Sampling a variety of upland habitats alongside the Gulf Coast, the Scenic Path was the primary path to open in Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park way back.
A small picnic pavilion perches atop a scrub the place gopher tortoises browse. The panorama drops past right into a floodplain basin, the path skimming the ecotone.
Pine flatwoods, a hardwood forest, bayhead, and marsh add to the attention-grabbing gradient of habitats on this 0.6 mile loop.
A lush floodplain forestSources
Overview
Location: Port RicheyLength: 0.6 milesTrailhead: 28.3072, -82.7057Address: 10258 Scenic Dr, Port RicheyFees: $4 per vehicleRestroom: Composting toiletLand Supervisor: Florida State ParksPhone: 727-816-1890
Open 8 AM to sundown. Leashed canines welcome. Some components of the path could flood.
Instructions
Hike
Start on the Nature Path signal subsequent to the kiosk for a counterclockwise loop. A grassy path leads into the pine flatwoods.
Go a bench alongside the sting of a small marshy pond. Tall pines are sparsely scattered above a dense understory of noticed palmetto and gallberry.
Begin of pathTake the brief spur on the best, which ends at one other overlook on the marsh pond.
Transition from the pine flatwoods right into a hardwood hammock. Habitat range is among the delights of this loop.
Bench alongside marshGrass yields to soil as younger crimson maples, dahoon holly, and tall loblolly bay timber rise alongside on the sting of a bayhead.
Cinnamon fern thrives within the damp earth and crowds the sides of the footpath. Stroll previous an historic noticed palmetto with an extended trunk.
Historic noticed palmettoTowering loblolly bay timber and ferns remind you the bayhead parallels. Tall hardwoods combine in, together with hickories and oaks.
Cabbage palms fill within the decrease cover and the footpath turns into sandy. Southern magnolias, which bloom fragrantly in late spring, add dappled shade.
Lush hardwood hammockPassing by a low tunnel of palm fronds, emerge at an enormous dwell oak reaching up and thru the cover.
Cabbage palms attempt to attain by its cover for the sky. Pause on the bench, midway by the hike, to replicate on this forest glen.
Shaded benchCircling the oak, proceed right into a palm hammock the place the darkish, wealthy soil resumes and loblolly bay crowds the sides.
If the footpath is mucky wherever alongside the loop, this fern-rich stretch could also be fairly moist.
Fern-lined footpathWinding previous extra magnolias and holly amid the bounty of ferns, rises to the sting of the pine flatwoods.
This final brief stretch is within the solar, a mowed path between partitions of noticed palmetto and gallberry the place tufts of wiregrass peep out of open spots.
Pine flatwoods yield to washThe place diminutive sand dwell oaks crowd near the footpath, a gopher tortoise could amble down the cleared path.
Passing a cluster of noticed palmetto on lengthy, wholesome trunks, emerge between the composting rest room and the picnic pavilion, finishing a 0.6-mile stroll.
Picnic pavilionPath Map
Discover Extra!
Be taught extra about Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park
Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park House to one in every of Florida’s deepest springs, at 320 toes deep, Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park protects essential coastal estuaries alongside the Gulf Coast.Slideshow
See our photographs from this hike
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Official Web site
Creator of 45 books, Sandra Buddy established FloridaHikes.com in 2006 to develop on the sphere analysis she’d accomplished for her first six mountaineering guides. She has been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Florida Path Affiliation and the Florida Out of doors Writers Affiliation.
