Princess Place Preserve

Princess Place Preserve is actually an offshoot of Faver-Dykes State Park, located along Pellicer Creek and just west of Washington Oaks State Park on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

A long entrance road takes you past more beautiful marsh views:

The central / main section of the preserve offers more panoramic water views:

A boat dock provides access should you desire to arrive in that manner:

But as interesting as the marsh and bay might be, there are wonderful, manmade things to enjoy at Princess Place - and an explanation as to the unusual name... tomorrow.

Sky Watch Friday

This shot was taken from the same place as last week's SWF image, but that one was looking west over the marsh and this one is looking north, following the narrow road as it bends around the creek, with a palm tree hanging out over the waters.  The clouds in the distance stopped right here - everything to their right was empty, clear blue sky, so the palm tree was conveniently located to provide some interest to that side of the photo.  I like this image because it offers a little bit of everything: sky, clouds, trees, water, marsh grass, reflection of the sky in the water...

Check out the Sky Watch Blog for all the great SWF shots of the week.

Bulow Plantation and Ruins: Part 1

The picture below is of the main entrance road into Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park.  It should give you an idea of the terrain.  When you turn off of the main road onto this narrow, tree-lined, dirt trail barely big enough for a single vehicle you know you have left modern civilization behind.  For about two miles you drive straight - no curves or turns - through moss covered oak trees, over pumps and potholes in the road, slowly down a very gentle slope.

At the end of that long dirt road you come to a clearing with a park ranger building, a sign telling about the history of the plantation, a wooden fence outlining what would have been the small plantation house - nothing of it remains today but the limestone foundation of the interior walls - and a boat ramp on Bulow Creek.

When this was a plantation back in the early 19th century these marshes would actually have been rice patties - not uncommon in northeast Florida and other parts of the southeastern coast.  Before cotton became "king", rice was a big cash crop on coastal plantations (not farther inland, there was something about the salt air that helped it grow).  So the view below and above would have been a covered by a sea of rice plants instead of marsh grass.

Below is a shot of the undergrowth of the woods that cover most of the park grounds today.  In the 1830's, during the sugar mill's heyday, this all would have been cleared fields planted in sugar cane, which grows fairly tall, but there would have been few trees.  The scene below is more what happens in most of Florida when mother nature is left alone to take over an area - pine trees, palmetto bushes, various other small trees and bushes... and lots of snakes, spiders, opossums, raccoons, armadillos, birds, and if you are lucky, wildcats, bobcats, panthers, etc.

But the main reason for visiting this state park are the fantastic ruins of the Bulow Sugar Mill:

More on that next time...

Fluffy clouds reflected on the still waters of the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway near High Bridge south of Flagler Beach, Florida, part of Bulow Plantation State Park.

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Lone White Tree

I got to spend much of Friday playing in a golf tournament held at a beautiful course in south Georgia called Osprey Cove, which is situated right along the marshes that border the St. Marys River. Five of the holes are right on the marsh, providing spectacular views. Not much definition in the sky since it was just a hot, hazy August day - typically lacking in blue sky but abounding in heat and humidity. :)

The bluffs visible way out there are known as Reids Bluffs and are actually in Florida on the south bank of the St. Marys River just over two miles away. Those bluffs rise to a height of 56 feet above sea level, which is no small feat considering they are only 10 miles inland from the Atlantic ocean and most of coastal Florida is pretty flat. (For the record, the highest point in Florida is 345 ft above sealevel, in the panhandle just by the Alabama boarder - a "mountain" known as Britton Hill.)

For a great closeup view of the bluff you can visit the main page of this website, home of the Florida Association of Environmental Soil Scientists. (The things you can't find on the Intergoogle...)

Sky Watch Friday

A view of the coastal marshes found on Ft. George Island near Jacksonville, FL. No clouds, but there is a nice seagull flying in the top left corner. The small image doesn't really do it justice - click on it to see the larger size. There is just something uniquely beautiful about marshes like these that I love, even though they are mostly drab and lack vibrant colors. Perhaps it is that they allow me to see with my own eyes a sight that a native 5,000 years ago could have seen, almost taking me back in time...

Old Florida Series: Part 1

After a long day of sightseeing Saturday I have many pictures to share, so I will be doing them in a series I shall call "Old Florida" because most every photo will feature landscapes of natural Florida that could be thousands of years old or else of historic buildings that are in some cases well over 150 years old.

Our first stop of the day is Fort George Island, one of the many "islands" that lie east of Jacksonville on the north bank of the St. Johns River. They aren't islands like you find in Hawaii, rather they are barrier islands separated from each other - and the mainland - mostly by tidal marshes and creeks. Fort George Island is separated from the Atlantic ocean by two other isladnds that lie to its east - Big Talbot and Little Talbot islands. As such, Ft. George is more protected from the elements and made a better location for settlements of the native indians - popularly called the Timucua - and later white settlers from Europe beginning in 1562. Still standing today as a historic park on the island is Kingsley Plantation, originally founded in 1793.

View on the main road of Ft. George island, FL.

The island has changed hands many times over the years, spending much of its time as a plantation growing sea island cotton, citrus, corn, sugar cane, beans, etc. Prior to the arrival of the French in 1562 it was home to a Timucuan indian settlement and had been occupied by natives for many thousands of years.

A view looking south from a bluff on the island's eastern side.

Tomorrow I will show some photos of our ultimate destination on the island - the Ribault club - for a state park sponsored lecture on the Timucuan indians and their place in history vs. the findings of archaeology.

A view from near the Ribault club looking north towards Big Talbot island. Note the tall sand dunes on the opposite shore.

St. Augustine Inlet

Something from the archives... a view from the NE corner of the Castillo de San Maros looking north along the marshy banks of the St. Augustine Inlet which is here also part of the Intracoastal Waterway.


If Erin is feeling better by Saturday we hope to go down and get pictures of the Christmas decorations and the "Nights of Lights".