Seacrest Scrub Natural Area — Attraction in Boynton Beach

This a 54 acre preserve that protects the rare scrub habitat which formed on top of sand dunes when the sea level fell. There aren't very many of these communities left because since they were on high land and dry they were the first to be used for commercial development. There is less than 2 percent of the original scrub habitat left in Palm Beach.

I came to explore the area because it is listed as a site on the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail which is a network of 510 place to view wildlife across the state. Seacrest has a parking lot, bicycle rack, and an educational board. There is a gate to the trails that has a sign urging you to keep it closed to protect the gopher tortoises in the preserve from getting out. There are two trails, a paved nature trail that is .18 miles and a natural earth hiking trail that is 1.15 miles. The hiking trail is where you would need to go to see wildlife.

Seacrest is home to several protected plants and animals such as the gopher tortoise. I was lucky enough to see one at the end of my hike. I also saw a cardinal in a tree. Some of the plants I saw were American Beautyberry, slash pines with their pine cones which were used by settlers for lumber, sand pines, and pokeweed which has purple and black berries that feed wildlife but are poisonous to humans. Seacrest is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals. Some mammals you might see include the Gray Fox, armadillos, Gray Squirrels, and raccoons. Unfortunately the natural area is also home to Golden Orb Spiders also known as Banana Spiders. I have never seen so many in one place. They were everywhere in the trees. If you have arachnophobia stay far away from here.

Except for the spiders I enjoyed my hike here. Since the scrub pine is on top of dunes there was an incline on part of the hike. I will be back to explore more of the area when the weather cools down. Kudos to Palm Beach for saving and protecting this ecologically...

Saw wildlife almost instantly upon entering and thankfully most of the trails are shady.

I love that there’s still government funded nature preserves in Boynton Beach, FL that have a strong LNT policy (leave no trace) where you can really feel one with nature & protect the ecosystem. This does mean they have pretty restrictive rules so I don’t recommend it for social gatherings or parties, especially since they don’t have picnic tables, pavilions or even public facilities like restrooms, so do your business ahead of time lol!

They do have public parking but the downside is that the parks and recreation employees Aren’t always on time to unlock the parking lot so you have to park on the swale (side of road in grass between sidewalk & street) next to the nature area until they show up, ironically in front of the large residential community currently a construction site. I waited about 45 minutes. I got there when they were open according to their hours posted but waited move my car just under an hr. B4 ranger showed up & unlocked fence. You can still enter the park by foot but I’d either on the side of caution you hate to get your car towed...

It was lovely I saw two turtles and some spiders and some cool strange looking birds and created a nice travel video in just a few hours here.

Kind of peaceful.... I never once felt like I was deep in nature I could continually hear peopl mowing and weed whacking and stuff and the highway.

I found it very interesting that I came in and out of the area many times to change lenses or to grab different camera gear and always saw different empty cars like there were a bunch of people inside but never saw anyone.

It's worth a stop it's worth the walk. There is not one place to dispose of trash. Not one single place in the parking lot or on the grounds and so.. I saw litter quite...