Ancient Dunes Trail
Anastasia State Park
One of the most excellent state parks near St Augustine/Ponte Vedra Beach is the Anastasia State Park. This Park is in St. Johns County. You can drive south on State Road A1A from Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra area. You will go through the lovely St Augustine – nation’s oldest settlement. After you cross a photogenic Bridge of Lions, you will need to drive about two more miles till you get to this lovely state park. The map below shows park’s location, and the second image shows park’s layout.
You pay the entry fees at the gate and then drive a short distance into the park before seeing a signpost demarking the trailhead.
Anastasia SP Wild Grass on Cloudy Day (Across the park road from the trailhead)
Anastasia State Park conserves 1593 acres of land. Florida Board of Forestry and Parks obtained the parkland on March 311, 1949, and later added more land.
There are eight different soil types found in Anastasia State Park. This park sits atop two geologic deposits. The first type, the Holocene deposits, were laid 4500 years ago. In contrast, the second type of deposit dates back to the Pleistocene age and comprises beach and bar, shelly sand, dune sand, coquina, and hard limestone. Park is a barrier island and has several dunes and adjacent swales.
Six-image Panorama with a 400mm 2.8ii lens.
There are eight different soil types found in Anastasia State Park. This Park sits atop two geologic deposits. The first type, the Holocene deposits, were laid 4500 years ago. In contrast, the second type of deposit dates back to the Pleistocene age and comprises beach and bar, shelly sand, dune sand, coquina, and hard limestone. Park is a barrier island and has several dunes and adjacent swales.
These ancient rolling dunes are ten to twenty feet high and support an ecosystem of a strand of trees – a hammock that makes up part of an evergreen hardwood forest.
Ancient Dunes Trail is a moderately easy loop trail and provides an excellent view of fine tree specimens. There is a bench to sit and enjoy the serenity of the surroundings.
However, there are two places where the flat path is interrupted by dunes. There are few wooden steps that take you across them.
The hammock surrounding the path has live oak, red-bay, and cabbage palm in its canopy, while yaupon holly, saw palmetto, southern magnolia, and wax myrtle plants make up the understory. American beautyberry puts up a gorgeous show with its showy and intensely purple-hued berries. This plant community is considered to be at high risk and may become extinct due to various factors – both natural and manmade. Laurel wilt has further made the matters worse by killing a significant amount of the large red bay trees.
Anastasia State Park is home to the largest population of the Anastasia Island beach mice. These animals are endangered. Shorebirds use this park as nesting place.
Trail can get busy on the weekends. Families frequent this trail.
Beutifull trees with gnarly limbs and colorful foliage adorn the area surrounding this trail, making it a lot of fun,
An exceptional barrier island serves as four miles of white sand pristine beach and one mile of estuary shoreline.
"Come to the woods; for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods."
- John Muir
Reference: Unit Management Plan: STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Division of Recreation and Parks June 17, 2016
https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/07-06-2016_Anastasia_AP.pdf
