While a short loop, the Ancient Dunes Trail is one of Florida’s most interesting nature trails. Coastal hammock often blankets ancient dunes, but these dunes are unusually steep.
Making full use of a deeply folded landscape blanketed with an old-growth canopy, the footpath uses both staircases and grades for a delightfully hilly hike.
Curving staircaseThe trail has always spanned the forest separating two sections of the campground. A relocation of the original trailhead has made it easier for day users to find.
A new connector trail from this trailhead also makes it possible to daisy-chain this hike with the Marsh Trail, which follows the wetlands along Salt Run.
Crossover Trail to the Marsh TrailResources
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Overview
Location: St. Augustine
Length: 0.7 mile loop
Trailhead: 29.868987, -81.275299
Address: 300 Anastasia Park Rd, St. Augustine
Fees: $8 per vehicle
Restroom: At the Salt Run picnic area and beach parking
Land manager: Florida State Parks
Phone: 904-461-2033
Open 8 AM to sunset. Leashed dogs welcome. Bring bug spray as mosquitoes can sometimes be a problem.
Directions
From downtown St. Augustine, cross the Bridge of Lions to follow A1A south. Just past the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, the road curves; the park entrance is on the left. Continue along the park road past the picnic grove and paddlesports concession to the campground entrance. Turn right and pass the dump station. Make the next right. A parking corral is on the right before a crosswalk.
Hike
Use the crosswalk to cross the campground road to start your hike, the route confirmed by a large sign for the Ancient Dunes Trail.
A short straightaway tunnels into the welcome shade of the coastal hammock. Reach a T intersection with a sign and make a left.
Start of the trailPalm fronds glisten in splashes of sunlight as the footpath weaves beneath ancient sand live oaks, their wizened branches knitting a canopy above.
Old-style metal interpretive markers catch your attention as they gleam: first up, the classic “Who Rakes The Leaves?”
Shady canopy in the hammockWind past immense live oaks and under branches furred with green, swaddled in resurrection ferns and bromeliads.
A tenth of a mile in, a side trail leads to a clearing with a very large live oak. The footpath curves and passes a bench while burrowing deeper into the hammock.
Large live oak in a clearingThe canopy thins, likely due to prior hurricane damage, as there are still large oaks overhead but with less leaves.
Walk beneath towering southern magnolia and reach a T intersection at 0.2 mile with the former trailhead for the Ancient Dunes Trail to the left.
Turn right at the former trailheadFollow the arrow on the sign to continue into a leafy understory in the coastal hammock.
Reach the first staircase on the loop and ascend, climbing to the top of the ancient dune and curving steeply down the other side.
Curving staircase off a duneThe drop continues into a descent through a bowl of ancient dunes hidden within this mature forest. Look down to the right for the full effect.
Continue around a curve and keep descending on sidehill to a lower elevation, where the trail straightens out.
Sidehill along an ancient duneIn the deep shade of this corner of the hammock, beautyberry sparkles when sunlight dapples across it.
At an interpretive sign in front of a live oak, note the hollow in its trunk. It’s here we’ve seen witches’ butter, an orange brain-shaped fungus, sprout.
Live oak with hollowPalm fronds press closely in a low-lying area where the earth underfoot is dark. Mind the roots of saw palmetto underfoot.
Curve past a tall pine, scrub oaks and yaupon holly growing along a tight pine-needle strewn corridor.
Saw palmetto corridorReach the next ancient dune at 0.4 mile and clamber up the staircase to its peak. The dune is broader on top than the last one.
Descend around a sharp curve into a shady corridor, surrounded by the curves of the landscape of these forested dunes.
Bench on the bluff of a duneWalk beneath more ancient oaks before a climb to a peak with a bench on its crest. Turn sharply past it atop a bluff.
Curve downhill past a tall, interpreted southern magnolia as the footpath loses elevation steadily down a straightaway.
Straightaway descentRound some sharp curves before passing a truly magnificent slash pine tree standing out above the rest of the tree canopy.
Continue the roller-coaster effect through the forested dunes, with dips and curves in the landscape.
Towering slash pineEmerging from the thicket of trees, it’s a surprise to come to a trail junction at 0.6 mile with a marked side path to campsites 1-105.
Make a right turn to stay on the loop, descending through another bowl in the dunes hidden under the live oak canopy.
Trail junctionCurve downhill beneath the oaks amid large clumps of saw palmetto, then up and over a small ridge to an oak-shaded corridor.
Pass the opposite side of the towering pine, a social path under it now obvious as a shortcut. A bower of oaks provides the final touch as you seal the 0.7 mile loop.
Exiting the loopTurn left to exit to the trailhead. To continue to the Marsh Trail, take the crosswalk past the parking area and cross a bridge along a mangrove-lined creek.
Turn left at the park sidewalk and follow the park road towards the exit to cross it to the Marsh Trail trailhead at the sign.
Anastasia State Park Marsh Trail On the Marsh Trail at Anastasia State Park, sea oats sway in the breeze alongside a scenic path flanked by tall dunes and a saltwater lagoon teeming with wildlife. Trail Map
Explore More!
Learn more about Anastasia State Park
Anastasia State Park Anastasia State Park is windswept and sandy, with an arc of beach that stretches four miles to Matanzas Inlet, curving in on itself to face the ancient city of St. Augustine. Video
Hiking the Ancient Dunes Trail
Slideshow
See our photos from the Ancient Dunes Trail
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