Pats Wildways: Jacksonville Arboretum and Fort Caroline day trip

OK, folks, are you ready for a great day’s outing right in our neck of the woods? Here’s one for you. The Jacksonville Arboretum & Botanical Garden and Fort Caroline, part of the Timucuan Preserve, are near each other, just across the Dames Point Bridge from us and well worth a visit to both. How could I not have visited these unique places sooner?

My snowbird friend Diane is always game for an outside excursion during her too-short months here on Amelia Island, and we spend some time pondering our next winter day trip. The weather now is wonderful for hiking, so this activity often figures into our plans. We are both in our 70s and long hikes are beyond us, but it is amazing what even shorter walks can reveal about the nature around us.

So, recently we discovered the Jacksonville Arboretum and gave it a try. And what a fine place this is! For a $3 donation, a world of native trees and cultivated plants awaits you. Well-maintained trails cover a variety of habitats, including wetland, creeks, hardwood forests, and a large, well-aerated lake. There are restroom facilities and drinking water stations near the entrance. And best of all, there are well-placed benches throughout the property, inviting quiet places to ponder the scenery and enjoy the fresh air and blooming flowers.

The arboretum is on a site with a “dirty” past, an old mining effort, a place to illegally dump stuff, and a generally forgotten piece of property that is an interface between a wastewater treatment facility and neighborhoods. About 20 years ago, the potential of this site as an arboretum was recognized, encouraged by the city of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Electrical Authority and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and supported by largely volunteer efforts and donations.

When Diane and I walked around the arboretum, many things caught our eyes. Colorful bromeliads were blooming along the main paths. Large native oaks, hickories, hollies and other hardwood trees towered above us and a peaceful black water stream bisected the area, albeit with prominent signs saying that the water is bacteria-laden and not safe to enter. But that didn’t seem to bother the frogs that we only noticed in a small sinkhole bog when other visitors — longtime patrons of the place, it turns out —directed our attention to their heads poking up in the duckweed.

And then we were off to Fort Caroline, a part of the U.S. National Park Service’s Timucuan Preserve, which was only a few miles away. There is a visitor center at Fort Caroline that depicts the history and ecology of the entire preserve, which is spread across a number of sites around the area. Volunteers at Fort Caroline were quick to point out an amazing 10-foot-tall wooden owl totem that is nearly 1000 years old, said to be the largest pre-Columbian wood carving found in the southeastern United States.

The expansive views of the St. Johns River from Fort Caroline are on the widest part of the river and, the day we went, had manatees foraging along the shore. The fort itself is less than impressive — a recreated wooden stockade fence with a couple of cannons displayed for show. Apparently, there is no actual record of where the fort originally stood, and there are now efforts underway to rebuild this wooden fort somewhere else, further from the coastal erosion that now threatens it. But the views and access to the St. Johns River will happily remain.

To end this morning’s expedition, Diane and I headed to nearby Mayport to feast on the freshest of seafood at the large Safe Harbor Seafood Market and Restaurant. Any kind of seafood you might want is displayed and sold in a large market across the street from the restaurant. And the restaurant itself serves up the best local shrimp and fish available anywhere, some from the shrimp boats docked right next to it. A short, but always interesting, ferry boat ride brought us back over to Heckscher Drive on our side of the river for the scenic drive home through the Talbot Islands to Fernandina.

I hope this column gives you enough information to try this day trip yourself. But do it now before the weather heats up and the biting bugs take over for the summer. And have fun while the cool weather lasts.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com