The Water Glades Paddle to Munyon Island Runs on the Tide, Not the Calendar

The first time someone launches a kayak from the south end of MacArthur Beach State Park expecting a straight shot to Munyon Island, the trip usually ends in mud. Not disaster, just an unglamorous slog through ankle-deep muck with a boat in tow, discovered about halfway across the estuary. Anyone who has lived at Water Glades long enough has either made that mistake once or watched a neighbor make it. The island is close enough to see from the north end of Singer Island. Getting there on any given afternoon depends less on the weather and more on a number you have to look up before you leave the building.

That's the part of this stretch of coastline that doesn't show up in the postcard version. Water Glades sits at 5540 N Ocean Drive, closer to the park's south boundary than any other tower on this row, and that proximity comes with a rhythm most visitors never learn because they're only there for a day.

The Bridge That Isn't There Anymore

For years, the assumption among paddlers was that Munyon Island had two points of entry: a launch on the estuary's west side and the main South Paddle Launch near the Nature Center. That's no longer accurate. According to Wikipedia's entry on Munyon Island, the west-side launch is no longer accessible because the wooden bridge that once supported it fell into disrepair and took storm damage that was never repaired. The workaround isn't complicated, but it changes the math: everyone now funnels through the South Paddle Launch, which the Village of North Palm Beach lists as open for paddleboarding from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. If you're arriving expecting a second option, you're planning around infrastructure that no longer exists.

Boaters have a separate route entirely. The park's own amenities page notes that boats can tie up at protected docks on the island's west shore, adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway. It's a different kind of access than paddling, and it doesn't solve the tide problem for anyone without a boat.

Two Ways In, One Reliable Clock

The tide is the part that actually decides your day. Munyon Island sits in a shallow stretch of the Lake Worth Lagoon Estuary, and at low tide, that shallow water becomes an exposed mud flat. Wikipedia's description is blunt about it: kayakers have to stay attentive to the tide, because low water turns the crossing into something closer to a walk than a paddle.

That third route is one most first-timers never hear about. A Palm Beaches destination guide mentions paddlers can travel under Burnt Bridge into the broader Lake Worth Lagoon instead of making straight for the island, which spreads out the estuary traffic and gives residents a second option when the tide isn't cooperating for a Munyon crossing. Kayak rentals at the park run around $12 an hour, unguided, which makes it easy to change plans mid-afternoon rather than force a bad tide.

An Island With More History Than the Map Admits

Munyon Island earns more attention than its size suggests. The Seminole name for it was Nuctsachoo, meaning Pelican Island, a reference to what was once one of the largest wading bird rookeries in South Florida. A man named Rodgers was the first documented resident in 1884, living alone on the island and selling green sea turtles he caught in Lake Worth. The Pitts family bought it in 1892 and built a two-story house. In 1901, Dr. James Munyon, who made his name selling homeopathic remedies, purchased the island and built the Hotel Hygeia, a five-story, twenty-one room resort named for the Greek goddess of health. Guests drank his bottled Paw-Paw Elixir, made largely from fermented papaya juice, and came from the Northeast to recuperate in the tropical air.

The hotel burned to the ground in 1917. The island sat largely uninhabited after that until John D. MacArthur acquired it in 1955, and the State of Florida took ownership in 1981. Dredging in the 1930s and 1950s, done to modify the Intracoastal Waterway, roughly tripled the island's original 15 acres to about 45. None of that history is visible from a kayak seat, but it's the reason the island looks the way it does now: overgrown, quiet, and largely left alone since a fire took out the only structure that was ever built there.

The Cove Doing Quiet Work Right Off A1A

South of the park, between A1A and Little Munyon Island, sits a stretch of water called Munyon Cove. It doesn't get the same attention as the beach or the island, but it's one of the more ecologically active parts of the Lake Worth Lagoon. According to Sustainable Palm Beach County, the cove has produced numerous West Palm Beach Fishing Club angling records and is a regular haunt for schools of pilchards, pinfish, and mullet, along with light-tackle catches of jack crevalle, snook, and the occasional redfish or bonefish. Manatees and juvenile green sea turtles show up frequently, and the seagrass beds are protected, meaning damaging them can carry fines.

The data backs up the reputation. In the first quarter of 2024, according to that same report, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff sampled 21 restoration sites in the northern lagoon, largely concentrated around the cove, and caught 56 bonefish along with snook, permit, mutton snapper, and flounder. Lake Worth Waterkeeper's regular bacteria sampling has also shown that habitat-rich areas like the cove offer better protection against bacteria blooms than open, unvegetated water, because the seagrass and mangrove edges compete with bacteria for the same nutrient pollution. It's a small stretch of water doing outsized work, and it sits close enough to Water Glades that residents walking the shoreline are passing right by it.

What's Left of the Season

Sea turtle nesting on this stretch of beach runs from May through August, covering loggerheads, greens, and leatherbacks. The ranger-led turtle walks that draw the biggest crowds, when visitors sometimes catch hatchlings making their way to the water, are concentrated in June and July according to Lonely Planet's coverage of the park. By the time August rolls around, that window is closing. Anyone hoping to catch a nesting turtle this year is working against a season that's nearly done, not one just getting started.

The Nature Center's other programming keeps going past turtle season, though. Florida State Parks lists a recurring "snake ambassador" talk in the park's amphitheater, open to all ages. This year's series ran August 8, with the next sessions scheduled for September 13 and October 10, 2026. The Nature Center itself keeps hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and the nonprofit Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park lists weekly nature walks, MacArthur Under Moonlight concerts, and sunset kayak tours as ongoing offerings throughout the year, distinct from the dated ranger programs.

None of this requires planning a trip. It requires knowing the park's calendar the way you'd know a neighbor's schedule, which is the kind of familiarity that only comes from being close enough to check it on a whim.

Living Close Enough to Know the Difference

That's the real distinction between a visitor's version of this stretch of Singer Island and a resident's. Visitors show up on a Saturday and hope for the best. Residents at Water Glades check the tide table before deciding whether it's a Munyon Island day or a Burnt Bridge day, know the west launch has been closed for years, and can tell you the turtle walks wind down before the month is out. It's not knowledge you can get from a brochure. It comes from being close enough, for long enough, that the park's rhythms become part of your own.

If you're weighing what it's like to actually live at this end of the island, or you're curious what a home in a building like Water Glades is worth in today's market, Kathy Lewellen has spent two decades learning this coastline building by building. Request Your Home Valuation & Market Consultation to talk through what a move to this stretch of Singer Island actually looks like, tide charts included.