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| Kingsley Plantation, Jacksonville Florida |
During our second major road trip since our early retirement in 2020, which was to travel through the American South/Deep South/Central South, we found ourselves spending 3 nights/4 days in Jacksonville Florida. This was of course intentional, as we wanted to really get to know the city that was so easily missed on our previous trips driving along the I-95 corridor.
Compared to many other destinations during our 8 week long trip, Jacksonville is where we really got to push ourselves to visit more than our usual share of places. Why is that, you ask?
Well, for one thing, there are just so many neat attractions in and around the city. While planning for this particular destination, I really got busy figuring out our must visit places from a list of potential candidates. Luckily, the city and the suburbs had so much to offer!
We narrowed our list down to 3, all within an easy driving distance of roughly an hour from the downtown Jacksonville area, offering everything from historical attractions to big cat animal refuges. We had a great time visiting these destinations, and we think you’ll enjoy them as well.
Without further ado, please see below for our list of our top must visit places in Jacksonville suburbs!
- Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary
Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary is listed as the top attraction according to TripAdvisor, and I heartily agree. There are volunteers who who really want to help these neglected animals and the sanctuary provides lifelong care for them until they inevitably die. None of the animals are sold off or abandoned, which we really liked.
Even if the sanctuary itself isn’t the cleanest or the most updated (we recommend wearing boots to this place especially if you’re visiting on a rainy day), we loved this place where we really got to see tigers, lions, black bears, and others, up close and personal.
The day we visited the sanctuary was not raining but the grounds were still wet from the previous days rain. We didn’t think much about it, so we had our sneakers on, which was a bad idea! We had to clean up our sneakers after our visit as the place was muddy at some spots.
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| Entrance to the Catty Shack Ranch |
After paying a very reasonable entrance fee of $15 per person, we followed the rest of the excited crowd into the ranch. The smell of large animals filled the air, intermixed with the earthy aroma of wet grass and wet earth.
We encountered first of many awesome and beautiful tigers. Compared to typical zoos where we are lucky to see one about 100 feet away, at the ranch, we saw them mere 2 feet away. Tigers were either relaxing or roaming around the large cage, clearly weary of many new faces and smells of excited fans.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of them as they are one of my favorite creatures in the world! Their powerful build, the majestic black stripes on sable colored fur, and their gigantic paws are certainly mesmerizing. It is truly one of nature’s finest top apex predators.
After several minutes, we heard an announcement from a caretaker at the ranch near the black bear cage, across from the tiger cage. They were preparing to feed the bear with his favorite treats including corn and grapes.
We were excited to see a large black bear and we could see he was excited to be fed himself! The caretaker left several treats along the cage, so he can go around and find them along the cage’s fence. We loved how he would lumber along but always finding his treats in a fun game of hide & seek.
He would take small pieces of grapes in a vine, then gulp them down in one motion. I guess he was hungry!
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| Black bear at the Catty Shack Ranch |
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| Fierce looking male lion named Abu |
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| A female lion |
After the black bear feeding, we moved along the ranch, encountering various lions and other animals like leopards, cougars, bobcats, foxes, horses, and caracals. One of the highlights of the visit for us was the male lion play time and feed time.
The caretaker was explaining how the male lion loves to play with donated Christmas trees by jumping on it, biting it, and just playing with it like any cute animal given a toy to play with. The only difference was that this “cute animal” weighed 400+ pounds! Definitely not a cute and cuddly cat or a cute and huggable dog.
We watched the male lion spend several minutes with the tree, tearing the branches off of the tree, then eventually getting bored with it. Soon thereafter, the feeding time came.
The caretaker gave the same male lion the whole chicken which we he ate, and we were just about 2 feet away. He chomped into the chicken and we could tell he was eating all of the chicken, including the chicken meat and the bones! Whoa. We’ll never forget the sound of him chewing the bones on that chicken, as it was incredibly loud from mere 2 feet away…
Very cool indeed!
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| Tiger drinking water |
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| Abu the male lion relaxing |
- Kingsley Plantation (located within Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve)
Kingsley Plantation, located about 25 miles from the Southbank Riverwalk in downtown Jacksonville, is a historical plantation of Zephaniah Kingsley, a plantation owner, a slave trader, a planter, and a merchant from the United Kingdom. Unusual for a white slave owner, he granted freedoms to his many slaves who worked for him.
What intrigued me the most was not only the history of the plantation, but of the plantation’s beauty, built along the banks of the Fort George River. In fact, many online guidebooks recommended this place as one of the best places to visit in Jacksonville, so on we went!
We left our hotel on a chilly sunny morning in Jacksonville towards Kingsley Plantation. The drive would take us along the Florida coast with plenty of swamps/marshes coming into view.
