You’re now back on the entrance trail into the loop system, the Rusty Lyonia Trail. Make a left at the next trail junction to walk the last perimeter trail, the other half of the Rusty Lyonia Trail. It scrambles uphill through a dense but short scrub forest of myrtle oak, rusty lyonia, and wax myrtle with scattered blueberries. It reaches the end of its loop at 2 miles. Turn left, facing the back of the environmental center, and walk down to the fence line behind it. Turn left and follow your footprints in the soft, beach-like sand back to the picnic pavilion, and through the tiny stretch of scrub to exit at the trailhead.
Florida scrub-jay
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Rusty Lyonia Trail. The shortest possible loop in the preserve is the Rusty Lyonia Trail, the first loop of the three. From the trailhead to the picnic pavilion and around the orange-blazed loop through the diminutive scrub is 0.4 mile. There is no shade along this route.
2. Red Root Trail. Hiking only the east side of the Rusty Lyonia Trail to connect to the loop of the Red Root Trail, and following the red blazes around that trail, nets a 1.6-mile subset of the longer hike.
3. Prairies and Rosemary Loop. We’ve used the unmarked cross-trails of the preserve to ramble into some of the prettier places, including a nice stretch of rosemary scrub just south of the second junction of the Red Root Trail and views of both prairies. That route, using the cross-trails we’ve marked on the map, creates a 1.8-mile balloon hike.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Blue Spring State Park, 2100 W French Avenue, Orange City, FL 32763 (1-800-326-3521, floridastateparks.reserveamerica.com)
Lake Ashby Park, 4150 Boy Scout Camp Road, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168 (386-736-5953, volusia.org), tents only.
Highbanks Marina & Camp Resort, 488 W Highbanks Road, DeBary, FL 32713 (386-668-4491, campresort.com)
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Total distance: 12.2 miles along a series of six trails ranging from 0.5 to 4.8 miles in length.
Hiking time: 5 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: Free access to the Visitor Center, Hammock Trails, Scrub Ridge Trail, and Pine Flatwoods Trail. $10 daily per-vehicle fee for Black Point Wildlife Drive and its hiking trails. Open sunrise to sunset, except for the Visitor Center, which is open Monday to Saturday, 8 AM–4 PM.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 28.6415, -80.7357 (Visitor Center), 28.6439, -80.7165 (Hammock Trails) 28.678159, -80.771798 (Cruickshank Trail). Additional trailhead GPS coordinates found in trail description.
Contact Information: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, 1987 Scrub Jay Way, Titusville, FL 32781 (321-861-5601, fws.gov/refuge/Merritt_Island); Merritt Island Wildlife Association, PO Box 2683, Titusville, FL 32781 (321-861-2377, merrittislandwildlifeassociation.org)
When John Glenn orbited the earth in February 1962, the American space program took a big leap forward. Missile testing was the goal when the first launch pads were built by the Air Force along Cape Canaveral, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic Ocean along Merritt Island. But after the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, the race was to prove human spaceflight was possible. In 1963, to expand space support facilities, the federal government acquired all of Merritt Island north of the Air Force station. It was not a wilderness at the time: along CR 3 was a patchwork of citrus groves and farms, waterfront homes, and even the residential communities of Wilson, Allenhurst, and Shiloh, with businesses and schools. Once the footprint of Kennedy Space Center was established—roughly 6,000 acres—the remainder of more than 140,000 acres on Merritt Island was placed under the control of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, becoming Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
As it’s been both our big backyard and our family’s workplace for the past six decades, we are well acquainted with the density and diversity of wildlife on the refuge. Alligators are commonplace along shorelines and anywhere else they can lie in the sun. Manatees frequent the many shallow coves. We’ve seen otters and bobcats, and armadillos are common in the denser hammocks. More than 350 species of birds have been identified, with our favorite personal sightings including greater flamingos, reddish egrets, big flocks of white pelicans, small flocks of roseate spoonbills, nesting bald eagles, and numerous families of Florida scrub-jays. Thanks to the ease of birding at the refuge, the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival launched in 1997 and remains one of the best of its kind nationwide.
