Hikers can stroll through 4 miles of nature trails in Crooked River State Park’s maritime forests and salt marshes. The park also offers biking, boating, fishing, camping/cottages, and miniature golf.
Crooked River State Park
2025 Price: $5 per vehicle per day
Hiking Trails
There are four trails in Crooked River State Park. We hiked three of them – Bay Boardwalk Trail, River Trail, and Sempervirens Trail.
Bay Boardwalk Trail
We started on the Bay Boardwalk Trail, which curiously did not include a boardwalk. It was level terrain with minimal roots.
This 1.25-mile loop is dominated by loblolly bay and swamp bay trees. Other tree species include cinnamon fern, climbing hydrangea, fetterbrush lyonia, muscadine grapes, netted chain fern, red maple, swamp and water tupelo, sweet gum, water oak, and wax myrtle.
There was also an observation tower along the path. We climbed up for a look but did not see any additional points of interest.
River Trail
River Trail is a short path – only a few hundred yards – along the bluff. I would consider it on the easy side of moderate due to roots and steps down to the marsh.
The trail overlooks Crooked River and golden marsh grasses. These grasses are well-known along Georgia’s coast.
Sempervirens Trail
Sempervirens, meaning “ever living” in Latin, is named for the old-growth hardwoods it wanders through. According to the park, this trail boasts five Georgia Champion Trees: Carolina holly, chapman oak, Florida soapberry, myrtle oak, and staggerbush lyonia.
Sempervirens was an easy 1-mile loop trail; however, it also linked up to the easy 0.5-mile Nature Trail loop. During our visit, we made one big loop by combining the outside routes of both trails.
Wildlife
We found American robins, Carolina chickadees, eastern towhees, northern cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and yellow-rumped warblers. We also spied the bushy tails and chattering calls of tree squirrels.
Love your recommendations. Please pin the site addresses or directions. I’m not familiar with the areas and never know where these parks are located. Thanks Steph. Great photos.
I love the information you provide and the description of the squirrels 🙂 Looks like spring is on its way!
Steph, I’ve been following your blogs for a while now and you never disappoint. for those of us that need to know in advance how difficult a trail or pathway can be, you are a master of experience and truth.