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Silver River State Park, River Trail

I have included two trails on this GPX. The first is the entrance road to the parking lot, which is not on the map. The second trail is the ‘River Trail’ which is listed as 1.2 miles on the map provided by the park. The River Trail is accessed from the main parking lot. You can also access the museum, Cracker Villiage, and the Sinkhole Trail (2.1mi) from this parking lot as well. The Sandhill Trail (1.6mi) has its trailhead immediately east of the ranger station at the entrance to the park. The River Trail shares it’s trailhead with the Swamp Trail (1.8mi) and the Bike Trail (5.8mi) and I have included waymark for the splitoffs for these trails.

The River Trail is a very easy trail that is actually disappointing. The disappointment is due to the fact that it is really a road for 40% of it and the larger loop through the wilderness is really more of a mowed walkway that doesn’t see enough use even to develop a trail. It starts out pleasantly enough, but quickly joins a service road to the rivers edge, that also serves as the Bike Trail. Most of the trail is not really wooded, so wear a good had and sunscreen. The dock area is pretty enough (I’ve included a panarama picture from the end of the dock) but there is no swimming or activity there. You can rent canoes from the Ranger Station, which are only $5 for 1 hr—actually 2 hrs to include the drive to the parking lot and hiking the trail to the river’s edge. If you want to see Silver Springs, the enormous spring that spawns the Silver River, you will have to rent a canoe or transport your own the 0.6 miles to the dock. The Springs are well worth the trip up river if you have not seen them from the glass bottom boats in the Silver Springs Theme Park..

I do plan to walk the other trails in the park and will upload them as available.

Tags

hiking river florida spring canoe camping park state

Created By

kurtisk on July 24, 2008

Map link: http://discovermachine.com/maps/662