Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve

A view from Alum Bluff along the Garden of Eden Trail. © Harold E. Malde

Learn more about this project with the Online Field Guide. Apalachicola River, FL (QuickTime, 2.6 MB)

Why You Should Visit
Located in the Apalachicola ravines region of Florida, the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve protects one of the few areas where steephead ravines exist.  The Apalachicola River and Bay region is biologically unique to Florida and is home to many species more commonly found in the Appalachian Mountains.

Location
Bristol, Florida (about one hour west of Tallahassee in north Liberty County)

Hours
The preserve is open to the public from dawn to dusk, year-round.

Size
6,295 acres

Conditions
A 3.75-mile, round-trip, self-guided trail takes you through an enchanting area that local legend claims is the original Garden of Eden. Beginning in longleaf pine/wiregrass uplands, the trail soon skirts the top of a dramatic steephead, descends the slope forest to cross a steephead stream, climbs up through sandhills, and eventually opens to a spectacular view from a bluff 135 feet above the Apalachicola River. (See trail map.)

How to Prepare for Your Visit
Only foot travel is allowed on the trail. To protect the preserve's rare plants, animals, and cultural and geologic features, the following are not allowed: pets, smoking, littering, camping, climbing on the bluffs, collecting, firearms, fires, hunting and radios.

Visitors should plan on a 3-hour hike, bring 1 – 2 quarts of water per person, and may wish to bring a hiking stick to assist with the steep climbs and descents.

For your safety, please observe trail signs at Alum Bluff and stay well back from the edge as you follow the orange-blazed trail along the river bluff. The bluff is an active slide area and abandoned sections of trail are badly undercut and prone to collapse.
 
Please leave dogs at home. Dogs are not allowed on the trail.

For more information about visiting or volunteering, or if you are a researcher and would like access to the preserve, contact Maggie McDaniel at (850) 643-2756 or mmcdaniel@tnc.org.

Directions (See map.)
From Bristol:

• From State Road 20 in Bristol, take State Road 12 east (toward Greensboro) 1.6 miles to Garden of Eden Road, a dirt road to the left. There will be a large "Apalachicola Bluffs — Garden of Eden Trail" sign on the left.
• Turn left on Garden of Eden Road. Go 0.4 miles to the trailhead.
   

From Tallahassee:

• Take I-10 west to exit 174.
• Turn left on State Road 12 and continue for 20.3 miles (turning left at the blinking light in Greensboro). As you near Bristol, look for at large "Apalachicola Bluffs — Garden of Eden Trail" sign on your right.
• Turn right on Garden of Eden Road. Go 0.4 miles to the trailhead.

What to See: Plants
The preserve protects two of the world’s rarest evergreens, the Florida torreya and Florida yew. There are yews along the botanical loop trail, but there are no longer live torreyas visible from the trail. Other plants of interest are the large-leaved, large-flowered ashe magnolia; pyramid magnolia; Florida anise; mountain laurel; oak leaf hydrangea; spring ephemerals, such as trillium and wild ginger; Gholson's blazing star; ferns; and an array of fall-blooming sandhill wildflowers and grasses, including toothed basil and lopsided Indiangrass.

What to See: Animals
The preserve provides a home to several species of resident and migrating birds including bald eagles, red-cockaded woodpeckers, Mississippi kites, swallow-tailed kites, wild turkeys, worm-eating warblers, hooded warblers and Swainson’s warblers.

By the streams along the bottom of the ravines, you might catch a glimpse of Apalachicola dusky salamanders and fire-back crayfish.

Common upland species include cottontail rabbits, white-tailed deer, six-lined race runners, wild turkeys, gopher tortoises and various snakes, including the eastern diamondback rattlesnake. Some visitors may spot an eastern indigo snake or a Sherman's fox squirrel.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The preserve protects pine and sandhill uplands, river bluffs, spring-fed creeks and steephead ravines. Steephead ravines are a unique geologic feature that provide refuge for a number of rare species of plants and animals—some found nowhere else on Earth.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Nature Conservancy is undertaking a massive project to restore degraded longleaf pine and wiregrass forests and returning fire to the landscape so that native plants and animals will thrive. Staff and dedicated volunteers have hand-planted more than 1.4 million longleaf pine seedlings and thousands of wiregrass plugs grown in the preserve’s on-site nursery, and conduct periodic prescribed burns. Restoring the uplands will help save this endangered ecosystem, protect the steephead ravine community, and serve as a model to inform other land managers of restoration techniques. In 2007, The Conservancy completed a dam-removal and stream channel rehabilitation project to restore a steephead stream and serve as an example for similar restoration techniques in the Southeast.

The Conservancy is actively involved in policy issues and is working with the states of Florida, Alabama and Georgia to forge an agreement that will lead the way for the future of aquatic conservation in the Apalachicola and throughout the Southeast. The Natuer Conservancy is also working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners to develop fish passages and modify dam operations so that endangered Gulf sturgeon and other aquatic species can find their way to historical spawning grounds.

Contact Information
The Nature Conservancy
Northwest Florida Program
10394 N.W. Longleaf Drive
Bristol, FL 32321
(850) 643-2756