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Florida Trail, Stephen Foster

The most accessible segment of trail to Florida Hiking Festival attendees is the Florida Trail within Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park. Orange blazes enter the park from the Nature & Heritage Tourism Center, past the historic spring house and into the front gate of the park. The trail keeps to the river side of the park, paralleling the access road in places as it works its way down to the river gazebo. If you're planning an outing on the trail, the gazebo is your best access point. Walking into the park on the FT This is no wimpy section of trail. Immediately, the trail begins a scramble in and out of deep ravines carved by the Suwannee River during its flood stages. Expect the sweet scent of Florida azalea as you follow the footpath along the bluffs above the Suwannee River, past the cabins and canoe launch and deep into the woods. More scrambles through ravines await en route to Sal Marie Branch, where one of the first sections of the Florida Trail was constructed in the 1960s. It's 4.1 miles from the park gate to where the trail enters a residential area with access to CR 25A, outside the park, so when you reach the end of park property, you may want to backtrack (unless you've arranged a shuttle). Park roads enable you to create a loop hike using the multi-use Carter Camp Trail and the Florida Trail; pick up a map of the trail when you enter the park. DIRECTIONS: Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park is in downtown White Springs, just north along US 41. To find the gazebo parking area, continue around the one-way loop past the Carillion Tower and Craft Village to the next turnoff. If you miss the turnoff, there is parking along the road near a river overlook right along the trail.

 

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