Bracken ferns grow in the shade of wax myrtles. Louisiana herons, with their distinctive white bellies and deep blue plumage, wade through the shallows in search of small fry, poking through islands of perennial glasswort swathed in autumn colors—browns, reds, yellows, and greens. At 0.8 mile, it’s your first chance to sit and relax on a shaded bench. There are several along the trail. Once you pass the instrumentation station, the trail grows rough. No longer a forest road, it becomes uneven and hummocky, although the park staff keeps the grass trimmed. Expect to walk more slowly for the next 4 miles. The thick succulent leaves of saltwort peek out of a sea of red-tipped glasswort. White mangroves edge the trail, providing a windbreak against the open waters of the lagoon.
The mangroves part briefly at 1.4 miles for a sweeping view of the lagoon. Tall clumps of big cordgrass grow along the levee’s edge. When the wind picks up, the waters of the impoundment area whip to waves. A long, narrow mangrove island creates a canal between the levee and the lagoon. Swamp hibiscus towers up to 10 feet tall, waving its massive pink flowers in the breeze. It’s quiet out here: take a moment and listen. You may hear the sudden splash of an alligator into the water, the plop of a jumping mullet, or the creel of an osprey far above. After the trail curves around a small lagoon, another covered bench appears at 2.2 miles. This is Black Point. An opening in the mangroves provides a sweeping view of the north end of Titusville. On the left, NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building comes into view in the distance. It’s one of the world’s largest buildings, covering eight acres and enclosing 129 million cubic feet of space, and was used for processing rockets and orbiters.
Inside the impoundment, grassy islands give way to more substantial islands anchored by mangroves. The levee arcs back towards Wildlife Drive. Take a moment to look into the water as you veer around the far corner, where tiny fish and seashells are visible against the white sand bottom. The lagoon is stained with tannic acid. At the tip of a small peninsula, a covered bench at 3.6 miles provides a place to perch near the outflow of Cow Pen Creek. The levee follows the creek upstream, zigzagging for the next 0.25 mile, providing views back across to where you walked along the lagoon. As the levee veers right, the marsh on the left resembles an open prairie, with tall cordgrass swaying on each island. Young mangroves struggle to take root. A telephone pole provides a perch for cormorants drying their wings.
Coming around the last curve of the levee, you reach the staircase to the short observation tower. It looks out over the inner marsh and has a permanently mounted set of binoculars, in case you didn’t bring your own. Atop it, you can see the full sweep of where you’ve just walked. We found the salt ponds to be productive during our last visit, with a family of roseate spoonbills, several tricolor herons, some egrets, and an American bittern, all of which we spotted from the smaller covered observation platform right where the trail ends. There were alligators, too, but they appear to prefer the edges of Cow Pen Creek, so keep alert as you walk through this area. Turn right to exit, completing a 4.8-mile walk when you reach the parking area.
One last worthwhile stop on Wildlife Drive is a viewpoint for an eagles’ nest, which will be busy with activity in late winter and spring. A volunteer with a spotter scope is usually at this pulloff.
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Manatee Observation Deck (28.7376, -80.7547). An accessible boardwalk provides an overlook over Haulover Canal, frequented by manatees as they migrate along the Indian River Lagoon.
2. North Haulover Canal (28.7332, -80.7588). Social trails meander through the hammock and to a beach along the Indian River Lagoon. Access is along a dirt road which leads to a popular put-in for kayakers, especially for night kayaking during the bioluminescent season in summer. On the south side of the canal, Bair’s Cove (28.7330, -80.7562) is where boaters put in, and it has restrooms (fee area).
3. Dummitt Cove (28.7103, -80.7319). Park near the picnic pavilion and ramble around on the old sand roads to scenic spots along the cove, where anglers have staked out the best spots for fishing. Dummitt Cove is still used as a group campsite for Scout troops, so be respectful of their privacy if you discover a group here, usually on weekends. This is where John’s troop camped when he was a kid. Captain Douglas Dummitt established the very first citrus grove along the Indian River Lagoon here in 1807.
