For even more of our visit to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, head over and check out the full adventure on our YouTube video here.

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After our fantastic Beach day our vacation was quickly coming to an end. We had decided to take a trip south down the coast with our windows down and just enjoying a leisurely cruise. We made our way all the way down to an area called Ponce Inlet.

As we drove around we started seeing signed for a Lighthouse which I’m always a sucker for and love visiting. Coming from New Jersey we had plenty of Lighthouses and I really enjoy the history of them so we followed the signed to our destination.

The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was on quite large piece of property. There were quite a few different buildings nearby that were previously used as the dwellings for the three different keepers that used to live and work at the Lighthouse. They were all very preserved, but we were limited to only looking in through the windows as tours were not currently happening.

The lighthouse stands at a total height of 175 feet is one of the tallest in the state of Florida. It was constructed in 1887 and has guided mariners along the Florida coast for over 130 years. The Lighthouse was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998.

Thankfully the lighthouse was open and available for guests to who are interested in climbing the 203 steps to the top observation area.

This is a very high spiral staircase that is pretty narrow. There are some flat platform areas that can be used to allow other visitors to pass by when going in the opposite directly. But this can be quite a daunting climb for some.

However once you get to the top the circular observation area that wrapped around the lighthouse gives some breathtaking views of the surrounding area. After that long climb up we were not in a rush to head back down and really took our time to check out the views.

Eventually it was time for us to start heading back down to ground level. It was a little easier going down, but as much as you may want to I would highly recommend you don’t look down if you are at all susceptible to vertigo or just not a fan of heights.

Once back on the ground we headed towards the exit of the property which as any good road side attraction does, put us right into a gift shop.

In one corner of the store I can across the pressed penny machine I knew was here somewhere. In a couple of the lighthouses in New Jersey the machines are actually inside the Lighthouse, but here they kept it at a safe distance inside the store.

I have used quite a few of these Penny Press style machines in the past and they work really well. This one really stuck out to me because of the cool picture of the lighthouse on the front of the cabinet. This was surrounded by some nice intricate swirling wood work and really made it stand out.

The set of penny designs that were available here included a couple different views of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, a semi-generic I Love you! design that included Ponce Inlet FL at the bottom, and the last design was showcasing one of the famous black and white cats that have lived at the Lighthouse for over 100 years.

I was so happy that I could check off another great lighthouse from my list. The history behind these amazing structures is always just a guilty pleasure of mine, and as I said even thought I don’t like heights I can’t resist going up to the top and just taking in some amazing views. This was our last full day in the Daytona Beach area and we would be checking out the next day from our hotel but had one last thing to do before we headed back home. Stay tuned for the post about our last day of Vacation and one final set of pressed pennies.