Flatwoods Trail, Paynes Creek Historic State Park – Florida Hikes

Made up of 4 loops and a number of other spurs, the 4.6 mile path system at Paynes Creek Historic State Park hyperlinks the museum and the day use space.

With two separate trailheads, it may be hiked suddenly or in three distinct items. To discover the westernmost trails, start on the customer heart and museum.

Customer heart and museum

Inside, browse the displays for background on this historic web site and its significance to the historical past of the Seminole removing from Florida.

The hike begins by the again door of the museum on the Fort Web site Path, a brief accessible path.

Sidewalk in scrub with sign for fort width=

Path resulting in Fort Web site

Sources

Overview

Location: Bowling GreenLength: 1.6 milesTrailhead: 27.623090, -81.808885Address: 888 Lake Department Rd, Bowling GreenFees: $3 per vehicleRestroom: On the museumLand supervisor: Florida State ParksPhone: 863-375-4717

Open 8 AM to sundown. Leashed canines welcome, however not contained in the museum.

Instructions

Observe US 17 south from Bartow to Bowling Inexperienced. In Bowling Inexperienced, flip left onto Essential St and observe it east 1 / 4 mile to Lake Department Rd. Flip proper and drive 1.1 miles. The park entrance is on the proper. As soon as inside, make a proper off the doorway highway on the signal for the museum and park outdoors it.

Hike

Extending from the museum’s exit doorways into the scrub forest behind the constructing, the quick, accessible Fort Web site Path winds by partitions of scrub oaks.

At a T intersection at a “Historic Path Head” signal, proceed to the proper, ending at a set of interpretive markers.

Sidewalk through scrub oaks leading to trail junction

T intersection

The open, sandy expanse behind them is the place the blockhouse of Fort Chokonikla is assumed to have sat, with a view throughout a once-cleared panorama to Paynes Creek.

The creek as soon as served because the northern boundary of the Seminole Reservation. A buying and selling submit sat on reservation land on a bluff above the creek.

The presumed location of Fort Chokonikla

Return to the path junction and observe the sand path by the scrub, crossing a forest highway beneath a cluster of oaks.

Posts with black squares signify the route of the Historic Path, which branches off to the left and downhill. To deal with the close to loops first, flip proper.

Sand path by scrub

Rapidly meet the higher junction for the Flatwoods Path, a loop marked with inexperienced diamonds on its posts.

Bear proper on the signal to begin it counterclockwise. Cross a pair of oaks. The panorama opens up into an expanse of palmetto prairie.

Palmetto prairie

Cross the sandy forest highway once more and be a part of one other, curving in the direction of the distant treeline alongside the sting of scrubby flatwoods.

A sprawling prickly pear cactus sports activities vibrant yellow blossoms at a curve main as much as a bench.

Prickly pear blossoms

Persevering with mild curves alongside the sting of the palmetto prairie, attain the junction with the Mary Jane Path in entrance of a bench at 0.4 miles. Flip proper to start this path.

Probably the most distant loop within the chain of trails extending to the Peace River, the Mary Jane Path traverses uplands above the Paynes Creek floodplain.

Begin of the Mary Jane Path

Posts are marked with orange circles. A short connector results in the loop. Flip proper.

At a T intersection with a observe alongside the sting of what seems to be former pastureland, flip left, the route confirmed by a submit throughout from a pair of benches.

Benches under oak with prairie grasses in distance

Benches earlier than the prairie

The pasture is reverting to prairie, tall orange-hued grasses waving within the breeze. Crossing the expanse, meet treeline, the observe shedding elevation because it enters a tunnel of shade.

Passing a bench, observe this regular downhill, rising into the open once more in an overgrown pasture. A grassy observe is available in from the proper.

Bench alongside the downhill

Proceed straight downhill into the forest, reaching a path junction at a gate and bench at 0.9 miles.

The signal forward denotes the path to the park’s group camp, which sits alongside Paynes Creek. Flip left to remain on the Mary Jane Path.

Junction with Group Camp Path

It enters a hall of upland forest. A bench sits within the shade. The forest is clearly second or third progress, a smattering of cabbage palms amongst oaks and sweetgum.

Because the understory thickens, the trail descends and narrows in the direction of a floodplain.

The density and number of ferns past a stand of loblolly bay in a sometimes-muddy spot.

Ferns alongside the floodplain’s edge

Ascend from this damp habitat to a bench marking the beginning of an extended straightaway. At 1.2 miles, shut the loop on the Mary Jane Path. Flip proper to exit.

Assembly the junction with the Flatwoods Path, flip proper to proceed alongside its loop. Rapidly come to a junction of it with the Historic Path.

The ultimate leg of the Flatwoods Path loop

To return to the museum, holding your give attention to the uplands at this finish of the park, bear left.

Each the Flatwoods Path and the Historic Path share this path.

Observe an ecotone: xeric flatwoods fade right into a thicket of noticed palmetto and ferns beneath the pines above a bayhead.

Grasses waving along footpath under stormy skies

Alongside the ecotone

To the left is identical expanse of palmetto prairie circled by the primary section of the Flatwoods Path.

Ending the Flatwoods Path at 1.4 miles, meet the Historic Path once more. A proper lets you deal with that route, but it surely’ll additionally require extra backtracking.

Paynes Creek Historic Path Linking the Peace River Path and the Flatwoods Path, a 1.9 mile hike on the Historic Path supplies interpretation of bodily websites linked to the Seminole Wars.

Higher to method it from the day use space, as described. Cross the forest highway and stroll by the scrub alongside the Fort Web site Path sidewalk.

Return by or across the constructing to the parking space to finish this 1.6 mile hike.

Sidewalk through scrub to brown park building

Returning to the museum

Path Map

Paynes Creek Historic State Park Trails Map — Purple: Peace River Path. Brown: Historic Path. Purple: Flatwoods Path. Inexperienced: Mary Jane Path.

Discover Extra!

Be taught extra about Paynes Creek Historic State Park

Paynes Creek Historic State Park Straddling the previous treaty boundary of Seminole lands, this interpretive web site alongside the Peace River includes a community of trails tied collectively by a swinging footbridge.