If you live in Plantation Bay, you already know the drill without thinking about it. Turn right out of the north entrance onto Old Dixie Highway, cross Interstate 95, and you're on the Ormond Scenic Loop before your coffee has cooled. It's the same two-lane stretch of oak canopy that gets you to the beach, to the Publix-anchored shopping center just past the interstate, and, for a lot of residents, to Bulow Creek State Park for a Saturday walk.
So when Florida State Parks posts a notice that the Bulow Woods Trail is closed for storm cleanup, it sounds like the whole outing is off the table. It isn't. The closure covers the southern stretch of a trail that actually runs between two separate parks in two separate counties, and the part closest to your own front gate is open right now.
What the closure notice is actually talking about
The Bulow Woods Trail isn't a loop. It's a linear path, roughly six and a half to seven miles one way, connecting the Fairchild Oak parking area at Bulow Creek State Park on the Ormond Beach side to Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park up near Flagler Beach. Florida State Parks' own status page for Bulow Creek confirms portions of the trail remain closed due to storm impacts, with cleanup still underway. Trail-tracking sites describe that closure more specifically as the southern portion of the route.
That distinction matters because "southern portion" and "the trail near Plantation Bay" are not the same thing. The section closest to your neighborhood is the north end of that same linear trail, and it's the section that's staying open.
Two trailheads, same trail, different addresses
Here's where the geography gets useful instead of confusing. The Bulow Woods Trail has entry points at both ends, and they don't feel like the same park at all.
| Trailhead | Address | Getting there from Plantation Bay | Status right now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairchild Oak / Bulow Creek State Park | 3351 Old Dixie Highway, Ormond Beach | Exit north, cross I-95, continue on Old Dixie Highway | Open, no entry fee |
| Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park | 3501 Old Kings Road, Flagler Beach | I-95 to exit 278, then Old Dixie Highway east 0.9 mile to Old Kings Road, north 1.9 miles | Southern connector trail closed |
Both trailheads sit off the same I-95 interchange Plantation Bay itself uses, exit 278. That's part of why it's easy to assume a closure at one end means the whole system is shut down. It doesn't. The oak hammock loop trails clustered around the Fairchild Oak parking area, on your side of the trail, are unaffected.
What's fully open right now
If you park at the Fairchild Oak lot on Old Dixie Highway, three things are available without restriction.
- The short walk to the Fairchild Oak itself, a live oak estimated to be more than 400 years old, with no entry fee and paved parking at the trailhead.
- The Wahlin Trail, a short loop that circles a groundwater spring and starts from the same parking area.
- The Boardman Pond Observation Trail, a spur that leads to a birding platform overlooking a shorebird habitat, reached from a separate entrance on Walter Boardman Lane just west of the bridge.
That last one is worth pausing on, because Walter Boardman Lane already does double duty for a lot of Plantation Bay residents.
The road you already drive to the beach is also a trailhead
If your version of a beach day starts with turning right on Old Dixie Highway, crossing I-95, and turning left onto Walter Boardman Lane before picking up High Bridge Road to A1A, you've been driving directly past a trail entrance the entire time. The parking area just west of the bridge on Walter Boardman Lane is the access point for the Boardman Pond Observation Trail, a short hike north along the Bulow Woods Trail to a spur that leads to the overlook. Species reported there include American Avocet, Dunlin, Lesser Yellowlegs and a rotating cast of migratory ducks, depending on the season.
It's not a detour. It's a five-minute stop on a drive you were already making.
Why the closure sits where it does
The southern stretch of the Bulow Woods Trail, the part between the Fairchild Oak area and the Old Kings Road entrance near Flagler Beach, runs through denser hardwood swamp and pine flatwoods than the oak hammock loops up near your end. That terrain has a track record of trouble even outside storm season. Trail reviewers have described the route as impassable during heavy rain, and visitors to the plantation ruins side have noted the access road flooding after storms independent of any named weather event. The current storm-related closure is layered on top of a trail that was already prone to seasonal soft spots in that particular stretch.
None of that touches the shorter loops near the Fairchild Oak lot, which sit on higher, drier ground and have stayed open through past rainy seasons without the same flooding pattern.
Before you head out
A few habits are worth building into your next Loop day, especially while the storm cleanup is ongoing.
- Check the Florida State Parks page for Bulow Creek before you drive out, since trail status updates there directly.
- If you're aiming for the Wahlin Trail or the Fairchild Oak, park at the Old Dixie Highway lot rather than trying to reach it from the Flagler Beach side.
- If birding is the goal, the Walter Boardman Lane entrance gets you to the observation platform without touching the closed southern stretch at all.
- Leashed pets are welcome at Bulow Creek trailheads, and there's no entrance fee at any of the Ormond Beach side access points, though the Bulow Plantation Ruins side does charge for entry.
The Loop is maintained, not just scenic
It's easy to treat the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail as a fixed backdrop, the kind of thing that's just always there when you want a drive or a walk. It's actually an active, managed corridor. Volusia County partnered with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences on an initiative called ReGrow the Loop, aimed at improving the roadway corridor through native landscaping education, invasive species removal, and volunteer cleanup events. Nancy Galdo, vice chair of the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail organization, has described the effort as an ongoing collaboration between the county, the city of Ormond Beach, and state park rangers.
That kind of upkeep is also why a storm closure eventually clears rather than becoming permanent. The trail you're used to will be back to its full length. In the meantime, the loops at your end are open, the birding platform on Walter Boardman Lane is open, and the drive to the beach hasn't changed at all.
If you're weighing a move to Plantation Bay yourself, or you know someone who's been eyeing the neighborhood from a distance, Geri Davis puts together a free, no-obligation market snapshot for the area any time you want one. It's the same kind of specific, no-fluff detail as a trail update, just for the housing side of things.
