I come at nature from this perspective: growing up and traveling extensively in the eastern United States, I was never far from civilization. In fact, most of my life I have spent in the hubbub of everyday existence. When I discovered that there were yet a few places left that were both wild and natural as well as somewhat remote, I wanted to be in those places.
Guana is such a place. With a dense swamp guarding its northern approach, the Guana river on its eastern edge and the Intracostal waterway on its western side, it sits isolated, unbothered by the hum of the busy northeastern Florida life.
The panorama above is the crushed coral road that leads across a low dam into the entrance of the nature preserve. Beyond are trails and wildlife. Lets go take a look.
Even Guana is preparing for the future onslaught of city dwelling refugees. A new shelterhouse and new restrooms are being built near the parking lot at the entrance. This is where the real trails begin.
Up ahead the trail narrows. Barely visible on the right hand side in the distance is a meadow.
An interpretive nature station sits at the edge of the meadow, offering basic descriptions of what might be seen here.
The difference between a Cracker (native born Floridian) and a Yankee (anyone from anywhere else) is that the Yankee would take a look at this serene meadow and, deciding that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, would cross it in a direct fashion, and in all likelihood would become dinner for an eight foot (2 meters for you metric-types) lizard. A Cracker would walk around.
Now we continue on, crossing the peninsula and arriving at its western edge. Here is a small beach on the Intracoastal Waterway known as Shell Bluff Landing.
The view opens up to the wide expanse across not only the Intracoastal, but the adjacent marsh areas as well. This is a view worth walking for.
We now turn south and make our destination the point where the Guana River on the east flows into the Intracoastal Waterway on the west. On the way we turn inland a bit and come across scenes like this:
These small inland ponds are sanctuaries for wildlife. No doubt there's a 'gator in there somewhere. But today we don't see one.
Its hard to describe the large views that open up along the trail. Here the trail moves along a marsh which abuts the Intracoastal. I offer this panorama as an understated way of showing you how grand the vistas are here.
A total of 3 miles (about 5km for you metric-types) brings us to the point of the peninsula. We pop out of the woods and find ourselves on a narrow beach.
Rounding the corner and looking back, we see the wooded hammock from which we emerged.
Having reached the zenith of the trip all that is left is to hike back the 3 miles or so. But we don't take the same trail. We'll walk back the other side of the peninsula and see what there is to see.
