Home of the University of Florida, Gainesville is full of small urban parks with trails and surrounded by larger natural lands. Alachua County has done an excellent job setting aside lands just outside city limits for preservation.
Alfred A. Ring Park
I came here in search of a garden, and found a park. Having read that a small wildflower garden was tucked within this 22 acre park in northern Gainesville, I figured it was worth visiting for the sake of my botanical research. And the park I found surprised me. For such a small swath of… [Continue Reading]
Cofrin Nature Park
A 30-acre tract within the city of Gainesville, this patch of preserve is the legacy of Mrs. Gladys Cofrin, an active environmentalist who had a horse farm and family homestead on this site. Thankfully, she passed it along to the people of Gainesville instead of selling out for yet another subdivision. The short nature trail… [Continue Reading]
Devil’s Millhopper State Park
On the northern edge of Gainesville, Devil’s Millhopper Geologic State Park showcases a geologic formation known to generations of visitors to the area. You’d think you were in the Amazon, or Hawaii, when you hear and see the tumbling cascades behind a screen of dense vegetation. But the ephemeral waterfalls that occur at Devil’s Millhopper… [Continue Reading]
Dudley Farm Historic State Park
For a ramble through a preserved Florida pioneer homestead, visit Dudley Farm Historic Site State Park, where rangers in period costume take you through a day in the life of a turn-of-the-20th-century Florida farmer. The museum at the visitors’ center interprets the several generations of family who lived here, and how farming changed over the… [Continue Reading]
Florida Trail, Gold Head Branch State Park
One of Florida’s oldest state parks, the Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park opened in the 1930s, its facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is one of the few state parks that the Florida Trail traverses, and a pleasant place to camp thanks to its many camping options. You can rent a… [Continue Reading]
Gold Head Branch State Park – Ridge and Ravine Trails
The steephead ravine that forms Gold Head Branch is a riot of green: deep green needle palms, ferns of every shape and size, water trickling, merging, and flowing downstream, and the canopy of native trees above, from hickory and sweetgum to longleaf pine and live oak. You can follow the trails from the ravine downstream… [Continue Reading]
Hogtown Creek Greenway
Get lost in the woods in the heart of old Gainesville while getting in touch with the past. Ever since I went to the Hogtown Medieval Faire for the first time, I’ve wondered about old Hogtown. I’ve seen the signs for Hogtown Creek—poor thing, encased in concrete culverts and shunted beneath lanes and lanes of… [Continue Reading]
Mill Creek Preserve
North of Gainesville, the northern forests make their southern stand. Mill Creek Preserve, north of Alachua and part of the Alachua County Forever registry, encompasses nearly 1,200 acres of unexpected delights in an area well-known for its sinkholes and disappearing streams. By taking a hike, you pass through the curtain of pine plantation you see… [Continue Reading]
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park – La Chua Trail
There are a handful of places that stand out as excellent locations for wildlife watching in Florida – Circle B Bar, the Anhinga Trail, Shark Valley, Green Cay Wetlands, Orlando Wetlands Park – but the place to see alligators is in the home of the Gators, Gainesville. Paynes Prairie is a massive landform in North… [Continue Reading]
Poe Springs Park
[set_id=72157623538587832 ] With a nature trail showcasing Florida’s weird karst geology and a cypress swamp along the Santa Fe River near High Springs, Poe Springs Park provides a glimpse into Florida’s fossilized past. A second-magnitude spring, Poe pours out a very short spring run into the cypress-lined Santa Fe River. Poe Springs has been a… [Continue Reading]
Sweetwater Branch Preserve
Two different faces, two different spaces: the 125-acre Sweetwater Branch Preserve, acquired in 2006, is a unique natural land in the city of Gainesville. It provides a buffer and wildlife corridor on the northern rim of Paynes Prairie along a historically important waterway, part of a 50,000 acre conservation buffer between Gainesville and Hawthorne. While… [Continue Reading]
