Beach Access Trail – Anastasia

Distance: 0.5 miles Elevation Gain: 10 ft Difficulty: Easy Type: Out-and-Back Surface: Coquina shell path, beach sand Activity: Hiking Best Season: Year-round Typical Time: 0:20 Fee: $8/vehicle Dogs: Yes, on leash Permit: No

The Beach Access Trail crosses Anastasia Island from the parking area to the Atlantic Ocean beach, passing over the island's dune system and emerging at one of Florida's most geologically fascinating shorelines. Anastasia Island's beach is underlain and periodically exposed by coquina—a sedimentary rock formed from compressed shells of coquina clams (Donax variabilis) cemented by calcium carbonate. The ancient coquina outcrops exposed at low tide are estimated to be 100,000 to 120,000 years old, formed during the Pleistocene Epoch when sea levels were higher.

Spanish colonists quarried this coquina from nearby Rattlesnake Island beginning in 1672 to construct the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine—the oldest masonry fortress in the continental United States. The resilience of coquina to cannon fire made it an exceptional fortification material; cannonballs would embed in rather than shatter the porous rock. The beach walk itself follows the southern shoreline past these exposed outcrops, where the distinctive honeycomb texture of the fossiliferous rock is clearly visible. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on this beach from May through October, and marked nests are visible during summer. Wilson's plovers and American oystercatchers forage on the rock platforms at low tide.