Overview: The thing that stands out most about High Ridge Scrub Natural Area is the terrain. Flat it ain't. Perhaps it's the result of High Ridge's distant past — it is part of the Florida Coastal Ridge, once an ancient beach. More recently, a portion of it was used as a sand mine until the mid-1960s — but much of it is a series of rolling hills, making it unusual, perhaps unique, at least among the preserves, parks and natural areas found in South Palm Beach County. It also makes High Ridge fun to explore — you want to see what's over the next hill.
High Ridge is small, only 39 acres, but offers nearly two miles of hiking trails. It's mostly scrub, scrubby flatwoods, disturbed scrub and flatwoods, rare habitats in Florida. It's one of four natural areas within a few miles of each other that are the remnants of scrub and scrubby flatwoods that dominated the land between Lake Worth (the body of water, not the town) to the east and a chain of lakes and marshes — what's now called the Lake Osborne chain — to the west.
The History: During the early 1950s, High Ridge was a sand mine, providing fill for wet areas around Manalapan. Later, the same are was mined for the underlying orange soil. In places as much as 30 feet of sand and soil was stripped off the land and hauled off. In the 1990s, residents of the neighborhood, upset about how the land was being used and future development plans, asked Palm Beach County to buy High Ridge for use as a preserve, which it did in 1999 and 2000. High Ridge was on the list of high-priority environmentally sensitive lands when Palm Beach County began its natural areas program
What You'll See: Parts of High Ridge are almost desert-like, with low, sparse vegetation. Pricklypear cactus, in fact, is one of the dominant plants, along with Walter's groundcherry, partridge pea and narrowleaf silkgrass. In other places, scrub oaks, staggerbush, saw palmetto take over, while in others sand pines rule the canopy. Species we've spotted include gopher tortoise, black racer snakes, eastern cottontail rabbit, greenbriar, corkystem passion flower, east coast dune sunflower, ballmoss, Spanish moss, love vine, Florida rosemary and largeflowered rosemary. We've seen rare atala butterflies fluttering about the site.
Amenties: There’s a quarter-mile accessible nature trail called the Silkgrass, and a 1.5 mile natural surface hiking trail, with benches and a shelter. An educational kiosk and brochures provide an idea of what to see on the site. There is a small parking lot but no drinking water and toilets.
For more on High Ridge Scrub: The county's 2000 management plan, which includes a history if the site and lists of plants and animals found on site is here.
High Ridge is small, only 39 acres, but offers nearly two miles of hiking trails. It's mostly scrub, scrubby flatwoods, disturbed scrub and flatwoods, rare habitats in Florida. It's one of four natural areas within a few miles of each other that are the remnants of scrub and scrubby flatwoods that dominated the land between Lake Worth (the body of water, not the town) to the east and a chain of lakes and marshes — what's now called the Lake Osborne chain — to the west.
The History: During the early 1950s, High Ridge was a sand mine, providing fill for wet areas around Manalapan. Later, the same are was mined for the underlying orange soil. In places as much as 30 feet of sand and soil was stripped off the land and hauled off. In the 1990s, residents of the neighborhood, upset about how the land was being used and future development plans, asked Palm Beach County to buy High Ridge for use as a preserve, which it did in 1999 and 2000. High Ridge was on the list of high-priority environmentally sensitive lands when Palm Beach County began its natural areas program
What You'll See: Parts of High Ridge are almost desert-like, with low, sparse vegetation. Pricklypear cactus, in fact, is one of the dominant plants, along with Walter's groundcherry, partridge pea and narrowleaf silkgrass. In other places, scrub oaks, staggerbush, saw palmetto take over, while in others sand pines rule the canopy. Species we've spotted include gopher tortoise, black racer snakes, eastern cottontail rabbit, greenbriar, corkystem passion flower, east coast dune sunflower, ballmoss, Spanish moss, love vine, Florida rosemary and largeflowered rosemary. We've seen rare atala butterflies fluttering about the site.
Amenties: There’s a quarter-mile accessible nature trail called the Silkgrass, and a 1.5 mile natural surface hiking trail, with benches and a shelter. An educational kiosk and brochures provide an idea of what to see on the site. There is a small parking lot but no drinking water and toilets.
For more on High Ridge Scrub: The county's 2000 management plan, which includes a history if the site and lists of plants and animals found on site is here.