4. Playalinda Beach (28.6551, -80.6322). The busiest portion of Canaveral National Seashore is just east of the refuge along FL 402. There are twelve large parking areas along the park road; Lot #1 is where locals watch rocket launches, as it sits immediately north of Kennedy Space Center. Walk up to 4 miles (8 miles round-trip) along the oceanfront, or look into the rugged Klondike Beach Trail, Florida’s longest backcountry beach walk.
5. Coast-to-Coast Trail. While still in the planning stages, the finale of this state-spanning paved bike path will extend from Parrish Park (28.624144, -80.793839) at the base of the Max Brewer Bridge east along the railroad grade paralleling FL 402 to the north. It will pass the Visitor Center and the Hammock Trails on its way to Playalinda Beach. A segment of the Coast-to-Coast Trail currently runs at least 18 miles north from Titusville (28.619221, -80.820069), past Mims, with more under construction north and west of Maytown.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Titusville/Kennedy Space Center KOA, 4513 W Main Street, Mims, FL 32754 (321-269-7361, koa.com)
Casa Coquina del Mar B&B, 4010 Coquina Avenue, Titusville, FL 32780 (321-268-4653, casacoquina.com)
Enchanted Forest Sanctuary
Total distance: 3-mile loop selected from an extensive network of hiking trails.
Hiking time: 1.5–2 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: Free. Open 9 AM–5 PM, Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Mondays and holidays. No pets or bicycles permitted.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 28.5326, -80.8023
Contact Information: Enchanted Forest Sanctuary, 444 Columbia Boulevard, Titusville, FL 32780 (321-264-5185, brevardfl.gov)
Topping the Atlantic Coastal Ridge just across the Indian River Lagoon from Kennedy Space Center, the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary is a magical place to explore, a wonderland of big trees and geologic formations with history behind them. This is the flagship conservation project that kicked off Brevard County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands program in 1990. Long-time residents were already familiar with the forest and its beauty. By the 1970s, the Apollo Motorcycle Club developed off-road trails up the Atlantic Coastal Ridge from Vero Beach to Titusville, popularizing this area with Enduro riders. John’s Boy Scout troop would hike up from Cocoa to overnight here; he later joined others riding mountain bikes on the well-established trails. County acquisition began in 1991, although it took nearly a decade before there was anything more than a dirt parking area and a picnic table, plus the trails that had been in place.
While it’s still a destination for recreation, visitors now walk softly through the woods. The Education Center serves not just to interpret the landscape and its history, but also has classrooms for workshops and a small gift shop. Outside, a screened pavilion is a welcome retreat for picnicking during the buggy months and an amphitheater stands for environmental education classes. A native plant garden makes use of massive blocks of coquina to creative effect, and a short paved path, the Enchanted Crossing, extends the accessible offerings of the garden for wheelchair-bound visitors. Regular guided walks are offered along with ongoing workshops as diverse as gardening, outdoor yoga, photography, and storytelling for the kids.
GETTING THERE
From I-95, take exit 215, Titusville, and drive east on FL 50 to the first traffic light. Turn right onto FL 405. Follow it for 4.4 miles to the entrance on the left. If you reach the US 1 overpass, you’ve gone too far. The entry road is part of the Hernandez-Capron Trail, an old military trail laid out by General Joseph Hernandez and built by his men in 1837, during the Second Seminole War, to link the fortresses at St. Augustine and Fort Pierce. The road persisted as an immigrant trail to South F
lorida through the late 1800s.
THE HIKE
The Enchanted Forest is a hiker-focused preserve: right in front of the Education Center, there’s a Hike Desk for you to sign in and grab a map. While there are several access points to the trail system, the main one is behind the Education Center. Follow the walkway around the building (take advantage of insect spray set out for your use if you didn’t already use your own), following the sign that says TRAILHEAD. It points to a map at the first of many trail junctions. The extensive network of trails has eight named trails that crisscross each other like a giant tic-tac-toe board. Our route follows our favorite hike along the perimeter, showcasing all of the habitats and historic sites in the preserve.
