Longer Day Trips: Torreya State Park

In the month of March, we were in North Florida, and while on our way home from the panhandle we decided to stop briefly at Torreya State Park. After changing into some play clothes and eating a picnic lunch near the playground. The kids played a bit while Gary and I talked. After a little while we took off on a trail. The trails at Torreya aren't named, but on the park map have notations of where they meet up and the distance between them. So we took a path down the hills side near to where the bluffs overlook the Apalachicola River, when it started sprinkling on us. Gary opted to hike back up the hillside to the car, while we traveled on to the Gregory house, taking a winding trail with many elevational changes. It would have been a trial for Gary to have continued, but the kids loved it. Fording brooks and climbing steep trails, were right up the kids alley.

The state park is named for the Torreya tree, a rather rare variety of tree. They grow wild in this area, and we stopped to admire the uniquely shaped leaves and the berries that were growing at the time. The trail we took was significant not only for the Torreya tree, but in that it also passes by six Confederate gun pits on Neal's Bluff, where cannons were nestled to attack any Union forces attempting to travel up river. The Gregory House once was on the opposing side of the river, but was moved by the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s to it's present day location in the park. We arrived too late in the afternoon for a house tour, but enjoyed looking in the windows and looking out over the river from behind the house.

As this isn't out of our way on our trips to Alabama and back, we might try to check this out again, and tour the house if the timing lines up sometime. The campground is currently closed for renovations so we didn't stop by there, but it seems like a nice area for a camping trip. If you too would like to visit, the address to Torreya State Park is 2576 N.W. Torreya Park Road, Bristol, Florida. You can always call 850-643-2674 for more information. Entrance is $3 a vehicle and they are open from 8 to sunset every day.