Escape the Holiday Hustle and Bustle with a Nature Break
A rush of traffic dodges the messy construction zones on US Highway 19/98 on Florida’s Nature Coast. Every red light brings another pour of cars onto the already crowded road. A minivan, a red jeep, a truck laden with lumber. Ahead, more orange cones and a giant illuminated arrow funnels the traffic into a more compact road.
Thanksgiving has passed and Christmas looms ahead, with it comes the holiday bustle. Visitors fill the gaps between the locals with colorful license plates and luggage-packed vehicles. Noise. Traffic. Congestion – and not just from that sinus infection you picked up at the last family gathering.
You may feel like you’ve reached the end of your tether. Now is the time to distance yourself from the stressors, take a detour off that busy highway, and immerse yourself in nature.
Nature Break at Salt Marsh Trails in the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge
The noisy traffic of 19 begins to fade as you drive down West Yulee Drive. By the time you reach South Mason Creek Road, the tension begins to seep away from your shoulders. The space between houses gets wider, the trees and bushes taller, and then you are there, sliding into one of the parking spaces on either side of the big metal gate at the Salt Marsh Trails.
Salt Marsh Trails is a hiking area in the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. This 31,000-acre wildlife refuge along Florida’s west coast stretches from the Homosassa River in the north to 12 miles south of the Chassahowitzka River, past Chassahowitzka Bay to Raccoon Point. 76% of this NWR is a designated wilderness area, preserved and protected from development. The Salt Marsh Trails area is located in the northern portion of the NWR.
Comprised of three trails, each a portion of a mile, this green space makes the perfect place for a brief holiday nature escape.
Hiking the Salt Trails by Mason Creek in Homosassa
At the entrance, there are three trails, the Salt Marsh Birding Trail to the left, the Red Cedar Trail to the right, and the main trail, the widest, cutting through the center to Lastinger Tower. You choose the ¼ mile Lastinger Tower Trail, a wide flat path through a maritime hammock. Palmetto fronds and oaks flank the trail, infusing the air with fresh oxygen.
It’s a quarter mile to the tower. Only a quarter mile, but you find yourself surrounded by nature.
You pause to look up through the thick canopy. Wiry air plants, tinged with tiny purple and red flowering tips cling to the crooks of the live oaks, like 70’s rockstars with punk hairdos. These healthy giant air plants are bromeliads and related to the pineapple.
Resurrection ferns adorn the thicker oak branches, covering them like a living blanket, their delicate fronds basking in the rays of sun that find their way through the canopy. During times of drought, these ferns turn brown and curl up, lying dormant until the wetter season, when they emerge, forming a lush green covering – thus giving them their unique name.
You spot a structure through the trees to the left. The Knudsen Pavilion. Picnic tables beneath a newly constructed pavilion with a shiny tin roof. It makes you wish you had grabbed a pub-sub at the Homosassa Publix on your way here. Maybe next time. You start planning the perfect picnic in your head and then stop as the trail opens up. Sunlight. Blue skies. Miles and miles of salt marshes.
Ahead a muddy track leads directly to Mason Creek. A rustic paddle launch entrance. And beside it, a two-story wooden observation tower beckons.
Lastinger Observation Tower
Lastinger Tower overlooks Mason Creek and the salt marshes. You bound up the steps to drink in the view. Tidal creeks cut winding paths through the greying islands of spiny rushes, leading out towards the Gulf of Mexico.
The whirr of a loud motor interrupts your thoughts, making you cringe, until you see an airboat whip through the creek, gliding across the water. The captain waves at you as he drives past the tower, ferrying his passengers out to explore the wetter regions of the wildlife refuge. The majority of the Chassahowitzka NWR is wetlands – brackish marshes, estuaries, and saltwater bays only accessible by boat.
The noise of the airboat fades, and you are left again with the twitter of birds and the chatter of crickets.
Salt Marsh Birding Trail & Animal Tracks
You breathe in the view and descend the tower. At the base, a sign directs the way to the Birding Trail, promising a ½ mile hike looping back to the entrance. You enter the swampy area that parallels the salt marsh, with views of the empty nesting tower among the grasses, awaiting occupants.
This trail takes you past hefty golden leather ferns, aka swamp ferns, and cabbage palms. Some of the palm tree tops look bare, twisted off from storms. The trail is dark and slick. Crabs dart into their holes near the marsh and an uprooted red cedar tree tells signs of a recent storm. The path gets muddier.
You notice tracks in the mud. Deer. Raccoon. Is that one an alligator? And another – much larger paw print, which you think might be a dog-friendly lab on an afternoon walk, maybe? Or a coyote? There are no shoe prints. You decide to tackle this trail on a drier day and turn back to the tower.
Red Cedar Trail
On the opposite side of the tower, by the kayak launch is Red Cedar Trail, a 1/3-mile path that also loops back to the trailhead entrance. This trail edges along Mason Creek before pivoting into the hammock. The ground gets muddy there as well. An impromptu nature escape, you aren’t prepared for a mud hike, so you head back to Lastinger Trail.
Brazilian Peppertree in Florida
A tree filled with red berries catches your eye. Birds love berries, but these are Brazilian Peppers, an invasive plant in Florida (there’s a sign, that’s how you know).
The Brazilian Pepper was introduced to Florida as an ornamental plant from South America in the 1840s. With rapid growth- it can reach heights of 30 feet. It forms a thick canopy that shades out the native plants, essentially ‘taking over”. A relative to poison ivy & sumac, it can be poisonous to humans. People allergic to poison ivy can have the same allergic reaction to the Brazilian Peppertree.
Back to the World
The ¼ mile hike back to your car goes easily. Birds. Salt marsh. Wild animal tracks. Cool plants. Somehow you feel a little lighter as you slide back behind the wheel of your car. Happier. Heck, maybe even healthier. It WAS exercise after all, wasn’t it? And with your nature break, you feel able to tackle your world again.
Immerse yourself in nature this holiday season with a short hike or nature break on Florida’s Nature Coast.
Things to Know Before You Go to the Salt Marsh Trails:
- The Salt Marsh Trails Trailhead can be found at 6112 S Mason Creek Road in Homosassa, Florida.
- This is a fee-free area with limited parking.
- Bring bug spray
- Visitors can hike, fish, and launch their paddle crafts (canoes, kayaks, SUP) from the launch point at Lastinger Tower (1/4-mile trek to launch point!)
- Don’t park in front of the gate or you will get towed.
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