50 Hikes in Central Florida

by Sandra Friend

  3. Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park (28.259696, -82.633709). 5.5 miles east of this preserve is the largest trail system in Pasco County, with nearly 20 miles of paved paths and marked forest roads through pine flatwoods and oak hammocks along the watershed of the Pithlachascotee and Anclote Rivers, used by equestrians and cyclists but also popular with hikers. It includes several primitive backcountry campsites. We highlighted it in the first edition of this guidebook.

  CAMPING AND LODGING

  Quality Inn & Suites, 5316 US 19 N, New Port Richey, FL 34652 (727-847-9005, choicehotels.com)

  Seven Springs Travel Park, 8039 Old CR 54, New Port Richey, FL 34653 (727-376-0000, sevenspringsrvpark.com), no tents.

  Boardwalk leading to the St. Johns River, Black Bear Wilderness area

  III.

  ST. JOHNS

  RIVER

  De Leon Springs State Park

  Total distance: 5.1 miles. The focus of this hike, the Wild Persimmon Trail, is 4.4 miles long. Its trailhead must be accessed by the 0.6-mile paved nature trail loop.

  Hiking time: 2–2.5 hours

  Difficulty: Moderate to difficult

  Usage: $4–6 entry fee. Open 8 AM to sunset. Leashed pets welcome.

  Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 29.1370, -81.3613

  Contact Information: De Leon Springs State Park, 601 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, De Leon Springs, FL 32130 (386-985-4212, floridastateparks.org/park/De-Leon-Springs)

  When Spanish explorer Ponce De Leon sailed to Florida in 1513, he sought the fountain of youth. He wrote, “We ascended a large river, passing through two small rivers and three lakes, whence we came to a great boiling spring which the Indians call ‘Healing Waters.’” Our hike starts at this very spot, where visitors now splash, snorkel, and dive in a first-magnitude spring gushing more than 19 million gallons of slightly sulfuric waters a day to form a broad creek that feeds the St. Johns River.

  Accented by layers of human history, De Leon Springs is a fascinating place. Middens and mounds reinforce written descriptions of early encounters with the indigenous Mayaca who lived here until the Spanish settled in. This site became known as Spring Garden, developed into a grand plantation with cotton, corn, and sugarcane. Passing through several owners up through the Civil War, Spring Garden became a destination resort with an upscale 14-room hotel in the 1920s. By the 1950s, it was a roadside attraction called Ponce de Leon Springs, which closed in the early 1970s. It became a state park in 1982. The Wild Persimmon Trail was built soon after by Florida Trail Association volunteers.

  Of the park’s trails, this is the one for adventure, best visited in winter or under a strong cloud of insect repellent. Wildlife sightings are common, with the occasional Florida black bear reported. If the St. Johns River is above its normal levels, portions of the trail may be flooded, despite the bog bridges provided. If the first bridge is under water, expect an adventuresome wade through the swamp forest, where the “difficult” rating applies.

  GETTING THERE

  The town of De Leon Springs is just north of Deland on US 17. From US 17 in De Leon Springs, turn west onto Ponce De Leon Boulevard. Follow it 0.8 mile. The entrance to De Leon Springs State Park is just after the railroad crossing. You can’t miss it—it’s an unusually grand entrance surrounded by ornate murals, joined by a reproduction of a very kitschy roadside sign from 1953.

  When you stop at the ranger station to pay the entrance fee, let them know you plan to hike the Wild Persimmon Trail. Ask for a map. Turn right at the T intersection to drive to the parking area (29.136952, -81.361309) behind the museum and bathhouse. If this parking lot is full, you’ll need to use one on the other side of the park and walk across the causeway between the spring and Spring Garden Run.

  Swimming area at first-magnitude De Leon Springs

  THE HIKE

  Uphill and northeast of the spring basin, the Nature Trail begins with a kiosk in the middle of a paved path. There are two entrances to it: use the one closer to the parking area by the spring. Constructed for the attraction, the walkway fits neatly into a mature hardwood forest with towering trees. You come to a boardwalk. Follow it into the cypress swamp to see Old Methuselah, a bald cypress estimated to be more than 600 years old. It’s an amazing sight, rising more than 150 feet through the understory, and a sobering one—the forests along the St. Johns River were still populated with trees this immense just 200 years ago, before the advent of full-scale logging in the state. As you return along the boardwalk, notice the lush growth of netted chain and royal ferns along the swamp’s edge. Turn left, continuing along the paved trail. The views of the surrounding swamp were accented during the roadside attraction era, with reflection pools, an Oriental bridge, and plantings of azaleas, some of which persist today. Pass an incoming paved path. When the paved trail forks in front of you, keep right. It curves around past a bench, reaching the trailhead sign for the Wild Persimmon Trail after 0.3 mile. This is where the adventure begins.

