Established in 1980 and named for the Flagler County legislator who “made recreation possible,” Wadsworth Park occupies a parcel donated by the developer that created Palm Coast.
An active recreation park with ballfields and courts, it also has a dog park, skateboard park, and playground.
Skateboard park just inside the entrance gatesThe park fronts a puzzle of estuary behind an island along Smith Creek, the Intracoastal Waterway through Flagler Beach.
A boardwalk once extended into the estuary, but we could find no evidence of it.
This half mile walk circles the southeast corner of the park, combining a boardwalk over a pond with a footpath through a hardwood hammock.
BoardwalkResources
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Overview
Location: Flagler Beach
Length: 0.5 miles
Trailhead: 29.478034, -81.143848
Address: 2200 Moody Blvd, Flagler Beach
Fees: Free
Restroom: At the trailhead
Land Manager: City of Flagler Beach
Phone: 386-313-4020
Open sunrise to sunset. Leashed dogs welcome; pick up after your pet.
Directions
From Interstate 95 exit 284 for Flagler Beach, drive east on SR 100 for 2.3 miles. The park entrance is on the left just before the bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway.
Hike
Park across from the tennis courts in front of the stand of pines surrounding the restrooms.
Just to the north, follow the split-rail fence on the other side of the park road to an entrance to a boardwalk.
Boardwalk entranceAccompanied by alligator warning signs, the boardwalk ascends above a pretty cove shaded by pond cypress.
Thick with cattails, the marshy end of the pond is where alligators tend to sun.
Alligator lying in the cattailsThe cypress-edged south end attracts herons and egrets to poke around its rim to feed.
Crossing open water towards the pines on the far shore, hover well above the pond on a broad deck, watching for wildlife.
Open water in the pondReaching the shoreline, turn right to circle the pond. A bench overlooks from a shaded terrace above it.
Meeting a dirt road, turn right to follow it along the east side of the pond. Another bench sits very close to the water.
Bench along the pondWhere the road swings right, bear left into an opening in the woods. This broad pathway enters a hardwood hammock on the bluff above the Smith Creek basin.
Deeply shaded by live oaks and southern magnolia, its canopy is crowned by tall slash pines. Slip past cabbage palms, following the obvious leaf-strewn path.
Hammock footpathThe pathway meets a power line easement at a T intersection. Used by anglers, the worn path to the left leads to the estuary’s edge under the SR 100 bridge.
Turn right on this path, walking the corridor up to the parking area outside the front gates.
Powerline easement pathAlthough originally here for the sake of fishing access, this parking area now serves as a trailhead for the north extension of the Graham Swamp Trail.
A sidepath from the park entrance leads west along SR 100 to intercept the trail at the north side of its showy bridge over SR 100.
Turn right and enter the park on a sidewalk, swooping out of the trees along the grassy expanse in front of the tennis courts to complete this half mile walk.
Looking towards Wadsworth Park from the Graham Swamp Trail bridgeTrail Map
Explore More!
Video
Hiking Wadsworth Park
Slideshow
See our photos from Wadsworth Park
Nearby Adventures
Graham Swamp Preserve A freshwater swamp forest less than two miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Graham Swamp Preserve is where Bulow Creek rises to flow south.
Betty Steflik Preserve Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve protects 320 acres of mangrove marsh, mud flats, and coastal uplands fronting downtown Flagler Beach.
Graham Swamp East Hiking Trail A surprisingly rugged hike along a ridgetop threads between two sides of a mountain bike loop on the eastern side of Graham Swamp Preserve.
Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park History and natural beauty meet on a 1.4 mile hike under a dense canopy of ancient live oaks to the ruins of one of Florida's oldest sugar mills.
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