Anastasia State Park

Main Entrance

Two Time Gold Medal Winner

Nature Man brings you the only two time National State Park Gold Medal Winner beautiful  Anastasia State Park. I visited this park recently with my wife Alma, and my daughter Laura and her husband Marcus. Anastasia is the very best that Florida offers. Anastasia's beautiful beach attracts walkers, joggers, anglers, birders and Real Nature lovers. Quality beach breaks and seasonally warm water draw surfers and kayakers. Hike the beach and look for birds, dolphins and whales. Lifeguards protect the swimming area during summer months. Lifeguards were on duty the day we visited watching over swimmers in rough surf during red (high hazard currents) and purple (dangerous marine life) flags flying.

Location Directions
Anastasia can be found by traveling off I-95 on exit 311. Go east on State Road 207. Turn south on State Road 312. Turn east on A1A. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north to main park entrance. From US1 turn east onto State Road 312. Turn north on A1A. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north to main park entrance.

Salt Run Rentals

Real Fun in  ...the Real Florida
Bicyclists enjoy more than 4 miles of beach and several miles of park roads. Island Joe's sells beach sundries and camping and fishing supplies. It also rents bicycles, beach chairs and umbrellas, canoes, kayaks, sailboards and paddleboats. Lessons on various water sports are available. Island Joe's also features a tropical grill. Anastasia has three picnic areas with tables and restrooms. Anastasia's full-facility campground features 139 sites with electric and water hookups for RV's and tents. A RV Dump Station is available at no extra charge. Hot water showers and laundry facilities are available.

History
More than 300 years ago, sites like the coquina quarries located within Anastasia State Park were
busy with workers, mostly native Americans, hauling out blocks of rock. By the late 1700's  the Native American population had died out and quarry workers were usually enslaved Africans and captured Europeans. With hand tools, they hewed out blocks of the soft shellstone and pried the squares loose along the layers in the rock. The blocks were loaded onto ox-drawn carts then barged across Matanzas Bay to the town of St. Augustine. The blocks were used to construct the Castillo de San Marcos and many other buildings.

Coquina (Spanish for "tiny shellfish") is a component of the sedimentary limestone called the Anastasia Formation. The Anastasia Formation lies just below the surface of the ancient sand dunes and maritime hammocks that blanket the east coast of Florida. The formation extends from the northern end of Anastasia Island south some 250 miles to Palm Beach. Locally it reaches up to 30 miles inland to the west. It can be as much as 50 feet thick. The Anastasia Formation was formed when much of Florida's present coastline was under the sea. During the Pleistocene Epoch (1,800,000 to 10,000 years ago) worldwide glaciers repeatedly formed and melted, causing sea levels to rise and fall. On Florida's Atlantic coast, when the sea level was high, shells, quartz sand and clay accumulated as beaches and offshore bars. When the sea level dropped, these bars emerged as offshore islands. As rainwater seeped through the exposed deposits, it leached calcium carbonate from the shells. Calcium carbonate cemented the loose deposits together to form the coquina stone. The coquina deposits date back over 100,000 years.

The Anastasia Old Spanish Quarry

From its founding in 1565, St. Augustine had been a struggling outpost of Span's American empire. Spanish soldiers built their fort and their homes out of the plentiful pine trees and palmetto. Time after time their wooden settlement was destroyed by storms or burned by pirates and other raiders.  On Anastasia Island the Spaniards discovered a better building material-deposits of rock made of broken shells. As early as 1598, they dug enough to build a gunpowder storage magazine, but they lacked the workforce, the engineering skills and the tools to excavate enough for a large structure. In 1671 large-scale quarrying began in the stone pits. Coquina rock is relatively soft and easy to cut while in the ground and hardens when exposed to air. The Spanish learned to waterproof the stone walls by coating them plaster and paint. When besieging ships bombarded the Castillo, the walls simply absorbed the cannon balls. Coquina continued to be a prized building material for the Spanish, British (1763 - 83) and the Americans (1821).

Wildlife and Hiking Trail

Great Blue Heron

Numerous shore birds and song birds as well as osprey inhabit Anastasia. Great white egrets and snowy egrets, great blue heron, little blue heron, cormorants and marsh hawks are just a few of the many birds that inhabit the marsh. Near the camp store, a small parking lot signals the beginning of a 2 mile hiking loop - the Ancient Dunes Trail. The trail rambles up and down the backs of ancient dunes now forested with live oak and laurel oak, sabal palm, redbay, southern magnolia and some slash pine. The trail has another entrance at the far end of the loop.

On your visit I recommend that you bring plenty of water to drink, close-toed shoes appropriate for hiking in sandy soil, bug repellent, sun screen, binoculars, a camera and an Audubon Florida Field Guide for flora and wildlife identification purposes.

Proper trail etiquette is recommended:

• Dogs must be on a 6 foot leash and must be well behaved.
• Animal and plant life are protected. Do not kill, trap or molest any mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian. Do not pick, cut carve, break off limbs from or mutilate any plant life.
• Pack it in, pack it out.
• Take only pictures and memories

Nature Man photography brings you the following:

Beach Observation Platform Boardwalk
 

Atlantic Ocean

View of St. Augustine Lighthouse & Salt Run From Beach Parking Area

Beach Warning Flags

Morning Glory

North American Right Whales

Little Blue Heron