  Blue blazes lead you down the footpath into a transitional zone between floodplain forest, hardwood hammock, and pine flatwoods. Young cabbage palms and loblolly bay crowd the understory; woodlands phlox and dayflower blooms along the grassy sides of the footpath. Hickory trees and longleaf pines tower overhead. Lichen mats cover the roots of a dahoon holly, its splotchy trunk and bright red berries catching your attention. Watch your footing along this trail, as toe-catching roots are common. Soon after passing a bench at 0.5 mile, the trail crosses a footbridge over a trickle of water flowing towards the floodplain. The shiny leaves of Southern magnolia are supplanted by loblolly bay as you draw closer to the floodplain; the footpath gets muddy in several spots before it rises through a corridor flanked by bluestem palm.

  Marker 5 is at the beginning of a series of bog boardwalks over an always-wet portion of the floodplain forest, the first one a balancing act nearly 200 feet long, flanked by ferns and reflections. Two more boardwalks follow in quick succession, with muddy spots between them. A clearing sits beyond the tree line where the trail reaches a bench at 0.8 mile. The footpath edges closer to the floodplain. More boardwalks cross the low spots before you cross the bridge at Marker 6. It’s here that the trail enters the hydric hammock. It’s dark in the forest, even in the early morning light—the broad fronds of the cabbage palms serve well to block out the light, leaving only streamers of sunshine to filter through to the dark soil and tannic water. If the river is high, this area will be very flooded. Continue following the blue blazes if the footpath becomes indistinct. Crossing two more bridges, you come to a third one overlooking a tannic stream snaking its way into the swamp. Speaking of snakes, this is prime habitat for both cottonmouth moccasins and pygmy rattlesnakes. Keep alert as you weave through the cypress knees in the footpath.

  The trail briefly skirts the edge of a meadow, where a bench overlooks the opening. It turns back in to the hydric hammock, crossing a bridge over a picturesque stream with sandbanks. You’ve hiked a mile. Marker 7 sits at the base of a bridge just before the trail gains a little elevation, which changes the landscape. The swamp yields to an oak hammock, with water oaks and laurel oaks, but only briefly. It gets muddy again beyond the next bench, as you’re back amid the dense palm fronds and drainages across the trail.

  Bridge along the edge of the floodplain of Spring Garden Run

  After 1.4 miles, you’ve reached the beginning of the loop portion of the Wild Persimmon Trail, starting and ending at this bench. Continue past the bench to stay with the floodplain side of the loop. Beyond another bench at the base of a stand of southern magnolia, the trail meets Marker 8, which calls attention to a transition into an oak hammock. The canopy overhead becomes increasingly high; saw palmetto makes up the understory. A pileated woodpecker dives past, flashing its distinctive red crown and black-and-white wings in flight. Rounding a corner of an open area, the trail resumes its canopied route through drier habitats, edged by ancient saw palmetto and bluestem palmetto under loblolly pines, magnolias, and oaks.

&
nbsp; Leaving the palm hammock for the wild persimmon grove at Marker 10

  As the habitat grows lusher, the live oaks offer even better shade. Bromeliads—air plants—thrive in this humid hammock along the rim of Spring Garden Run’s floodplain swamp; oak trunks sprout wild pine-like hair. Long green plumes of goldfoot fern cascade from the soft thatch just below a cabbage palm’s fronds. It gets muddy once again as the trail dances in and out of the hydric hammock. Just past a bench at 1.9 miles, there are puddles across the footpath, the low spot in the forest. Work your way around them. Tannic water covers much of the forest floor. As the trail swings right, it guides you through an immense palm hammock, with the cypresses along the spring run visible in the distance beyond. Fungi thrives in the leaf litter. The thick, arching limbs of live oaks break up the angular feel of the cabbage palm trunks. Bluestem palmetto, sabal minor, thrives in the shade. While it looks similar to saw palmetto, the fronds drape softly; saw palmetto fronds are stiff. There are also no saw teeth on the stems of a bluestem frond. By 2.1 miles, you’re immersed in the beauty of the oak and palm hammock, a perfect panorama in every direction, even straight up.

