Home of the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center, this park memorializes the site of a 16th-century French colony – the first European settlement in the area. Check out the Visitor Center with exhibits about the area’s natural history, European exploration, and the Timucua Native Americans. Take a hike on the many trails through mature hardwood forests. Trails lead to a Timucuan hut and shell mound exhibit and a memorial fort exhibit and former French colony along the St. Johns River. You can even tie your boat to the onsite dock. After a few hours here you can travel across the street to the Theodore Roosevelt Area.

Click here for a short video tour of Fort Caroline National Memorial.

Click here for REI’s hiking project app. Hike the trails and add your own photos to the app.

Photos: www.willdickey.com