Last week our Adventure Friday lead us to Goethe State Forest. While there we explored two sections of the park, and enjoyed it so much that we have plan to come back another day and try another trail in the forest. Goethe is a primarily a mixture of Flatbottom Pine forest and swamp land, while having some hardwoods mixed in here and there. In a sparsely settled area of Florida the empty drive up was void of traffic, but full of beautiful scenery.
Since we had a Speech Therapy session for Jon that morning, our first stop was for a scenic lunch at the Goethe Giant at the Northern end of the forest. A .3 mile hike out on the Big Cypress Boardwalk to the Goethe Giant is well worth it for the view and to admire the 900 year old Bald Cypress tree. More than 100 ft tall and more than 28 feet around, it was spared along with a neighboring cypress almost as large back in the early 1900s when the area was heavily logged, due to the center being hallow. These trees, also sometimes called eternal wood, because of the way that they last without decaying were used for all kinds of building projects at the turn of the century. On the way out to see the Goethe Giant, we enjoyed the signs along the nature trail identifying tree types and their uses. Once arriving we sat at the wide end of the board walk where we enjoyed our picnic lunch.
Some of the forest trails were closed as they were repaving sections of forest roads, so for our planned hike of the day we decided to visit the Tidewater Trail at the Southern end of the park. After a scenic drive through the forest and along cattle fields we reached the trail head which is also at the primitive camping site. Just as the boardwalk near the Goethe Giant appeared to have been recently replaced, all of the grounds here were in pristine condition with several of the picnic table shed appearing to be brand new. The Tidewater trail is open to bikers and horseback riding as well as hiking, so there were also pumps and horse troughs on the grounds, which all the kids had to take turns attempting to hand pump water for. After a quick bathroom stop and a map check we decided to do the smaller 2.5 mile section of the trail. There are a total of 5 different loops with the largest measuring 15 miles.
On our hike we saw a plethora of signs of wildlife. We found hog prints, deer prints, and of course horse prints. We also found a snake skin and which might have been some raccoon prints. Ruth caught a number of tiny frogs, one of which Kate carried for over half the hike and named Froggy. She was rather disappointed when we insisted that it had to stay at the park and couldn't be her new pet. There were poke berries and mushrooms all along the trails, and we saw several types of wildflowers that I couldn't name. Will has developed a fear of pinecones, due to sliding and eventually falling on a series of them on a previous trail, and so less than 1/4 of a mile in he was completely freaking out over them being scattered all over the trail. So Britt carried him the entire way, joking, run, and playing with him. He was a GREAT big brother, especially when the 2.5 mile trail turned out to be just over 2.8 miles. We all agreed despite it being our longest hike to date, 2.8 mile trail for a total of 3.4 miles hiking that day, it was the prettiest countryside that we have had the opportunity to see.
If you'd like to make a trip the address to the visitor center is 9110 SE County Road 337, Dunnellon, FL 34431, and it is located in the center of the park. The Visitor Center is open varying hours Monday through Friday, so they advise calling 352-566-5225 before hand if planning a trip. Entrance to the Park is $2 for a car load of up to 6 people over the age of six.
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