Ridge Trail
At the map, turn left onto Enchanted Crossing. The paved path climbs a gradual incline, with many benches offering spots for slow walkers to rest. Beneath the shade of the cabbage palms and oaks, you see American beautyberry, resplendent with its metallic purple berries in the fall months. An interpretive sign points out a tall Hercules-club tree, also known as toothache tree. You reach a trail junction with the Biodiversity Loop as Enchanted Crossing ends at an overlook. This is your first peek at the Addison-Ellis Canal. Started in 1912, the canal was meant to drain the extensive wetlands between the St. Johns River and the Indian River Lagoon for agriculture and development. A ridge of coquina rock proved too difficult to dig through. This high point above what was dug of the canal, a narrow cut, is one of a handful of overlooks for this failed project along your journey. Nature heals, and so the cut is filled with vegetation.
Join the Biodiversity Loop and follow it up a gradual rise—the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. This is the high ground along Florida’s eastern shore, formed during the late Pleistocene. It outcrops in numerous places along the coast, including showy, rocky shorelines north of Flagler Beach and south of Stuart. Here, the ridge formed a watershed divide until it was sliced through by the canal. Now, rainfall across this preserve makes its way east along the modified waterway. If it were not for the ropes along one side of this trail, you’d forget that the canal is hidden in the forest to your left.
As you reach the junction with the Ridge Trail, turn right. This loop trail circles the high ground of the ridge. The scrub forest atop the ridge is dense but short, with lots of myrtle oak and Chapman oak. Fine orange sand takes its color from the coquina, a sedimentary rock made up of tiny seashells that tend towards orange and pink. Crossing the Biodiversity Loop again at a bench under a longleaf pine, a splash of bright red draws your eyes to a coral bean’s blooms. Watch carefully as a Florida scrub lizard vanishes beneath it. This lizard only lives in Florida scrub habitats, dry sandy hilltops like this ridge.
You pass a bench, and there’s a tall magnolia tree. Dropping downhill after 0.5 mile, you come to the junction with the Tortoise Trail. To the right it heads to the parking area; to the left, it rises to the highest elevation in this preserve. The ridge tops out around 36 feet, more than double the elevation of the parking area. Continue straight ahead, staying on the Ridge Trail.
Something you may have noticed is air traffic. When you reach the Coquina Quarry Trail, the Space Coast Regional Airport sits across the four lanes of FL 405. It’s the closest commercial airport to Kennedy Space Center and home to a collection of vintage warplanes known as the Valiant Air Command. Private pilots make heavy use of the airport on weekends. Take this spur trail down into an old coquina quarry, shot through with solution holes, formed by the slow drip of water through weak spots in the limestone. This outcropping is part of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. Quarry walls show the precision scooping of machines that cut the rock for building stone. Retrace your steps and turn right to continue along the Ridge Trail. It loops north along the ridge. Watch for a bigflower pawpaw in bloom during the spring months. The pawpaw is an edible fruit related to the soursop, which is found on Caribbean menus.
Junctions are clearly marked throughout the Enchanted Forest
At the next junction, there are a couple of benches. Turn right. The Tortoise Trail descends from the scrub into a forest dense with magnolias and oaks. Cabbage palms tower overhead at a junction with the Mesic Trail. Continue straight. The trail ascends and reaches a multi-trail junction at a gathering of benches. Turn right to start walking counterclockwise along the Magnolia Loop. A lushly canopied 1.1-mile loop, it passes a large live oak with an unusual curl to its trunk. Wild coffee fills the understory, and cabbage palms rise high overhead. As the trail descends, it winds under southern magnolias more than 100 feet tall, and massive ancient live oaks. A floodplain forest hides behind a screen of trees; in winter, the red seedpods of red maple betray its presence. Wild citrus, including oranges and grapefruit, grow in this forest. The trail passes under a magnificent oak, one that would take quite a few people holding hands to encircle it. Sword ferns, marsh ferns, and royal ferns carpet the deep, rich soil. A thousand shades of green delight the eye.
