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Written by Sandra Friend
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Page 3 of 4
 To continue your walk, exit the jungle of sea grapes and cross the road to the Hawley Environmental Center. Here, you’ll find interpretive exhibits regarding the habitats protected by the preserve, as well as restrooms and a small gift shop. When you exit the center, follow the porch around to the south side of the building. A set of stairs leads down to the Restoration Trail along the Indian River Lagoon.
Walking past identified plantings of Jamaican caper, pigeon-plum, and indigoberry, and other tropical hammock plants, you smell the distinctive skunk odor of white stopper on the salt breeze. A set of benches sits in the shade of a gumbo limbo tree. Passing a gnarled strangler fig, you emerge at the edge of the Indian River Lagoon. Across the lagoon, virtually every parcel of land is developed. But on this side, Blowing Rocks Preserve protects a mile of coastline, sheltering pristine beaches lined with mangroves and buttonwood, a monumental effort of removing exotic species and replacing them with natives. Keep to the right at the junctions to walk along the mangrove fringe.
Reaching a mangrove-lined beach, the trail turns sharply left. At the T intersection, turn left again to return through the regenerating coastal scrub. Wild balsam apple cascades over pigeon plum, its orange seed pods dangling like Christmas ornaments. Fragrant wildflower aromas fill the air as you approach a trail junction. Turn right. Mounds of moonflower and wild balsam apple vines cover the sea grapes and saw palmetto. Passing a bench after half a mile, the trail completes its loop, reaching the incoming trail at a junction. Turn left and go straight across to walk along the lagoon back to the environmental center.
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