PARKS & OUTDOORS
Anastasia State Park
St. Johns County · Atlantic Coast
Seventeen hundred acres on Anastasia Island with four miles of beach and the quarry the Castillo was cut from.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The park covers 1,700 acres just across the bridge from downtown St. Augustine and takes in four miles of Atlantic beach, reached by boardwalk over the dunes. It was established in 1949. Behind the beach are ancient dunes, tidal salt marsh, and maritime and upland hammock, with Salt Run cutting in from the inlet, and that variety is what brings the birds. The old Spanish coquina quarries lie inside the park, listed on the National Register: this is the ground the stone for the Castillo de San Marcos came out of between 1672 and 1695, cut by hand and barged across the bay. A campground sits among the trees rather than out in the open, which makes it more comfortable than most beach camping in Florida. Salt Run is protected enough for kayaking and windsurfing when the ocean side is rough. Fishing, hiking and swimming fill out the rest, and the park opens from eight to sundown all year
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