At 1.9 miles, the trail leads you down a corridor of tall cabbage palms. There’s dark earth underfoot, an area that may get damp after heavy rains, with more massive oaks spreading their thickly knotted root systems across the trail. The swamp within the forest becomes more obvious, bubbles rising to its surface from gases emitted by rotting leaves beneath the water. The trail rises away from it. After you pass a bench, you’re back at the clearing where the Magnolia Loop began. Turn right to follow the Tomoka Trail along the outer loop of the trail system. The trail drops through a tunnel of vines, with cabbage palms providing the canopy. A bench sits at the beginning of a boardwalk that works its way through the floodplain forest. Strap ferns sprout from fallen logs like bright green feathers. Open pools of tannic water are edged by ferns. Reaching the Biodiversity Loop junction after 2.7 miles, turn right to stay on the outer loop, joining a boardwalk through more floodplain forest.
Looking down into the Addison-Ellis Canal from the Coquina Trail
Just past the junction with the Mesic Trail, the Coquina Trail veers right. Turn and follow it downhill. The narrow descent leads to a bridge over the Addison-Ellis Canal. The water is tannic but clear. As the trail turns left, it climbs the bluffs. It’s a very steep drop—an actual cliff—to the bottom of the canal. Five overlooks along the next 0.25 mile provide different perspectives from the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, rewarding you with excellent views of the geologic formations where the ridge was deeply cut. Strap fern clings to boulders on the rock face.
As the trail descends the ridge, it is soft sand underfoot, much like climbing down dunes. A large gopher tortoise burrow is in the side of the hill. Next to a historic marker, you have one last look at the Addison-Ellis Canal. Vines dangle towards the tea-colored water and giant leather ferns lean over the flow. Before the canal could be dug to a useful width and depth, the consortium went bankrupt. The canal never became usable for commerce or drainage, but remains a feature visible in several spots around Titusville, including beneath US 1, under I-95, and through the Canaveral Marshes along the St. Johns River.
Leaving the woods to approach the gardens surrounding the Education Center, you’re back on the old military road. Massive boulders of coquina, shot through with natural solution holes, are centerpieces in a garden of native plants. The look of these rocks evokes moonscapes, appropriate given you’re near Kennedy Space Center. Work your way through the garden, with a final stop at the Education Center. Sign out at the Hike Desk on your way out. Returning to your car, you’ve completed a 3-mile loop around the Enchanted Forest.
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Addison Canal Loop. By far the most interesting trail in the park, the Coquina Trail is the one you should do if your time is limited. Going backward on the above route, walk through the garden and into the woods to the Addison Canal historic marker. Continue around the loop and across the bridge to the T intersection. Turn right and take a piece of the Biodiversity Loop up to where it meets the Enchanted Crossing. Enjoy one last overlook and turn left to follow the Enchan
ted Crossing to exit, for a 0.5-mile loop around the Addison Canal.
2. Biodiversity Loop. True to its name, this east-west loop leads you through a diverse array of habitats. Start east on the trail from the main trailhead. When you reach the Tomoka Trail junction, turn left onto the boardwalk. Follow the loop back west to Enchanted Crossing to exit, for a 0.8-mile loop. Alternatively, use the Coquina Trail to return for a loop that’s almost a mile.
3. Mesic Meander. Everyone likes a shaded trail, and the Mesic Trail does a nice job of keeping you covered. Use the Coquina Trail to access the north end of the Mesic Trail. Follow it down to the Tortoise Trail, which leads back around to the parking area if you follow it west. This is a 0.9-mile walk; extend it to 2 miles by adding on the Magnolia Loop.
4. 5K Loop. Follow the signs throughout the trail network to rack up 3.1 miles. This loop is popular with runners and makes good use of the Ridge Trail and Magnolia Loop along with other trails.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Manatee Hammock Campground, 7275 US 1, Titusville, FL 32780 (321-264-5083, brevardfl.gov)
Casa Coquina del Mar B&B, 4010 Coquina Avenue, Titusville, FL 32780 (321-268-4653, casacoquina.com)
Maritime Hammock Sanctuary
Total distance: 2.8-mile circuit of two loops and a connector.
Hiking time: 1.5–2 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: Free. Open daily, sunrise to sunset. No pets or bicycles permitted.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 27.9564, -80.5028
50 Hikes in Central Florida Page 32