  When the cabbage palms thin out, it’s time for another habitat change, this time back to the oak hammock. This drier spot signals the end of the trail’s traverse along the floodplain, at least until you finish the loop. Just beyond the bench at Marker 9, your surroundings transition from natural habitat into restoration area as the trail emerges into a former open pasture. Since our first visit here 18 years ago, we’ve watched the transformation from pasture to meadow to forest. From an aerial view, the old pastures are obvious. They’re less so when you’re on foot. The same goes for the grove of wild persimmon trees that this trail is named for. Marker 10 points out the location, straight ahead as you leave the oak hammock for an area with tufts of grass and flourishing sweetgum trees. In winter and spring, the wild persimmon trees are indistinct from the surrounding trees. In fall, when their foliage falls off, small orange fruits remain. Pucker up if you pop one in your mouth—wild persimmons are extremely astringent when first picked, but turn sweet when they are allowed to ripen. Raccoons and opossums crave the ripened fruits fallen beneath the trees.

  Walking through these woods, you may briefly hear traffic in the distance, since this part of the park is close to CR 3. A grassy aisle through the young forest, the trail skirts around older live oaks and along colorful stands of sweetgum, which sport red and purple leaves in the fall. At 2.5 miles, you pass a bench in a shady oak hammock. The trail curves out of the hammock back to the grassy aisle. Since large trees are few, blaze post markers tipped with blue and topped with arrows are used through the restoration area, since there are many side trails beaten down by deer. Soon after, the trail enters another hammock of oaks and palms, where it’s easy to lose the footpath in one spot. Keep watching for the next blue blaze. Emerging back onto the grassy aisle, it passes showy clumps of Carolina jessamine, flowering in winter and spring.

  Approaching the next bench, you see a blue-tipped fencepost with barbed wire remaining from the old ranch. The trail turns right down the grassy aisle, meandering into a very open oak hammock briefly before passing a bog. Making a sharp left turn away from going straight into a cypress dome at Marker 12, you follow the grassy aisle beneath the pines towards a marker that says EXIT. Just beyond it is a large sign about Florida black bears. A mature oak hammock with a well-knitted canopy shades the next set of benches, which look like the remnants of a former primitive campsite. In fact, there’s a picnic table under the oaks beyond the open area where the benches face each other as if across a fire ring. Take a well-deserved break here. Sit here a while, and you may be rewarded with the appearance of white-tailed deer in the clearing, or the hurried scampering of a flock of wild turkey into the underbrush.

  Leaving this clearing, the trail swings right, passing under a stand of live oaks. Short blaze posts guide you up to the tree line of the floodplain forest and into it, completing the loop portion of the Wild Persimmon Trail at a bench at Marker 13. The post next to the bench points left, towards the exit. You’ve hiked 3 miles. It’s time to backtrack through the dense palm fronds and muddy edges of the floodplain. In this direction, you get nice perspectives down the streams in the hydric hammock as you cross each of the bridges again. As you follow the blue blazes, notice the interesting fungi growing at the bases of the trees. By the time you return to the bog bridges, at 3.5 miles, they’re a welcome sight. Take your time crossing them, as they may be slippery.

  You reach the Wild Persimmon Trailhead at the paved nature trail after 4.4 miles. Continue around the loop, passing the entrance to the Monkey Island Trail. This 0.5-mile diversion (see Other Hiking Options) is worthwhile if you’re up for it. Or save it for later, as you have another task to attend to. Stay left at each divergence of the paved trail until you’re back to the trailhead kiosk. Continue down to the parking area and spring.

  Cross the causeway over to the Old Spanish Sugar Mill Grill & Griddle House, where visitors flock for its renowned and unique meals. Using batter made with grain stone-ground at the old mill, you pour out your own flapjacks on the center of your table, a hot griddle shared with the other people at the table. If bacon and eggs are more your style, try them instead. Breakfast goes on all day, but you might wait 2 or 3 hours for your name to be called. Check when you arrive at the park, and if the wait time is long, you might be able to hike the Wild Persimmon Trail before your name comes up on the roster. They won’t hold the table for you, though—we missed ours by 15 minutes—so if you put your name on the list after the hike, you’ll have time to visit the museum, cool down in the spring after your hike, and perhaps even take an ecotour cruise down Spring Garden Run.

