Spanish Pond, Timucuan Preserve

On May 1, 1562, a party of French Huguenots led by Jean Ribault landed at the bluffs of the St. Johns River, less than a mile from this spot.

Claiming this land for France, they established a colony in 1564, with more than 200 settlers protected by Fort Caroline.

Replica of Fort Caroline

The French settlers did not to live in peace for long, thanks to Spanish designs on “La Florida.”

The discontent on the new continent mirrored the ages-old rivalry between the Spanish and French in Europe.

Searching for gold and the Fountain of Youth, Ponce de León landed on the shores of what he called “La Florida,” and claimed it for Spain in 1513.

Spring at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in St. Augustine

When Ribault did the same for the French in 1562, establishing the first successful European colony in the New World in 1564, it did not set well with King Philip II of Spain.

The king considered the new land across the Atlantic Ocean the property of the Crown, given the many explorations of it by his conquistadors.

It didn’t help that the French used their new position to attack passing Spanish treasure fleets. Nor that the devoutly Catholic Spanish despised the French Protestants.

Spain saw the French claim to Florida as a challenge to their sovereignty

Don Pedro Menéndez de Aviles arrived in La Florida in 1565, charged by the king with both removing the French and starting a Spanish settlement.

After an attempt to chase the French fleet, he landed to the south of the St. Johns River at the Timucuan village of Seloy.

He named it St. Augustine for the feast day of the saint, when the land had first been sighted.

Marshes edging St. Augustine near the Spanish landing site

The French fleet sailed south to attack the Spanish incursion, but were caught in a hurricane and wrecked.

Menéndez planned an overland attack on the French colony. Five hundred Spanish soldiers marched north from St. Augustine to this site, led by Timucua guides.

Stalled by a downpour, the soldiers camped next to this marshy pond. The next morning, Menéndez led his troops to Fort Caroline, and tricked their way inside the ramparts at dawn.

Spanish Pond today

Spanish troops killed more than 150 French colonists, sparing only musicians and artists, women and children. It was the end of the colony.

Soon after, the Spanish discovered the survivors of the French fleet wrecked in the hurricane. They’d landed south of St. Augustine on what is now known as Matanzas Inlet.

Matanzas means massacre. At this inlet, Menéndez killed nearly 244 Frenchmen who refused to rebuke their faith and convert to Catholicism.

Fort Matanzas National Monument recalls this dark history. The fort was not built until after the massacre.

Spain wrested control of Florida, occupying the peninsula and Panhandle, building military roads and missions to convert the native inhabitants.

The Spanish ruled Florida for the next 150 years, until the British showed up to challenge their right to this coastline just south of their colony of Georgia.

Spanish Pond interprets the encampment of the attacking Spanish force. The mile long Spanish Pond Trail connects to the trails of the Theodore Roosevelt Area.

Trailhead at Spanish Pond

Resources

Resources for exploring the area

North Florida Panhandle Explorers Guide book cover

Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State book cover

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Overview

Location: Jacksonville
Length: 2.2 miles
Trailhead: 30.3842, -81.4956
Address: 12713 Fort Caroline Rd, Jacksonville
Fees: free
Restroom: across the road at Fort Caroline
Land manager: National Park Service
Phone: 904-641-7155

Open daily 9-5. Leashed pets welcome. Bicycles not permitted.

The trail is accessible from the parking area to the observation deck on the boardwalk.

Directions

From Interstate 295 in Jacksonville south of the Dames Point Bridge, take exit 45 for Merrill Rd E (SR 113). Follow Merrill Rd east to Fort Caroline Rd. Turn left. Continue 2.2 miles, turning left where Fort Caroline Rd meets Mt. Pleasant Rd. Follow Fort Caroline Rd another quarter mile. The parking area for Spanish Pond is on the right, directly across from the entrance to Fort Caroline.

Hike

The Spanish Pond Trail begins as a boardwalk within a dense, shady hardwood forest as it leaves the parking area.

As you see light at the end of the tunnel of vegetation, the boardwalk has a junction. Go straight ahead to the observation deck.

Boardwalk leading to Spanish Pond

The observation deck is the destination for the majority of the visitors to this historic site. Looking out across Spanish Pond, it’s easy to focus on the bustle of bird life.

It’s much harder to put this spot in its historic context, a bloody start to European settlement in Florida.

Spanish soldiers waded waist-deep across this pond to camp in the pine forest beyond it, plotting their morning attack on the French colony.

Egrets in the willows of Spanish Pond

Leave the observation deck and head into the woods. Make a left.

Blazed red on posts, the Spanish Pond Trail is hard-packed limestone under a bower of wax myrtle and dahoon holly.

Trail between wax myrtle and dahoon holly

A tunnel of wetland-loving shrubs and trees

Past a bench, cross a boardwalk flanked by slash pines. Dense masses of greenbrier and grapevines grow up over the saw palmetto understory in the pine flatwoods beyond.

The next boardwalk crosses a marshy part of Spanish Pond. Watch for the tall blooms of rabbit tobacco, and blackberry bushes yielding succulent blackberries in June.

A stretch of wooded boardwalk

Pass an old road as the trail meanders under sparkleberry and past Hercules’-club. At 0.4 mile, reach a bench at a break in a fence.

This is the boundary between park units, a turn-around point if you simply want to stay inside the Spanish Pond area.

The Spanish Pond Trail continues east through the gap into the Theodore Roosevelt Area. Hardwood hammock yields to oak scrub on the ascent.

Pass a trail marker just before reaching the first trail junction with the Timucuan Trail, which loops atop a massive midden along the riverfront.

Junction with the Timucuan Trail

Continue straight ahead along the red blazes of the Spanish Pond Trail. After a few moments, the trail makes a sharp left.

A black blazed side path leads downhill to the right through the saw palmetto. A brief side trip provides a peek at Alligator Pond, hidden in a screen of vegetation.

Hardwood hammock along the Spanish Pond Trail

Return to the Spanish Pond Trail and continue east, passing another bench beneath the richly textured canopy of the maritime hammock.

Dense with draperies of Spanish moss, oaks, red bay, and magnolias create a tunnel effect as the trail widens.

Nearing the end of the trail

At a mile, the Spanish Pond Trail ends in a clearing with a bench and a trail map, a four-way junction with the Willie Browne Trail and the Timucuan Trail.

Return the way you came for a 2 mile hike, or continue your exploration of this fascinating landscape by hiking one or both loops within the Theodore Roosevelt Area.

Trail map at trail junction

View of midden from above, flanked by marshes

Theodore Roosevelt Area

Hike 3.1 miles looping around an ancient midden fronting the St. Johns River on this scenic hike honoring the conservation legacy of Willie Brown, who preserved his coastal forest for us to enjoy.

Trail Map

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Learn more about Timucuan Preserve

Timucuan Preserve

Florida’s northernmost National Park encompasses a diverse collection of historic and cultural sites on both sides of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.