Dutton Island Preserve — Attraction in Atlantic Beach

This used to be a safe place where you could bring kids to safely explore nature. 2024 The road is always worse than Midwest roads after winter, they rake around rocks instead of flattening the road. May 2025: Shady drug dealing, hot rodding cars , special black truck, and golf carts. People coming into the park camping illegally and collecting random stuff to make fires with: the wood, plants, tree branches. Privileged people with agressive dogs that they think is okay to have wandering off leash. That special person with the paddle boards that comes in at 7am with music blasting, speeding down the road. Do they let them selves in and close the gate after?. Where is the law enforcement? Driving a car for a patrol to deter people is easy so do it! Protect the community by maintaining a presence! Camping here bout the same as camping under a bridge downtown jax except here you pay. Currently the homeless community won't bother you but the privilege locals will. They will be all up in your campsite walking through like it's their right while their dogs stink up your...

It was a pretty neat place to visit. It wasn't very big and not really a place you can hike too much. I ran it all and it was about 2.5 miles from the park on the right to the run out to the island, running the island, and running back.

A hurricane came through about a week ago and gave us a lot of rain and so the road leading out to the island was flooded. I ran through it and believe any car could make it through no problem as long as they drive slowly (it was just deep enough to cover my shoes). There are campsites out there for tenting (not RV or trailer) and it would be a great place to camp out. Its right along the river and has a fishing spot on the north side of the island. If you had a kayak or canoe this would also be a great place...

What a lovely asset for local communities. You can walk, hike, fish, launch a boat or even camp overnight (with permission of course). Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts all love this close by and pretty easy nature walk. There are even a few heritage trees but get there soon as the island has been experiencing the negative effects of climate change wherein salt water intrusion and pest pressure recently have been steadily diminishing the mature tree canopy with more than 100 trees dying each year . At the current rate, it may be a more barren island with just palm trees and therefore much less wildlife in...