While spending 48 hours exploring Jacksonville, Florida, a local recommended seeing Boneyard Beach. Intrigued by the name alone, I was all in for what felt like a local’s best kept secret. This surprising spot feels like a completely different world from the nearby city. It’s Jacksonville’s most unusual beach, and probably the most unique in Florida.
Getting There:
Boneyard Beach is in Big Talbot Island State Park, just south of Amelia Island. Use address of 12157 Heckscher Drive to get to the trailhead. Once parked and facing the beach with road to your back), the shoreline access trail is on your left. It’s marked but a little hidden.
Trail Stats:
It’s a 0.5-mile hike to the beach for a 1-mile round trip hike. Add as much mileage as you want on the beach made up of 3 miles of shoreline along Nassau Sound.
My friend Adeina and I did this hike after visiting Kingsley Plantation in the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. It’s about a 20 minute drive between the two. As we took off on the easy sandy trail through the thick coastal vegetation, we quickly realized bug spray was an excellent idea. The hike is only a half-mile so we arrived at the beach in under ten minutes, even at a leisurely pace.
As the trail opens up to the shoreline, you quickly see why it’s called Boneyard Beach. Bleached oak trees are scattered along the sand like something straight out of a sci-fi flick. They’re eeriely resemble elephant carcasses. Most of the driftwood is within a one-mile stretch, but there is three miles of shoreline littered with the tree bones. As we wandered, we marveled at the gnarly driftwood, and couldn’t stop taking pictures of nature’s ruggedly beautiful artwork created over time bleached and smoothed by the sun, sand, and wind. The reason for the bleached oaks is from the channels deepening, filling in, and shifting around the barrier island over the past few hundred years causing the trees to fall. But, they now served an important role as absorbers of hurricanes and other storms to ultimate protect Jacksonville. The buffering effect of Boneyard Beach helps to slow further erosion protecting the intricate root system of the forest you hiked through and more upland areas of the barrier island. This wild and undeveloped beach ultimately protects Jacksonville from storm impacts and extreme sea level rise.
Artistic and nature photography buffs will get lost in the mesmerizing bleached oaks. It’s also a natural playground for kids…and adults who love to climb. As you’re exploring, keep an eye out for the knobby stumps so you don’t trip.
Author Jennifer Broome spent a week exploring the region around Jacksonville. Check out posts on Amelia Island and Florida’s Historic Coast for more fun near Jacksonville.