The hiking trails of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge focus on birding opportunities, with the exception of the beautiful Hammock Trails, which no visitor should miss. There are seven distinct trails at the refuge, only two of which share a trailhead. We’ve grouped them by location. Do one, a few, or all of them. Of the longer trails, the Cruickshank Trail, Scrub Ridge Trail, and Pine Flatwoods Trail have extremely limited shade. You may want to tackle these trails earlier in the day. You will also want to have insect repellent handy for all of the trails. No matter which of these trails you are interested in, if you’ve not been to the refuge before, stop at the Visitor Center for an orientation to the refuge and an easy boardwalk loop that all ages will enjoy.
GETTING THERE
From I-95, take exit 220, Titusville, and follow FL 406 (Garden St) east for 8 miles. It crosses the Max Brewer Bridge to join a causeway to Merritt Island. To get your bearings, stop at the first paved parking area (28.6286, -80.7872) on the right, which provides both an overview of the refuge and a short walk to an observation platform, the first of many that birders stop for. This is where Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge begins. Narrow dirt roads (such as the one adjoining this parking area) lead to good fishing and birding spots throughout the refuge, but they are not maintained for passenger vehicle use and are generally not marked. If you decide to explore the back roads of the refuge, never go down a road or trail posted AREA BEYOND THIS SIGN CLOSED or UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY PROHIBITED.
After another 1.5 miles, you reach a turnoff for FL 402. Keep right. The entrance road to the Visitor Center is on the right after 2 miles. If the Visitor Center is closed, skip forward to the Hammock Trails, another 1.2 miles east.
THE HIKES
Visitor Center Boardwalk
At the Visitor Center (28.6415, -80.7357), take a walk through the exhibits before you pick up maps, checklists, and identification information to help you spot species. Walk out the back door to follow the accessible path onto the boardwalk. There are many benches along this 0.5-mile route, making it easy for visitors of all abilities to enjoy. At the first pond, you’re likely to see an alligator or two, sometimes sunning on the wooden platform. The boardwalk turns to follow the shoreline, easing through a butterfly garden behind the Visitor Center before reaching the shore of the next pond. Red-winged blackbirds call out from the cattails. Under the shade of sand live oaks, the boardwalk reaches a junction in the oak hammock. Stay right to come to a side boardwalk that leads to an overlook on a marsh. Looping around, the main boardwalk ends up back at the second pond, with an observation deck at the end offering a good spot for birding. Follow the boardwalk through the oaks to complete the loop portion, and continue straight ahead to wander back to the Visitor Center. Top off your water bottles! The other trails have no facilities.
Hammock Trails
Drive 1.2 miles east along FL 402 to the Hammock Trails trailhead (28.6439, -80.7165) on the north side of the highway. Follow the footpath up to the kiosk. Notice the dense ferns and orange trees? This was the homestead of the Danenburgs, who lived here from 1947 to 1964, growing citrus and gladiolas. When space workers came to the area in 1959, they opened a mobile home park to offer housing, and built a convenience store. Like others who lived in Wilson and nearby Wisconsin Village, they were bought out for the creation of Kennedy Space Center.
Dense forest along the Palm Hammock Trail
Take the right fork to walk through the ferns to start the Oak Hammock Trail. After crossing a bridge over a marshy ditch, you emerge at the railroad line. Continue straight ahead
into the woods on the other side, reaching the shade of a giant old water oak. This is the beginning of the loop portion of the hike. Follow the left fork through tall saw palmettos and up to a boardwalk. Turn left at the first intersection for a walk through a laurel oak forest. You’ll see some unusual trees—their trunks are bare and smooth, with an orange hue. These nakedwood trees, also known as white stopper, grow profusely along all of the trails in the hammock. The “stopper” part of the name comes from the use of their bark to treat diarrhea.
