WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge
Wakulla County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
The refuge headquarters and the road down to the lighthouse are both in Wakulla County, about twenty-five miles south of Tallahassee.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Turn off US 98 at Newport onto Lighthouse Road, County Road 59, and drive three miles to the visitor center at 1255 Lighthouse Road. It opens Monday through Friday from eight in the morning until four, and on weekends from ten until five, closed on federal holidays. Entry is five dollars a vehicle, one dollar on foot or by bicycle, and twenty-five dollars for a yearly pass. Past the visitor center the road runs on through pine flatwoods and out across a chain of managed pools and dikes to the coast. Those pools are the birding. Waterfowl pack in through the winter, and the dikes let you walk straight out among them. Trails range from the Headquarters Pond Trail at under a quarter mile to Stoney Bayou at six and a half miles and Deep Creek at twelve. About fifty-six miles of the Florida National Scenic Trail run through the refuge. Parts of it open to quota hunts in fall and winter. Fishing is allowed; crabbing in the pools is not
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