Since my time in Flagler Beach was mostly rainy, I spent one afternoon driving up and down the A1A scenic coastal highway. My favorite stop on this drive was the Washington Oaks Gardens State Park.
This state park was a really lovely surprise for me! As I was driving north on A1A, I saw a sign for the park, looked to my left, and saw this fairytale forest of beautiful oaks carved out of the scrubby Florida pine trees. So I decided to investigate and it turned out to be a great choice!
Scenic A1A
First, a word about the A1A coastal highway. It stretches from Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, just below the Georgia state line down to just below Daytona Beach. But it goes inland from the beachfront above Ormond, so many maps stop the “scenic” part of it around there. Make sure to include a round on The Loop, just below Flagler Beach.
A1A picks up again at Port Canaveral and goes all the way down to Miami from there. And at that point, you might as well boop over to Hwy 1 and keep going to Key West!
There’s a lot of little towns, state parks, and a national monument along A1A, and there is even an app to help you explore the sights. Make sure to check out the official A1A website to get you started.
Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Turning off the A1A into Washington Oaks Gardens State Park is like entering a time warp. It’s kind of like driving onto the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, but on a much (MUCH) smaller scale. While there are a few historic buildings scattered about, the main focus here is the trail through the gardens.
This walk takes about 30 minutes or so, depending on your pace and interest. You’ll find the summer home of Owen & Louise Young, who cultivated the gardens in the 1930s, set up as a visitor center. Behind the small house is the Matanzas River and a peaceful area is set up for fishing.
Following the curve of the path, you’ll come to a circular rose garden, then the stunning formal gardens with islands, bridges, a gazebo, and Asian touches here and there.
On the north edge of the gardens you’ll find the remains of an orange grove and some other outlying buildings. But it’s this core of cultivated gardens that is really the treasure here.
History
Like other wealthy entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, Owen & Louise Young built a winter estate in Florida and created these gardens. Owen made his fortune as chairman of large companies like RCA and General Electric and Louise once had a thriving business in the Philippines making fine lingerie and table linens. Their marriage in 1937 was the second for both of them and continued until his death in 1962. Shortly before Louis’s death in 1965, she donated Washington Oaks to the State of Florida and it has operated as a state park ever since.
The name Washington Oaks was coined by the Youngs based on the prior owner, George Washington (but not THAT GW–his distant cousin.) The Washington Oak tree itself is a
More Details
Cost to enter the park is $5 per vehicle, or $4 for just one person in a car, $2 for walk-ins, cyclists, or per passenger over 4 in a car.
Following the road into the woods, there is parking on one side of the old A1A (which Owen Young had moved to its present location) plus a gift shop in a small house. Make sure to stop in the gift shop to chat with the volunteers about the park–they’re super friendly.
Longer hiking and biking trails branch off from Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. The Mala Compra trail to the south leads to a picnic pavilion, barbecue pit, and playground and beyond to a
You can rent the pavilion for $40 a day or rent out a part of the park for weddings. One was going on just below the rose garden (in the rain) on the day I was there!
Coquina Beach
Directly across A1A from the entrance to Washington Oaks, and part of the state park is the newly-restored Coquina Beach. It features a parking lot and a boardwalk over the dunes to reach the beach. But when I was there, it was too rainy to walk around, so I missed its defining feature, the distinctive coquina rocks that are just up the beach.
Coquina is a limestone made from crushed seashells and forms much of the construction material for buildings and roads in the area. In fact, coquina is credited for stopping more than a few cannonballs in the fort in St. Augustine. The porous concrete-like coquina absorbed the impact of incoming attacks and the English cannonballs just bounced off the fort or sunk in a few inches. Some of those embedded cannonballs can still be seen today!
What a beautiful forest!