but it is still a park with a membership attached.

We mention these because Hudson does not hide what it is. The median home value here is $239,200, and the median age is 64.4 years. Over 1,200 homes sit empty for most of the year, seasonal and recreational. The town knows it is a place people pass through or retire to. It does not pretend otherwise.

The Weird Ones

Tractor Supply Co. on State Road 52 is a farm supply store, listed as a park by someone with a sense of humor. 4.4 stars from 1,417 reviews. It is free to walk in. You will not see gopher racing, but you might see feed bags.

A Town That Keeps Its Own Hours

Hudson was never a resort. Isaac Hudson moved his family into the brush in 1878 and ran a post office out of his house. The Fivay Company cut timber until it failed in 1912, and then the town stalled. Fishing and shrimping carried about half the working men from the 1930s through the 1950s. In 1950, W.L. Hendry and his sons dug inlets for the Port of Hudson neighborhood, using the fill to make dry ground.

The town proclaimed itself the gopher racing capital of the world. Nobody argued.

Only 18.1 percent of residents hold a bachelor's degree. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. Median household income is $49,063. These are not numbers that get printed in brochures. They are numbers that get printed in census reports.

The free things in Hudson are the things that were always here: the beach, the parks, the preserves, the nurseries. The town has a population of 10,873 people, and most of them know the difference between a place that charges you to look and a place that just lets you stay.

Hudson is the second kind. Bring a towel. Bring nothing else.