  OTHER HIKING OPTIONS

  1. Accessible Route. Nearly a mile of paved nature trails, and the boardwalk to Old Methuselah, are fully accessible for wheelchairs and mobility devices. Slow walkers will appreciate the beautiful surroundings, ancient trees, and azalea blossoms in springtime, with numerous benches providing rest stops along the way.

  2. Monkey Island Trail (29.136733, -81.361467). A 0.25-mile linear spur trail off the paved nature trail, this footpath on a berm through the floodplain forest was called the Audubon Trail when De Leon Springs was a resort and natural theme park. Ending at a bench in the swamp near Spring Garden Lake, it provides a tiny taste of the surroundings found on the Wild Persimmon Trail. Don’t miss the short side path to see what remains of Monkey Island, once a stop along the Jungle Cruise.

  3. Lake Woodruff NWR (29.106825, -81.371012). Head south on Grand Avenue from DeLeon Springs to access the main entrance of this 22,000-acre refuge at 2045 Mud Lake Road. Stop at the visitor center (29.107373, -81.366576) for a map, then follow the road until it ends at the main parking lot. Hike or bike the open levees to Jones Island, where one of the trails leads to Pontoon Landing on the St. Johns River, a 6-mile round-trip. Two shorter footpaths loop through shady hammocks closer to the main parking lot.

  CAMPING AND LODGING

  Lake Dias Park, 320 SR 11, DeLeon Springs, FL 32130 (386-736-5953, volusia.org), no tents.

  Highland Park Fish Camp, 2640 W Highland Park Road, Deland, FL 32720 (386-734-2334, highlandparkfishcamp.com)

  Deland Artisan Inn, 215 S Woodland Boulevard, Deland, FL 32720 (386-943-4410, artisandowntown.com)

  St. Francis Trail

  Total distance: 7.9 miles on a balloon-shaped route

  Hiking time: 4 hours

  Difficulty: Moderate to difficult

  Usage: Free. Open 24 hours. Backpacking permitted, bear bag or bear canister required. Wear bright orange during posted hunting seasons. Leashed pets welcome.

  Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 29.0129, -81.3924

  Contact Information: Ocala National Forest, Seminole Ranger District, 40929 SR19, Umatilla, FL 32784 (352-669-3153, fs.usda.gov/ocala)

  In the southeast corner of the Ocala National Forest, the St. Francis Trail provides an interesting wal
k along the floodplain of several side channels of the St. Johns River. Two routes tempt, differing in distance and sights to be seen—a 3-mile trek to a bubbling sulfur spring, or the full 7.9-mile hike to the ghost town of St. Francis. Since this is a national forest, camping is permitted anywhere along the trail, although habitats, water, and terrain limit optimal places to camp to just a few spots mentioned in the narrative. Constructed in the early 1990s as a potential segment of the statewide Florida National Scenic Trail, this popular hike was modified into a loop trail when the Florida Trail took a different route.

  GETTING THERE

  From US 17 in Deland, follow FL 44 west over the St. Johns River drawbridge. Immediately turn right on CR 42. Drive 0.4 mile to the National Forest sign that says RIVER FOREST GROUP CAMP. Turn right on FR 542. After you pass the River Forest campground, the trailhead parking will be to the left, 0.3 mile from CR 42. Much of the hike is through river hammocks and floodplain forest, so slather on the mosquito repellent before you get out of the car.

  THE HIKE

  At the trailhead kiosk, pause a moment to learn a little about this forgotten town along the St. Johns River. St. Francis was an early 1900s boomtown built on cypress logging, citrus groves, and farming. As you start walking through the oak hammock, beaten paths lead off in many directions. Stick with the orange blazes as you walk through the forest of live oak and sweetgum. After the trail veers left, you cross the first of several bridges over waterways flowing towards the floodplain forest along the St. Johns River. A moderate undulation to the footpath is from when this was a plowed watermelon field a century or more ago. By the size of the trees and the rich understory growth, it’s hard to imagine the farms that were once here. Now, deer moss and blueberries crowd the understory beneath water oak, laurel oak, and slash pine. Notice the welcome mats—trail maintainers placed industrial black mats in some of the soggier places, hoping to stave off erosion as the footpath drops into a floodplain forest of red maple, sweetgum, and pignut hickory.