Parts of this trail can be wet in places, particularly as you reach the boardwalk which rises into the hydric hammock, a dense collection of cabbage palms in the swamp. Islands of ferns break up the dark water. At 0.4 mile, you reach a junction with the boardwalk you turned off earlier. Turn left. The boardwalk soon ends, and the footpath continues through the hammock on a base of ground-up seashells. Wild coffee grows along both sides of the trail: look for its glossy leaves and distinctive reddish-brown beans. A short boardwalk leads to a swamp overlook with wild persimmon trees. The trail veers right, continuing to the junction under the old water oak. Turn left. When you reach the Hammock Trails kiosk, you’ve walked 0.7 mile.
Coastal pine flatwoods along the pine flatwoods trail
To explore the Palm Hammock Trail, continue past the kiosk. It begins in the oak hammock among the ferns, becoming a boardwalk briefly before bursting into an open area edged with grasses and red maples. A small bridge crosses a ditch. Gaining a little elevation, you’re back among oaks draped in Spanish moss. Grapevines cover the forest floor and silver-tinged saw palmetto remind you that you’re near the coast. Crossing a bridge, you reach the railroad tracks. Beyond it, a boardwalk guides you into the forest over a seasonally wet area to return to the oak hammock. A tightly knit canopy of live oaks provides deep shade, while the understory is dense with cabbage palms and palmettos. The lengthy trunks of some of the saw palmettos speak to their advanced age. You start the short loop section of the trail, 1.4 miles into your hike on the Hammock Trails. As you enter the palm hammock, the cabbage palms rise like columns, the distinct knobby patterns on their trunks standing out in sharp relief.
That rustling in the underbrush is an armadillo. We’ve seen dozens of them along these two trails, nosing through the leaf litter in search of bugs and grubs. Armadillos are related to anteaters and sloths. Why are there so many armadillos on Merritt Island? The answer may lie with Gus Edwards, the founder of Cocoa Beach. He added a pair of Texas armadillos to his roadside zoo in 1922, and they quickly escaped.
Completing the loop after 0.5-mile of wandering among the palms, you return to the mature oak hammock. Continue along the trail as it snakes its way back to the boardwalk, where tall stems support clusters of the orchid-like blossoms of duck potatoes. Cross the old road and the railroad track, entering the woods on the south side of the railroad. Continue through the red maple marsh to the boardwalk and back to the Hammock Trails kiosk. Turn right to exit, completing a 2.8-mile circuit of the Hammock Trails.
Scrub Ridge Trail
Continue east another mile along FL 402 to where it meets CR 3. A gate for Kennedy Space Center is to the right, and the road straight ahead leads to Playalinda Beach. Turn left and drive north on CR 3 for another 4 miles. Watch for the SCRUB RIDGE TRAIL sign. Turn right and drive 0.4 mile down the dirt road to the trailhead (28.6950, -80.7159). While it’s only a mile long, the Scrub Ridge Trail offers the opportunity to see Florida scrub-jays living near the sea.
From the parking area, follow the broad path into the open scrubby flatwoods. The understory is a dense thicket of saw palmetto and scrubby oaks. There is very little shade, since there are few tall pines to provide any, although clusters of cabbage palms do rise above the sea of scrub. This is not a tall ridge, but 4 feet of elevation is enough to make this high ground when surrounded by marshes at sea level. A Florida scrub-jay lands in a sand live oak, boldly curious at your approach. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and the adjoining Canaveral National Seashore host the state’s largest population of scrub-jays. They live in family groups, so when you see or hear one, expect a few more to show up.
The trail, a sandy forest road, is headed straight towards a distant line of tall slash pines. Curving left, it comes to a T intersection with an unmarked trail. Turn left to return along the loop. As you walk back north, views of the Indian River Lagoon open up to the east, the far shore lined with cabbage palms. After 0.75 of a mile, the trail broadens. The scrub closes in for a stretch. When you return to the trailhead, make a short detour to the right for one last view of the lagoon, framed by needlerush and mangroves. You’ve completed a 1-mile loop.
