Ashley River Park Forest Trail , 2023

 

Emboldened by the success of our 4/1/23  walk around the Ashley River Park Fishing Lakes, we decided today to explore a  more challenging trail that wanders through the low country forest bordering the Ashley River.

The trail starts out from the parking lot near the Park's main
 catch-and-release fishing lake, 

then follows an easy gravel path across a grassy field into the cypress and hardwood forest east of the lakes towards a small fishing dock on the Ashley River.

I don't know whether the fishing is good from this pier, but it is a safe and pleasant place to rest and get a good look at the Ashley River in both directions.  The photo above was taken looking east and downstream  and the photo below shows the view from the pier  looking upstream (west),

 

Getting  to the fishing dock  from the parking lot is an easy stroll, 

  but if you want to continue following the forest trail further downstream (which we did) the hiking gets a bit more adventurous.

Portions of the trail feel down-right Jurassic.

The area is swampy 

and is crisscrossed with small creeks,.

and other hazards

like cypress knees and alligators

Some of these dangers can be hard to spot in the dense native forest understory vegetation (which includes large stands of prickly saw palmetto and bamboo),

so for their visitors' safety, the park has installed long wooden walkways across the wettest sections of the trails.

And, in some sections of the trail,  the park has added soil to raise the level f the path above the surrounding area so that visitors can stay dry and have a clear view of what is around them.

In spite of its Jurassic era-like vibe, this short little trail (It is less than a mile) provides a delightful and relatively safe walk through a low country ecosystem that is usually very hard to see up close. We really enjoyed the walk and are sure to revisit it.