Salt Run Trail

The Salt Run Trail follows the western shore of Salt Run—a shallow tidal lagoon between Anastasia Island and the mainland Matanzas River—providing some of the best shorebird and wading bird viewing accessible on foot in St. Johns County. Salt Run is sheltered from Atlantic wave action by the island's dunes and maritime hammock, creating calm, productive estuarine shallows where seagrass beds and exposed oyster bars shift with the tidal cycle. The lagoon is a designated paddling trail and the shoreline path provides terrestrial access to its best wildlife areas.

Reddish egrets perform their distinctive canopy-wing hunting behavior in the shallows, and roseate spoonbills increasingly winter in the lagoon. Brown pelicans dive offshore with prehistoric efficiency, and royal terns work the surface. The lagoon's north end accesses the park's kayak and canoe launch, where paddlers push off into the calm water. American oystercatchers probe the oyster bars exposed at low tide, and willets probe the wrack line on the beach margin. The turnaround point at the lagoon's southern access channel provides views across to the Castillo de San Marcos fortress on the mainland—a UNESCO World Heritage Site visible from the trail's endpoint.