Pine Flatwoods Trail
From the Scrub Ridge Trail, drive north on CR 3 for 3.5 miles, crossing the Haulover Canal. The trailhead for the Pine Flatwoods Trail (28.7697, -80.7865) is another 3.1 miles north of the canal on the right, north of the radar tower. This is the northernmost trail in the refuge, and one of the least visited, despite the beautiful scenery. While the refuge map showed a loop trail, the signage we found pointed us down a scenic round-trip route with great birding along the way. You are welcome to roam any of the forest roads here as long as they aren’t posted.
From the trailhead kiosk, walk east on a forest road. At an intersection with a road to the right, an arrow pointed in that direction, so we followed it. This forest road winds gently through a panorama of pines. A flutter of blue wings caught our attention: a scrub-jay family patrols this part of the trail. A post is half-hidden by the dense understory about 0.25 mile in. This is a very open pine forest, with views stretching off in all directions. One tall pine is home to a pair of osprey that return every season to nest. After 0.8 mile, you reach a T intersection with a forest road. Turn left. As you draw close to a cluster of cabbage palms, a deep green pool is bisected by the forest road. Be cautious: we discovered that an enormous alligator calls it home.
At 1.3 miles, this forest road ends at a sweeping panorama of Mosquito Lagoon. Part of the Indian River Lagoon system, it stretches north to New Smyrna Beach. A dredged channel for boaters enables access by water from Ponce Inlet to the Haulover Canal. You’ll rarely see anyone but sport fishermen or kayakers in this lonely spot. To get back to the trailhead, return the way you came. Make the right back into the pine flatwoods up beyond the waterway, walking past the osprey nest again, and a left at the T intersection with the next east-west road. You return to the trailhead after 2.6 miles.
Black Point Wildlife Drive Trails
Return 7.2 miles south along CR 3 to the intersection with FL 405. Turn right. Continue to the well-marked entrance for Black Point Wildlife Drive (28.657522, -80.754546). We’ve saved this one for last since it’s the only place in the refuge with a fee attached to hiking, and the fee doubled to $10 per vehicle in 2018. You’re covered if you have a National Parks pass, Federal duck stamp, or Canaveral National Seashore entrance fee receipt. Most visitors drive this scenic one-way limestone road through the impoundments, but you are welcome to bicycle it too. Pick up an interpretive brochure at the pay station. There are many places to pull off along the 6.4-mile road, but two are meaningful for hikers: the Wild Birds Unlimited Trail and the Cruickshank Trail.
At Stop 4, 1.9 miles along Wildlife Drive, you reach a parking area on the right for the Wild Birds Unlimited Trail (28.6564, -80.7771). Park and cross the road to access the trail. Following a levee, it’s short, simple, and focused on providing a great birding experience. The open water on your right rises and falls with the levels of the Indian River Lagoon, sometimes exposing mud flats that wading birds flock to for feeding. It’s on this side that you’ll find the first bird blind, built with slatted sides. It has a spotter scope to help you see birds congregating on the far shore. At 0.25 mile along the levee, the second observation platform provides a more intimate space, overlooking two small, mangrove-lined coves. Continue back along the levee to the parking area to complete this 0.5-mile walk.
View from the obse
rvation tower on the Cruickshank Trail
At Stop 9, 3.4 miles along Wildlife Drive, a larger parking area greets you on the left. A composting toilet is provided at the trailhead. This is the starting point for the Allen D. Cruickshank Memorial Trail (28.6780, -80.7718), more commonly known as the Cruickshank Trail. It honors the memory of a nationally known ornithologist who was the official photographer of the National Audubon Society for many years. A local resident at the time that Kennedy Space Center opened, Cruickshank worked with NASA to help establish Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Stop at the interpretive kiosk for an overview of the trail, the longest footpath in the refuge. This trail follows a levee around several impoundment areas and is the on-foot equivalent of Wildlife Drive—narrow, surrounded by water, a perfect place for quiet bird-watching. Most visitors who stop here rush over to the nearby covered observation deck, and maybe to the short tower a little farther down the trail. By taking the right fork, you commit yourself to the 4.8-mile loop. The first stop is an observation platform over the marshes to the east, which are less frequented by birds than the man-made impoundments to the west.
50 Hikes in Central Florida Page 31
