An easy interpretive loop through a climax sandhill forest, the Woodland Nature Trail at Fort Barrancas is perched on a bluff above Pensacola Bay.
Its proximity to Forrest Sherman Field, home of the Blue Angels, means you’re likely to hear the roar of jet aircraft at from NAS Pensacola, which surrounds this National Park.
The trail is deeply shadedResources
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Overview
Location: Pensacola
Length: 0.5 mile loop
Trailhead: 30.34907, -87.29830
Address: 3182 Taylor Rd, Pensacola
Fees: Free
Restroom: At the visitor center
Land manager: National Park Service
Phone: 850-455-5167
Open Fri-Sun 9 AM – 4 PM. Leashed pets are permitted on the trails but not inside the fort or visitor center.
Blue Angels flyover at Fort BarrancasDirections
From I-110 in downtown Pensacola, follow US 98 west 1.4 miles. Veer left onto Barrancas Blvd (SR 272). Continue along it for 9.7 miles to Blue Angel Hwy (SR 173). Turn left. A little more than a mile later is the West Gate for Naval Air Station Pensacola. Have your drivers’ license or passport ready and tell the guard you are headed to Fort Barrancas. Continue 3.4 miles, passing the Pensacola Lighthouse and the National Naval Aviation Museum before turning in at the Fort Barrancas sign on the right.
Hike
From the visitor center, walk past the display of historic cannon to the trailhead sign. Follow the leaf-strewn pathway straight ahead into the dense forest.
Where the path splits, bear left for a clockwise circuit of the loop. Formerly sandhill and scrub, the forest has grown up as a thick grove of laurel oaks due to fire suppression.
Split in the trailHints of the original woodland remain, the glisten of magnolia leaves and the fluffy young sand pines trailside providing clues.
With its tiny sharp leaves, yaupon holly is an oversized presence in the understory. Young sand pines crowd the trail near a bench and interpretive marker at the crest of a ridge.
Climbing the ridgeDescend from this high point into a mix of sand pine and laurel oaks, deer moss thriving in a seafoam-colored spill of lumps across the pine duff at a curve.
An older sand live oak makes its presence known with a sextet of trunks rising from a central base.
Deer moss under the sand pinesThe loop reaches its farthest point and swings past a spidery-limbed sand live oak, the largest in the forest thus far.
The light beyond the trail is a glimmer off the bay beyond a Navy recreation area at the base of this natural bluff.
Sizable sand live oakFollow the long straightaway through the laurel oaks, with a sharp left jog when the trail draws within earshot of a road.
The pathway curves gently beyond that visual interruption, laurel oak thicket yielding to young sand pines for a stretch. Segue into a mixed forest of oak and sand pine.
Bench near the curve by the roadIt was here the roar of jet engines grabbed our attention directly overhead as the Blue Angels took off for practice over Pensacola Bay.
Passing a saw palmetto with an interpretive sign, continue down the straightaway to emerge at the trail junction and then the trailhead sign after a half mile.
The final stretchTrail Map
Explore More!
Learn more about Fort Barrancas
Fort Barrancas Part of the Third System of coastal defenses built in the 1840s by the Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Barrancas is the showy centerpiece of a National Park unit inside Naval Air Station Pensacola.Video
Slideshow
See our photos from this hike
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