Penny Vaught Photo
With the overcast, rainy weather at St. Augustine Beach, Friday turned out to be a good day to drive about an hour north to Jacksonville to visit Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, one of the national parks in Florida.
Timucan was established to preserve the natural and cultural resources of a region that has over 46,000 acres of wetlands, forests, and coastal habitats. The National Parks ranger on duty had all sorts of information on the various sites to see and how to get there.
We didn’t see any alligators or river otters but the area has a lot of wildlife along with a lot of historical insights and places to visit — Kingsley Plantation, Fort Caroline National Memorial, and the Ribault Club. You can hike, canoe or view the natural beauty of the park.
It’s about a one-mile out-and-back walk to see Fort Caroline from the visitor center. The settlement was established by Frenchman René Goulaine de Laudonnière in 1564, the first European settlement in the United States that was built to serve as a trade center with natives of the area. A Spanish force in 1565 attacked the fort and killed most of the inhabitants to end the settlement.
The Fort Caroline National Memorial was rebuilt — even though there has been no exact site for the original settlement determined — to commemorate that early settlement.
It’s also easy to see the Ribault Monument, a reproduction of a monument placed at the mouth of the St. Johns River, then called the “River May,” by Ribault on May 2, 1562.
This makes for a great day trip from St. Augustine — and we stopped at Pusser’s in Ponte Verda on the way back to eat — and one we will make again because there was still a lot to do and see we did not manage to get done.
3 Responses
Jeez LV , you’re becoming a regular “Florida Man”. ( name given to one of thousands of press articles who don’t currently know the name of the moron about to be jailed ).
LV – didn’t mean to imply you were a moron bro.
no problem Paul