Anastasia State Park

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Anastasia State Park is a great park close to the sights in the nation's oldest continuous city, St. Augustine, Florida. It's a great home base for swimming, hiking, and exploring ancient wonders. The park sits on Anastasia Island and covers about 1,600 acres of beach, tidal marsh, maritime forest, and ancient dunes. Locals call it South Beach, and the state has owned it since 1949.

What makes it special is the quarry. This is where the Spaniards dug the stone to build the Castillo de San Marcos. The park itself comes down to a few hiking trails, a campground, and a beach. Small, but it doesn't act like it.

The Park

Hiking, camping, swimming, or just standing outside on purpose: this small but mighty park has you covered.

Hiking

The park has a network of trails, and four of them are worth your time.

The Coquina Quarry Trail is a short walk to the old mine where the Spaniards pulled the rock for the Castillo de San Marcos. Workers were hauling blocks out of these pits more than 300 years ago. Coquina is a compressed stone made of sand and mollusk shells, which makes it essentially a seashell casserole that hardened into a building material. It was used heavily in early construction across the state, and most of the 36 surviving colonial homes in St. Augustine have walls built from stone dug at these quarries. The quarries have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972, which makes this a hole in the ground with federal paperwork.

The Ancient Dunes Trail is a short .7-mile loop through ancient sand dunes and shady, overgrown maritime forest.

The Marsh Trail takes you through a brackish marsh, with boating and fishing close by. Bring binoculars. The marsh along Salt Run is home to wading birds, including roseate spoonbills, and the park sits on the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail.

Finally, you can simply stroll down the beach to Conch Island. It hasn't technically been an island since 1964, when Hurricane Dora dropped enough sand to attach it to Anastasia Island. Even the islands here get absorbed into the mainland eventually.

The Beach

The beach is similar to what you'd find in many state parks across the state: wide, sandy, and four miles long. It offers swimming and boating, and the park has some of the better surfing on Florida's east coast. Lifeguards here are seasonal, so don't count on one being on duty. Swim at your own risk. You can also fish for saltwater species from the beach or in the Salt Run marsh. At certain times of year you might spot sea turtles or gopher tortoises on the dunes. The dunes are also home to the endangered Anastasia Island beach mouse, so stay off the dune vegetation and watch your step.

Aquatic Safety

A quick note on aquatic safety. The leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 4 in Florida is drowning. It's also one of the highest risks for adults and older children, second only to car accidents and heart disease. Swimming at the beach is fun, but it can also be dangerous. Pay attention to the flags and to the risks of each body of water. Swim with a buddy, know your limits, and if you don't know how to swim, don't get in the water.

Beach Flags

Beaches use colored flags to mark hazards in the water. Check the flag before you check your sunscreen.

Flag What it means
Green Conditions are safe for swimming
Yellow Moderate risk
Red High risk
Double red Extreme danger. Do not swim!
Purple Dangerous marine life in the area, which could be jellyfish or maybe a shark

Rip Currents

Rip currents form between waves and pull a large volume of water back out to sea. If you get caught in one, it can drag you out past the breakers, which is a long way from where you meant to be. The best course of action is to not panic and swim parallel to shore. Once you're out of the current, swim back to shore diagonally, staying well away from it.

Other Water Hazards

Freshwater has its own hazards. Lakes and rivers can hide underwater obstacles that can grab you and keep you from surfacing. Florida also has dangerous wildlife, including venomous snakes, constricting snakes, alligators, and crocodiles. Always be aware of your surroundings, don't swim at dusk, and watch your children.

Camping

This park has some of the most amazing campsites I have ever seen at a state park. Almost every site is secluded and surrounded by dense coastal forest and scrub, all within a short walk or bike ride of the beach. That also means they fill up well in advance, especially on weekends and holidays. Book now at reserve.floridastateparks.org.

One heads-up: the St. Augustine Amphitheatre is nearby, and music can occasionally drift into the campground. Consider it a free concert you didn't ask for. When you're not camping or hiking, the Island Beach Shop and Grill sits at the end of the main park drive, and you can rent bikes inside the park and kayaks or paddleboards for Salt Run.

The Sights

Within a few miles of the park you'll find the Anastasia Lighthouse, a fun museum complex with an old lighthouse you can climb and explore. You'll also find the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, not to mention everything else in the nation's oldest city: restaurants, shopping, distilleries, exhibitions, and more. Each of these is getting its own post, so consider this the trailer.

Next up in the Florida series: Fort Matanzas.

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