4 Best Sights in Northeast Coast, Florida

This is the place to come to get the lay of the land in other eras. Not to be missed are Ice Age–era creatures such as a fully articulated mastodon, giant ground sloth, and saber-tooth cat, all of which lived in the area. The Windover Archaeological Exhibit features 7,000-year-old artifacts indigenous to the region. In 1984, a shallow pond revealed the burial ground of more than 200 native people who lived in the area about 7,000 years ago. Preserved in the muck were bones and, to the archaeologists' surprise, the brains of these ancient people.

Hands-on activities draw in children, who love the Imagination Center, where they can act out history or reenact a rocket flight. Newer displays include The Hubble Space Telescope: Eye on the Universe, provided by the Kennedy Space Center. Nature lovers appreciate the museum's butterfly garden and the nature center, with 22 acres of trails encompassing three distinct ecosystems—sand pine hills, lake lands, and marshlands.

Opened in 2018 and named after Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, this museum is designed to inspire future inventors and creators with hands-on activities and learning opportunities for children. Permanent exhibits explore the solar system, space and time, and inventors. The Sweat Solution tells the story of how Cade used science and creativity to make Gatorade. At First Flush highlights the history of soap, toilets, and other bathroom essentials.

On the campus of the University of Florida, the state's official museum of natural history (and the largest of its type in the Southeast) has more than 40 million specimens of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, mollusks, reptiles, vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, recent and fossilized plants, and archaeological and anthropological artifacts. It also holds one of the world's largest collections of butterflies and moths. Permanent exhibits include those on Florida's geological and fossil history, its early Indigenous peoples, and the biodiversity of its flora and fauna. Enjoy live butterflies at one of many feeding stations, experience a life-size limestone cave, and see fossil skeletons of a mammoth and mastodon from the Ice Age. The museum also features changing temporary exhibits.

MOSH, as it's known locally, is home to the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, one of the largest single-lens planetariums in the United States, where the resolution of the shows (an additional $6) is significantly sharper than that of the biggest HDTV on the market. The planetarium also presents 3-D laser shows to accompany its ever-popular Cosmic Concerts ($12).

MOSH itself has a variety of interactive exhibits and programs that include Health in Motion: Discover What Moves You, where you'll gain a better understanding of your body in motion, as well as health and nutrition; JEA Powerplay: Understanding our Energy Choices, where you can energize the future city of MOSHtopia as you learn about the science of energy and alternative power sources; the Florida Naturalist's Center, where you can interact with northeast Florida wildlife; and the Currents of Time, where you navigate 12,000 years of northeast Florida history. Atlantic Tails: Coastal Creatures of Northeast Florida has a life-size sculpture of a right whale and an intertidal touch tank. Nationally acclaimed traveling exhibits are also featured.  Before visiting, be sure to purchase your timed-entry tickets online.