Residential and commercial communities on the corridor have blended quietly into the natural setting. The roadway features wildflowers, Spanish moss, oak canopies, coquina rock beaches and sea oat protected dunes. All along the route, small informative signs direct the visitor to many features, including Indian mounds, plantation ruins, ecologically critical plant communities, and access to the beaches, river, fishing, canoeing, picnicking, parking and facilities. The visitor meanders into the canopied oak hammock edged with wildflowers or views the ocean washing on the coquina rocks or the wildlife associated with the river where one sees an otter, a roseate spoonbill, osprey, woodstorks, dolphin or West Indian manatee. The road and path provide access to 1,000 acres of public parks and greenways as well as extensive access to the Matanzas River, the estuary and 11.3 miles of beaches.
Preservation is important throughout the corridor.
This is seen at the River to Sea Preserve at Marineland where one finds restored ocean dunes, trails through a maritime oak hammock, and scrub oak with families of scrub jays as well as extended views of the Matanzas River estuary. Historical preservation is evident not only by the oceanarium and its research, early underwater movie production history and gathering place for early twentieth century literary icons, but by the preservation of the plantation ruins of General Joseph Hernandez, Florida's first delegate to Congress, at the County's Bings Landing Park. Here one may see the remains of the plantation home and many of the artifacts found during excavation. The corridor traverses part of the General Hernandez' early nineteenth century plantation system, including Bella Vista, Mala Compra, and Byck's Hammock. Additionally, the visitor may view exhibits about the remains of mastodon, taper, prehistoric camel and turtles, which were found along the corridor.