It took roughly an hour to get there, but the road into the plantation was one of those narrow roads where you can easily get lost, taking a wrong turn somewhere. Luckily, our Google Maps was able to get us there in one piece.
We transversed over some rough and half-muddy unpaved road right near the entrance to the plantation, then sighed a relief that we had made it ok! Directly ahead of the parking lot was the imposing main home of the Kingsley Plantation with expansive views of the gorgeous river up ahead.
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| View of the house from the parking lot, Kingsley Plantation |
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| The barn on right |
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| Gorgeous views of the grounds and the Fort George River |
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| View of the main house of Kingsley Plantation, taken near the river |
We headed towards the main house, where we saw signs for self-guided tours to explore at our own pace. We first looked inside a small work area where indigo would’ve been processed. We saw small drums and samples of cotton on the table. We learned how smelly indigo processing would’ve been and how environmentally destructive the process was.
We also wondered about the slaves that worked on these day in and day out, without any hope of one day realizing their version of a better future for themselves and their offspring. We felt thankful we’re not living in those conditions and we’re not living during those turbulent times in our nation’s history.
We moved out of the work area, then headed upstairs to check out the house. By that time, a park ranger was wrapping up a guided tour of the house, answering questions from those in attendance. We bypassed the group to see the house on our own time.
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| View of the river from inside the house |
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| Our favorite view of the grounds/river from inside the house |
The views, thanks to large floor to ceiling windows, were truly spectacular! We could easily see ourselves enjoying the views had we lived inside there as Kingsleys few hundred years ago.
After a quick tour of the main house, we moved outside to walk the well-maintained grounds and to check out the river. We ran across a fisherman right by the river bank and we chatted with him for few minutes, asking how many fishes he had caught, as well as how we liked our fishes cooked. I prefer grilling (blackened) and he heartily agreed!
We truly enjoyed walking around the grounds with that gorgeous view of the Fort George River providing a dramatic contrast in colors: bit of blue of the river and the sky, lots of beige of the marsh across the river, green of grass and plants, and of course, the white of the man made buildings & structures. Truly a wonderful sight!
After our usual stop-to-admire-the-view and to take-in-the-scenery-moment had gone past, we walked over to the rest room for a quick pit stop, then to the barn to see what was inside it. It was a great trip full of history, ambiance, and gorgeous views. Highly recommend it!
- Fort Caroline (also located within the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve)
As we were wrapping up our trip at the Kingsley Plantation, we happened to hear about Fort Caroline from a park ranger, located only several minutes away from the Kingsley Plantation. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to visit this place.
Fort Caroline has a highly rated visitor center full of interesting displays, including one of the oldest known Native American totem poles in America. Fort Caroline is also known as one of the earliest French settlements (1564) in North America.
We arrived at the visitor center eager to learn a bit more about the history of the fort, and we were greeted by a very friendly and knowledgeable park ranger right in front of the visitor center. She was super passionate about her work, and she explained the historical significance of the fort.
She recommended we check out the displays inside the visitor center, and heeding her advice, we walked inside. We took our time acquainting ourselves with the history of the place, with plenty of displays on Native Americans who made homes here prior to the arrival of European settlers in the 16th century.
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| Visitor Center, Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve, FL |
We chatted briefly with another park ranger inside the visitor center who mentioned the totem pole, which is known as one of the oldest ones in America. Very cool indeed!
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| View outside from the visitor center |
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| The totem pole! |
As recommended by the ranger, we followed the path outside the visitor center (French Memorial Trail) to walk towards the fort. Along the way, we briefly stopped to take a look at a Native American hut and a canoe.
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| Very rudimentary canoe |
The trail was short, and we made it to the fort within the next 5 minutes or so. It was a small fort compared to the ones we’ve seen before but we certainly liked the views from the fort of the St Johns River.
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| Fort Caroline |
The same park ranger who had greeted us outside the visitor center was manning the fort! We chatted with her for several minutes, learning about the fierce battles that took place between the French and the Spanish. We loved her enthusiasm and knowledge of the fort and its history! She absolutely was one of the very best park rangers we had encountered in all our our travels.
What an awesome place full of views and history…
In conclusion:
Jacksonville was so much more than just a big city on the way to and from Orlando. It has a vibrant city life with tons of attractions, while the city’s suburbs have fascinating attractions like the ones mentioned above.
We will no longer consider Jacksonville just a city we pass by. We had a fun filled 3 nights/4 days trip, and we’re glad we actually spent some quality time there.
We think you’ll enjoy everything the city has to offer and we highly recommend visiting it! Happy trails and keep up with us on our continuing adventures through the American South.
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
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