The beach of Jacksonville, Florida’s Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park stretches about 1.5 miles. Location: Mayport, in the Jacksonville Beaches neighborhood. It’s 447 acres of pristine coastal hammock, a habitat that’s becoming more hard to find along the heavily urbanized Atlantic coast of Florida.
Located in a stunning seaside setting, this park provides all the amenities you might want. Schedule a day to enjoy the beautiful beach or a day of fishing and canoeing on the pond. During the warmer months, you can enjoy the tiny splash park and rent out one of the pavilions.
Over twenty miles of beautiful pathways allow visitors to Hanna Park to go hiking or riding along the water’s edge or through the park’s mature coastal hammock and towering oaks. There are a variety of different levels of difficulty on the off-road single-track mountain bike paths that are well-known among cyclists (often steep, including log crossings, for the hardcore mountain bikers).
There is space for RVs, cabins, tents, and groups to camp. Many different kinds of birds, from shorebirds to wading birds to alligators and foxes, live in this area. Between May and October, sea turtles nest on the shore.
A portion of the present During the era of segregation in the United States around the turn of the century, blacks who worked on the Florida East Coast Railway established a neighborhood in what is now known as Hanna Park in Manhattan Beach, Florida. There were cottages, a beachside amusement park, and a picnic pavilion when the beach was at its busiest. It was a popular vacation spot until roughly 1940, when American Beach on neighboring Amelia Island became a more attractive option.
Before donating 5 acres of property to the park in 1967, Winthrop Bancroft stipulated that it be named after Kathryn Abbey Hanna, a teacher and author originally from Chicago who had relocated to Florida and worked on the state’s Board of Parks and Historic Memorials.
The neighborhood was incorporated into Jacksonville after the city’s consolidation. In the 1970s, under Mayor Hans Tanzler, the city bought up the land around the park to make it larger. In 1987, Michael Long built the first multi-use trail as his Eagle Scout service project. The majority of the land has been allowed to remain in its native, forested state. In order to safeguard the flora in the dunes, boardwalks have been built atop them.
There are over 15 miles of trails for cyclists of varying skill levels throughout the park. Trails like “Grunt,” “Misery,” and “Tornado Alley” provide an intense workout for seasoned cyclists. Seasonal races are held, and many residents use the trails on a regular basis. According to the Trails website, this path was voted “Most Difficult Close to the Sea” and has a rating of 4.5 stars overall.
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