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The Timucuan Trail winds its way across Little Talbot Island State Park for 8.2 miles largely alongside Highway A1A and other nearby natural areas.
About the Route
Heading south from the northern endpoint, located just shy of the bridge between Amelia Island and Little Talbot Island, the trail passes Boneyard Beach, Black Rock Beach, and Driftwood Beach. Here, the trail follows Highway A1A and at times weaves away from the road and into dense forest cover.
After the trail crosses Simpson Creek and nearby wetlands, trail users will also pass by the Little Talbot Island Campgrounds, and nearby parking lots and restrooms.
From here, the trail winds south until reaching a bridge over the Fort George River which marks the southern end of the trail.
Connections
At the north end of the trail, trail users can connect to the Amelia Island Trail.
The Timucuan Trail is part of the developing East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile route between Florida and Maine.
The Timucuan Trail runs between Highway A1A (Jacksonville) and 11009 Heckscher Dr. (Jacksonville), with parking available at both ends.
Parking is also available at:
Please see TrailLink Map for all parking options and detailed directions.
Since moving to Fernandina Beach from the Florida west coast, we had been looking for a good trail at a decent length. This is a perfect route with very few driveways and the ability to really get your heart rate up. Plus, the scenery is amazing! We are in love!
This is one of the best trails in North Florida. It traces what used to be part of the Buccaneer Trail. It is 9 miles one way from end to end so you can ride 18 miles out and back. TrailLink needs to update their map. Plus it connects to the Amelia Island trail for another 10 plus miles.
This was a terrific ride. Just beautiful. And the trail conditions are excellent. Once again, another outdated TrailLink map. The map as of March 2024 shows incomplete sections all along the A1A. That is wrong. It is a continuous run all the way up to the Crady Pier bathrooms.
The bike pedestrian bridges and trail between Little and Big Talbot Islands have been completed. It’s now possible to ride 9 miles continuously from Fort George Inlet to the North end of Big Talbot Island. As of October 2023, the pedestrian bridge from Talbot to Amelia is still closed and in need of repair.
Despite being relatively short and still fragmented, this trail is still a very solid 5. We began our ride at the parking lot for the Fishing Pier / boat launch at the northernmost entrance to Big Talbot State Park. Parking is limited, but the $3 fee is nominal. Clean restrooms make this a very good staging place. This location also serves as great trailhead for the lower quality, but still worthwhile Amelia Island Trail. It is very safe to use the extra-wide, bike only lane across the A1A bridge connecting both the Ameila Island and Timucuan trails.
The Timucuan Trail is currently broken into 2 segments, but the bike crossing over the bridge connecting Big Island and Little Island State Parks is currently under active construction. Hooray!
We only did the Big Island State Park section along with the Amelia Island Trail. We just didn’t have time to re-stage our vehicle before needing to head on. That said, the 3 or 4 miles we did was stupendous. Take the Black Rock Beach spur to Driftwood Beach. Never found Black Rock, but the ¼ mile to Driftwood Beach is most definitely worth it. Mountain bike not needed, it’s very easy for a hybrid.
We had such a wonderful hike here and were able to take our dog and it was so beautiful.
Great trail. Not hard and would be great for kids and seniors. Trail is mostly shady. Lots of parking.
We did the second half of this trail through the boardwalk and to the Amelia Island bridge. Chose not to continue on pavement as it was busy Sunday road traffic. The bike trail was beautiful, interesting and over way too soon!
Enjoyed my bike ride very much, lots of side trails to veer off that head right to the beach.
We went to the Northern trail. Most of the trail is out of the sun. Great side trails for exploring. Beautiful little ride and trailhead.
I started my ride at the Little Talbot Island State Park. Most of the "trail" here is a marked-off section of the road going back to the furthermost parking lot. There is NO shade and very little to see. However, it is wide and smooth the entire way. If I was to rate this separately, I would give it two stars.
My five star rating is for the Big Talbot Island section of the trail. The parking lot for the beginning of the trail is VERY small, only six parking spaces (and one handicapped). Blink and you'll miss it. This part of the trail is very scenic and has lots of shade. It parallels A1A, but you don't really see the road and the cars for almost the entire way. There is another small parking lot halfway up the trail and there is a wide off-road trail that goes back into the woods for about half a mile. The woods get thicker going North from the second parking lot and then you'll come across the largest parking lot on the trail. There's a sign that says the trail ends, but the trail does continue on. Go through the woods a short way from the parking lot and the asphalt paved path becomes a wooden boardwalk that goes for about a quarter mile. Cross A1A at the end of the boardwalk and you'll come to the first of two bridges that span Nassau Sound. However, after the first bridge, you'll see the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. Almost the entire roadway was undercut by the waves and has collapsed. Only a tiny three foot wide path remains intact, although if it gets undercut any more, that will disappear as well.
Will definitely ride the Big Talbot part of this trail again, it was a really nice ride.
The trail is covered by a beautiful canopy and trees. There were lots of deer and birds. I started from the Amelia Island trail and took the foot bridge to get to the Timucuan trail. I loved it.
Started south at Little Talbot went 10 miles north to Amelia. Great trail. Only a few hundred yards I had to go on A1A shoulder but saw construction workers working on that segment. If this was only somewhere in Europe there would be some small coffees to have a glass of beer/coca-cola after the run but that's a different story...
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