Cradle Creek Preserve — Attraction in Jacksonville Beach

Small preserve nestled into a corner bend off of Fairway lane and 15th St S. It has a single loop trail with two branch offs. One leads to a viewing overlook into the marsh where you may Cedar Waxwings feeding off the riped berries in the trees. The second walks out onto a kayak/canoe launch into the intercoastal marshes. We've seen Osprey and Bald Eagles battle for territory in the tree snags here. It's quiet and has a meditative peacefulness where you can find yourself or lose yourself self...

The place was very pretty, but the parking area is extremely small. Like 4 parking spots and one of those, I think, was a handicap spot. There are wooden walkways along a lot of the trail, but there are also wide dirt paths too. It was drizzling a little and yellow flies (?) were out chasing us. We only went down the short overlook trail to the right before we had a outrun the flies back to the car. Maybe we'll try again and go to the left trail, see if...

We were in town on business for the day and passed this park in what seemed like in the back of a subdivision on our way to our destination. We decided to check it out after we had concluded our business. I’m glad we did!! We had a nice relaxing hour walk before hitting the road for our 2hr drive home! We walked about a mile on the really nice trails. Nice overlook on the water! Saw 3 woodpeckers. If you are in the area...