The Open Scrub

Two families of Florida scrub-jays live in the open scrub. On my visit, the birds remained in the distance, swooping between the sand live oaks. You reach another decision point—to follow the perimeter of the Scrub Trail into the thick of the diminutive scrub forest, or to stay on the Piney Wood Loop in the open scrub amid the brilliant white sands. Either way, you’ll walk on ancient sands with a texture of the beach, but staying with the Piney Wood Loop affords you one more opportunity to look across the cordgrass prairie and the lake to the left. Tall longleaf pines rise in the distance to the right. The trail returns you to the trailhead.