Hiking through History at Faver-Dykes

Take a Walk in the Past

Little has been done to disturb this landscape where Timucuan Indians once lived. When you enter, imagine a path instead of a road, and you can see this part of Florida and its trails the way the first Europeans saw it: rich pinelands and hammocks, spreading marshes, and a winding, many fingered creek for canoes. 

Fast forward to 1817, when Faver-Dykes was part of the Buena Suerte Plantation granted by Spain to General Joseph Hernandez during the Second Seminole War, when the area was occupied by U.S. troops. 

Skip through time again to 1950, when owner Hiram Faver, a longtime Clerk of the Court in St. Johns County, donated the land to the Florida State Board of Parks and Historic Memorials. The Hiram-Faver Nature Trail was established to honor the land donor and continue his legacy of providing an outdoor classroom for visitors to enjoy. 

One of four trails within the park, the Hiram-Faver Trail, is a 2.6-mile trail that is mostly shaded and offers benches and interpretive panels along the way, ending in a glorious overlook of the Pellicer Flats. 

The picnic area and campground trails are both leisurely half-mile trails dominated by longleaf pines and turkey oaks, winding through the hammock with views of the creek along the way. Our half-mile Pine Loop Trail has beautiful views of longleaf pines, saw palmettos, variety of grasses and wildflowers, and native shiny blueberries.

Hiking along any of these trails, visitors are hiking through time, to see what many before for hundreds of years have seen.