On our way out of Pensacola, Florida, this morning, my wife and I visited Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, southwest of the city. The Preserve's 4200 acres stretch east of Perdido Bay, occupying (and expanding) the former site of the Perdido Pitcher Plant Prairie. Known for its orchids and carnivorous plants, the refuge is accessed via a network of earthen trails and boardwalks.
Short on time and de-energized by the heat, we settled on the Tarkiln Bayou Trail (1.5 miles roundtrip), which leads southwest from the parking lot on State Route 293. This paved walkway first crosses a woodland of slash pine and saw palmetto and then snakes atop boardwalks where pitcher plants (primarily of the white-topped species) abound in the shallow wetlands. The trail ends on the east shore of scenic Tarkiln Bayou, which is surrounded by tidal marsh and empties into Perdido Bay.
This State Park is named for tar kilns, locally used in the 1800s to process pine tar that was collected from southern yellow pines (commonly known as slash pines); the tar was used primarily by the shipping industry but also in the production of soap. While the refuge is home to an excellent diversity of wildlife, we encountered only ospreys, red-headed woodpeckers and eastern towhees on this hot August morning.
Short on time and de-energized by the heat, we settled on the Tarkiln Bayou Trail (1.5 miles roundtrip), which leads southwest from the parking lot on State Route 293. This paved walkway first crosses a woodland of slash pine and saw palmetto and then snakes atop boardwalks where pitcher plants (primarily of the white-topped species) abound in the shallow wetlands. The trail ends on the east shore of scenic Tarkiln Bayou, which is surrounded by tidal marsh and empties into Perdido Bay.
This State Park is named for tar kilns, locally used in the 1800s to process pine tar that was collected from southern yellow pines (commonly known as slash pines); the tar was used primarily by the shipping industry but also in the production of soap. While the refuge is home to an excellent diversity of wildlife, we encountered only ospreys, red-headed woodpeckers and eastern towhees on this hot August morning.
