Protecting 509 acres in an otherwise crowded urban area, Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park is located along US 17 across from Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
It was once part of the military reservation, originally Camp Johnston during WWI. The Navy leased this land to the city in 1979.
While the Nature Center and its surrounding gentle trails are focal points, the Island Hiking Trail is a rough gem that winds through the northern third of the preserve.
Nature Center complexThe trail has numerous unmarked cross-trails and firebreaks, so it takes some way-finding savvy.
There are also some habitats to avoid wading in. The beauty of the forest, however, makes this adventure worthwhile.
This hike is listed in the first edition of Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State as “Westside Regional Park”. The park was renamed since publication.
Sign at start of the trailResources
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Overview
Location: Ortega
Length: 1.9 miles
Trailhead: 30.237783, -81.699003
Address: 7000 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville
Fees: Free
Restroom: At the nature center
Land Manager: City of Jacksonville
Phone: 904-255-6877
Open sunrise to sunset. Leashed dogs welcome; pick up after your pet. Use precautions for personal safety when visiting an urban park.
The park remains in the flight path of jets landing and departing NAS Jacksonville: expect noise from low-flying aircraft just above the tree canopy.
Directions
From Interstate 295 at Orange Park, exit onto US 17 north. Drive 2.8 miles north, taking the left lane for a turn at the traffic light to enter the park on a circular drive. Follow the park road nearly a mile, passing the mountain bike complex, picnic area, and dog park. The road ends in a loop in front of the nature center, with parking just south of the loop.
Hike
Follow the paved path through the piney woods picnic area. At a long bridge over a drainage area, the redbud, sweetgum, and red maple trees show their colors in fall.
The boardwalk gives way to a natural footpath of pine duff and leaves, and your adventure begins.
Watch for blazes and orange flagging tape as you walk. The footpath is broad and easy to follow, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security. It’s a maze in here!
Broad path near the startWhen you reach the first trail junction , keep left to stay on the trail’s outer perimeter.
This path scrambles down an undulating landscape through pine straw and pine cones, down a small bluff into a low-lying area.
Beware of stumps, knobs, and roots hiding under the soft pine duff at an interface between hardwoods and floodplain. Both yaupon holly and wax myrtle stand along the footpath.
Mixed forestJust after a quarter mile is a large, majestic slash pine with saw palmetto at its base.
At 0.3 mile, an unblazed but well-defined trail comes in from the left at a spot with chunks of concrete strewn next to an old metal barrel.
Continue straight ahead. Another enormous pine has branches reaching down into the understory.
Trail junctionAt the junction with a blue-blazed trail, turn left to follow the orange blazes. There’s a short stretch where both blue and orange blazes are painted on top of each other.
It can be a little confusing, since the blue vanishes into the understory. Stay with the orange blazes.
Make a quick left and come to a T intersection with a broad, unmarked trail to the right. Turn left, staying with the blazes.
Thicket of treesThe vegetation, with bay and magnolia trees signals the edge of the floodplain. Cross an old road at around 0.4 mile and a big puddle to skirt.
There is a marsh off to the right. There’s a reason this is called the Island Trail. It’s headed to the island amid the marshes of the Ortega River floodplain.
At a half mile, come to a junction where the broad trail heads straight into a large body of dark, uninviting water, and a narrow trail goes to the left.
Head left into the floodplain forest, where fungi cling to fallen logs. The sloppy, gunky muck of the footpath is courtesy of overflowing wetlands.
Soggy areaCurve away from the wetlands and up into the slash pines. At a junction with another unmarked trail, skip it and stay with the broader path.
Arrive at a T intersection. Turn left to follow the orange blazes again, and reach the “Island Loop” sign and a junction at 0.7 miles.
Follow the broad path straight ahead into scrub habitat, a delightful find on the island’s high ground.
The crooked branches of rusty lyonia arch overhead, entangled with sand live oaks and water oaks. It’s a straight shot down this section of trail.
Scrub corridorNearing the Ortega River floodplain, note the floodplain forest’s colorful leaves beyond the screen of scrub.
Jog to the right down another long, straight corridor with a very tall slash pine standing overhead.
Gopher tortoises sometimes graze amid a gauntlet of blueberry bushes. Watch your step for older burrows.
Edge of the islandThe trail leaves the scrub and again becomes a zigzagging pine duff path through the pines and oaks.
It’s obvious now that you’re on an island, since there is a line of brightness off to the left through the trees, with cypress trees rising from the edge of the floodplain.
The trail curves to fit the north rim of the island, with the floodplain beyond defined by cypress rising behind the cabbage palms.
Take the left fork at the next junction, staying with the orange blazes that lead along the island’s rim.
The footpath zigzags back and forth between clumps of saw palmetto before transitioning back into scrub. At 1.1 mile, come to the end of the Island Loop.
Top of the Island LoopStraight ahead is an unmarked trail that you’re welcome to explore – keep your bearings! – but to exit, you must turn left.
Down this straightway into the pines, you passed the T junction from before. Continue forward here, and again when you see another side trail at the base of a large loblolly pine.
As the path widens, ignore yet another side trail, this one to your left. Straight ahead, cross the bouncy boardwalk at 1.3 mile, and pass the firebreak to your right.
BoardwalkAt the next right, follow the orange blazes up ascending a natural staircase of roots. Passing a bench, the trail quickly jogs left and away from it.
Passing another side trail to the right, you may hear the sounds of helicopter training across the street at NAS Jacksonville.
The trail swings into a broad depression, perhaps a canal or road in older times, and then scrambles up a low mound into the forest to plunge into a wall of bamboo.
Bamboo groveAt 1.5 mile is another bench. The next T intersection is the final major choice to make along the hike. Turn right.
Emerge at that original unmarked intersection with the concrete and barrel. Turn left.
Scrambling up and over the undulations at the edge of the floodplain forest, return to the small bluff where the loop began, at 1.8 miles. The orange blazes come in from the left.
Turn right to cross the boardwalk and exit through the picnic area, completing a 1.9 mile hike.
Among the pinesTrail Map
Explore More!
Hike the Tower Trail at Tillie K Fowler Regional Park
Tillie K Fowler Regional Park Explore 509 acres of woodlands along the Ortega River basin on trails extending from the Nature Center complex at this beautifully-forested Jacksonville park.Slideshow
Our photos from the Island Hiking Trail
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