Ridge / Ravine Trails, Gold Head Branch State Park

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 to Little Lake Johnson, note the storm damage to the canopy, but otherwise you’re immersed in a string of natural habitats. The quantity of laurel oak in the uplands points to this landscape having been logged at least once, and indeed there’s a historic tramway near the park entrance that was used by the logging railroad.

While its possible to walk right down a very long staircase to the steephead, a more relaxed and interesting journey is to follow the Ridge Trail from the Mill Site Parking Area. Around 1900, there was a sawmill, cotton gin, and grist mill on the site. Today, as you walk from the parking area downhill under wild plum blossoms, you reach an aluminum bridge across Gold Head Brach. The burble of water makes you think of a mountain stream, the water running crystal clear across a sand bottomed runs like I’ve seen in the Allegheny Mountains. Benches let you survey the scene.

Cross the bridge and turn left to follow the Ridge Trail north. This undulating trail stick to the top of the north side of the ravine. It passes beneath high bush blueberries in an oak hammock where laurel oak predominates. Note the orange blazes: this segment of trail is shared with the statewide Florida Trail. Interpretive markers add to your understanding of the flora along the way.