Pine Island Trail

Description:

• Beginning between the cabin area and the lagoon, Pine Island Trail is a 4-mile one-way hike terminating at four primitive campsites located along the shores of St. Johns River. The trail begins along an old road bordered by a hardwood hammock that turns into a footpath. A variety of habitats are encountered along the trail including segments of pine flatwoods, cypress swamp, hardwood hammocks and grasses wetlands. Check with the park staff before attempting this trail. Several low-lying areas tend to fill with water making passage a waist-high water adventure.

  Visitors to Blue Springs State Park may also be interested in knowing that the park offers a tour boat that follows a 2.5-hour route that travels from the mouth of Blue Springs Run and through a canal that leads to Dead River. At Dead River, the tour boat picks up more tourists as it passes Hontoon Island State Park then circles back to Blue Spring Run. The trip includes a restaurant stop. Reservations can be made by calling the park office.

  Historians will find it interesting to learn that three-story Thursby House is located at the park. Before settling at Blue Springs, Louis Thursday abandoned New York to become a soldier in the Mexican War. After the war, he became one of the first successful citrus fruit growers and tradesman from Central Florida.