Castaway Island Preserve - Park in Jacksonville - 2885 San Pablo Rd S, USA

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this place. At the beginning it was underwhelming, but I started walking on the trails and it was a pleasant experience. I recommend the Island trail. There's an absurd amount of bugs, but it was relaxing walking though the nature. Would be a great location to bring your family and eat lunch at one of the picnic tables

Decent little preserve and not very busy. Saw some wildlife here as well. Birds, lizards, and crabs. Parking is available for free. There is no entry fee. The facilities have been vandalized by graffiti but overall it was a nice place to take a nature walk. It is decently kept with recent maintenance to the wooden boardwalks. Very little trash. It can get a little humid and would possibly want to wear bug spray if your easily annoyed by flies and such.

Fun nature trail with educational animal footprints and plaques along the way. An abundance of semi- private picnic tables. Multiple drinking fountains, one even had a dog bowl. Grounds are clean, but tons of graffiti! 8/1: Mosquitoes weren't bad but yellow flies were abundant.

Very accessible nice reserve, never busy. Easy loops to enjoy nature with your pet (on a leash), with kids, and even for people with disabilities. Nice picnic tables under shade and grill area. Beautiful view specially at either sunrise or sunset. We found a confident adult heron posing for the camera during sunset at Castaway Island Preserve. The Tricolored Heron is a sleek and slender heron adorned in blue-gray, lavender, and white. The white stripe down the middle of its sinuous neck and its white belly set it apart from other dark herons.

Such a great place to explore with kids. It’s educational, it gets the kids moving and it’s interesting for them. We love coming here for a nice walk and to read about the animals that live in a salt marsh. The best time to come is at sunset because the view of the water is unbeatable. The trails are nicely paved, making it accessible with a stroller. The views are beautiful. It’s nice and clean. I’m not sure if they are still open but they did have bathrooms in the big building, which is always a plus when you go anywhere with kids. We also saw crabs in the dirt. The kids really loved that.

Okay, sit down I have a story to tell you… Me and my fellow associates were waiting to go to play go-carts as a local club when we felt the desire to go for a jolly walk. When it comes to availability, Castaway did not disappoint! We showed up and got out of the car. The weather was 90 but it felt like 100 according to the weather app on my apple iPhone 11. When we first got here, I noticed many beautiful sights. One of the sights was blocked by a trash can. Granted, it was conveniently placed, so I have no reason to complain. I will provide pictures to show what I saw. We (my associates and I) endeavored on the bridge of wood. Once reaching the end, we turned around with great haste. And to my surprise and sudden awe, we see a lovely gentlemen in a Chevy Silverado with dreads taking out the trash! What service!!! However, my only concern is that there was trash left in the bottom of the trash can. Personally, I enjoy talking whopping sniffie sniffs of the trash can, but here at Castaway Island Preserve, I can’t do that. I love the effort to make this place clean though. We also saw crabs. I would recommend this place to my friends but I would tell them to sniff their trash cans before they get here…

Nice trail with nice views, Isn’t very big but worth checking out

I visit this park and walk the trails periodically, but I'd never been following a hurricane. It flooded after Hurricane Ian. The concrete trail leading to the boardwalks disappeared completely under water the day after the hurricane. The boardwalk by the parking lot, and the parking lot itself seemed to be disappearing underwater as well, so if you visit during a rising or high tide be prepared to move out quickly if there's been recent heavy rains. I was there at low tide recently but the water was still rising anyway. It's a beautiful interpretive park any other time with very good signage and fishing opportunities. Just be aware of your surroundings and any swamp creatures.