Page 89 - 2024-2025 Travel Guide to Florida

Gardens began as a 2,400-acre corn and cotton plantation in the 1830s. The stately home was owner-occupied into the 1920s and its furnishings reflect its many layers of history. The gardens have been returned to the original, 19th-century plantings of heirloom roses, bulbs and sago palms.
Despite its modern look, Tallahassee is one of the South’s oldest communities. The Spanish settlement at St. Augustine traded with the Native American Apalachee people here 500 years ago. When the British won Florida from the Spanish, the Apalachee people fled west and burned their village. Now it has been reconstructed, a living replica of Spanish and Native American life. The Mission San Luis de Apalachee in Tallahassee is a busy village peopled by Spanish “soldiers” at the fort, “friars” at the church and native townspeople who raise crops, weave, make horseshoes, feed chickens and meet at the council house. The Mission re-creates the village when the Apalachees and their Spanish friends fled approaching English armies in 1704.
Although the Tallahassee Automobile Museum has more than 160 vehicles, it’s about much more than cars. The building holds one of the finest private displays of Steinway pianos plus extensive collections of boats, knives, vintage sports items, dolls, Apalachees American artifacts, motorcycles, and rare oddities.
The Challenger Learning Center in downtown Tallahassee is a university-led outreach for students from kindergarten to age 12. Adults are welcome. See eye-popping IMAX documentaries and attend planet- arium shows.
BEACHES AND OUTDOOR GEMS
Naturalist John Muir trekked through this region to end his famous book Thousand- Mile Walk to the Gulf, noting many previously unrecorded species of birds and plants. Look for them in the region’s state and national forests, preserves and parks. Stretches of the Great Florida Birding Trail thread through the region, offering sightings of upland and coastal species. Hiking trails abound.
Beachgoers speed past this area, lured to the snow-white sands of the Emerald Coast
or eastward to the Atlantic beaches. That’s good news for locals who know a dozen hidden springs that feed the rivers, which are popular swimming holes where hikers and paddlers pause for a swim. Keaton Beach, a fishing village south of Perry, has a sandy beach on the Gulf of Mexico.
Tubing the area’s unique springs provides an intimate look at a tangled wilderness. Float through tunnels of vegetation that are even small enough for canoes. Entry points include Blue Spring State Park in High Springs and Fort White’s Ichetucknee Springs State Park.
The Suwannee River can be paddled for its entire length, from north of Jacksonville to the Gulf of Mexico. Basic campsites are provided for overnight stays. Additional
lodgings, supplies and restaurants are found in White Springs and Dowling Park.
An exceptional network of hiking, biking and equestrian trails is well-maintained and mapped, thanks to the Florida Trail Associa- tion. Near Gainesville, Loblolly Woods Nature Path is a serene hideaway that skirts the city. The over half-mile-long Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Loop Trail rewards all with views of woods, waters and wildlife seemingly untouched by urban sprawl.
The Osceola National Forest’s most popular spot is Ocean Pond, a two-mile-wide lake with a sandy beach. The forest has hiking, birding, ATV, motorcycle and equestrian trails.
The Tallahassee–St. Marks Historic Rail- road State Trail runs 16 miles from the capital to St. Marks, giving bikers and hikers
5MUST-SEE ATTRACTIONS
CEDAR KEY
visitcedarkey.com
EDWARD BALL WAKULLA SPRINGS STATE PARK
floridastateparks.org/wakullasprings
5 LAKE JACKSON MOUNDS ARCHAEOLOGICAL STATE PARK floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/lake-jackson-mounds-archaeological-state-park
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MISSION SAN LUIS
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4 DEVIL’S MILLHOPPER GEOLOGICAL STATE PARK
missionsanluis.org floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/devils-millhopper-geological-state-park
DEVIL'S MILLHOPPER GEOLOGICAL STATE PARK • BRAND USA
2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO FLORIDA 87