Black Creek Trail

Directions

This spot is located on Fleming Island Florida just outside of Jacksonville. To get there you need to travel South on Highway 17 towards Green Cove. Right before you cross over the bridge to Green Cove there will be a road branching off of the highway to the right, travel down that road and how will find a small parking lot and that is the beginning of the trail.

Photo Spot Details

This spot is an absolutely amazing spit to go as a beginner to help hone in your skills and to get some good practice taking photos of nature. This spot is also excellent for more professional photographers to get some beautiful photos of Florida wilderness.

Once you arrive at the parking lot there will be a well paved asphalt trail leading off to the right and a less well paved trail leading to the left. The trail to the right can be a great spot for phtographs provided there are not many people taking runs (there are typically less people later in the evening). As you travel down the trail to the right there will be a trail branching off to the left next to a bench, this trail travels parallel to the main asphalt trail but is not paved and is more suitable for someone looking to take more natural photos. There is not very much of particular interest along the path to the right unless you depart from the path and go West where you’ll find a swampy area. The nature path to the left has an old truck bed with a tree leaning across it that would be great for doing modeling shoots, if you continue down that path you will eventually join up with the more eroded asphalt path that led off to the left of the parking lot. Walking along the path provides beautiful scenery with a canopy of trees above your head and the coast of Black Creek which, at the right time of day, will be a spot for a beautiful photo of the tree line and its reflection on the water.

This area is most easily photographed at mid day, given you can handle the heat of the Florida sun. This spot is also very good at sunset with the light reflecting off of the water and the reddish pink sunlight poking through the branches. This area can get rather swampy and hard to navigate if you are deeper in the woods when there is a lot of rainfall, which typically happens in the summer time. The summer is a great time to photograph though due to the fact there is a larger amount of foliage in the forest. The winter is a good time if you really want to get deep into the woods without having to worry about navigating through dense brush and getting bit up by tics, the only issue is that pictures can seem sort of lifeless with the lack of plants in the ground.

Overall this is a great photo spot for a short day of photography and a good spot to practice for beginners.