Bulow Creek, Flagler Beach - "In Wisdom You have Made Them All"

 O LORD, how manifold are Your works!

In wisdom You have made them all.

The earth is full of Your possessions--

This great and wide sea,

In which are innumerable teeming things,

Living things both small and great.

Psalm 104:24-25 NIV

The Enchanted River at Mirkwood Forest

 

Crisco Bridge

 

It is a 3 mile hike on the Bulow Creek Loop down a forest path to Cisco Bridge. The forest path is filled with large oak trees, thick undergrowth, and wet marsh.  Oak trees branches can take very unusual shapes through the years as they grow, they stretch and twist reaching for sunlight.  These branches stretched across the trail and help to shade the sun.

 

At Cisco Bridge, the water was murky and dark with large oak branches hanging over the creek.  It was so dark that the water was reflecting the palm leaves and branches like a mirror.  The Bulow Creek Trail is reminiscent of old Florida.  Giant oak trees, hundreds of years old, have been standing since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.  The park is an ancient historical area of a plantation ruins and sugar mill where all the surrounding forest was left to grow in its natural habitat.  I wonder how did the Spaniards cross the land with such dense undergrowth and foliage.  The sunlight rays that passed through the thick foliage sparkled on the creek like spotlights.  The rays look like they were floating down the creek with the current. It was enchanting to see all the images in the water, sun rays dancing, green mirrors of palms, leaves at the bottom and small fish swimming in circles.  It was an enchanting looking glass.

I loved Lord of the Rings and recently watched all three movies again.  Through the years, it has been my movie triology of choice, particularly if I am attached to my sick bed for several days. Bulow Creek, its forest and ancient oak trees are similar to the images used by J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. 

Thorin Oaksenshield and Company in Mirkwood Forest hiking the forest path to the Enchanted River.

Bilbo Baggins, along with Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves, ventured into Mirkwood during their quest to regain the Lonely Mountain or Erebor from the dragon Smaug. There, the Dwarf Bombur fell into the Enchanted river.
The Enchanted river is a black river in Mirkwood, that flows north from its source in the Mountains of Mirkwood, until it joined the Forest River. It had fast and strong currents but was not too wide at least in the area near the Forest Path where Thorin and Company crossed it. The river's enchantment made it so that anyone who drank or bathed in the water fell into a deep sleep and when they finally awoke, could not remember anything for a long period of time. If I fell into Bulow Creek, I would be like the dwarf Bomfur and fall under its enchantment and into a deep sleep. Of course, that would be after I get home and dried off!

Bulow Creek - Hiking Red Trail

 

 

The Red Trail at Bulow State Park has some gorgeous scenery of the marsh and creek.  It was one of the most picturesque trails I have hiked between Bulow Creek State Park and the historical Bulow Plantation Ruins.