Since 1970, Morningside Nature Center has been Gainesville’s flagship nature park, protecting the largest stand of longleaf pine savanna remaining within city limits.
This 416 acre preserve has an extensive network of hiking trails, enabling you to enjoy walks of anywhere from a half mile to six miles.
But its biggest draw is the Living History Farm, ten acres of historic buildings, livestock, and costumed interpreters recreating Florida’s pioneer days in the 1870s.
A replica farm in the flatwoodsResources
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Overview
Location: Gainesville
Length: 4.6 mile loop
Trailhead: 29.655789, -82.276888
Address: 3540 E University Ave, Gainesville
Fees: Free
Restroom: At the picnic area and nature center
Land manager: City of Gainesville
Phone: 352-334-5067
No pets permitted. Opens 7 AM year-round. Closes 6 PM Oct-Mar, 8 PM Apr-Sep. Living history farm has more limited hours. The environmental center is normally busy with local school groups during the week.
Directions
From Interstate 75 exit 382, drive east on SE Williston Rd (SR 331) for 5.5 miles, crossing US 441. When you reach East University Avenue (SR 20/26), turn right. Keep left where the highways diverge to stay on SR 26. Drive 2.2 miles east to the entrance for Morningside Nature Center on the left. Follow the park road into the interior of the preserve to a visitor parking area on the left.
Hike
Start by reviewing the kiosk at the west side of the parking area. Walk west out of the parking area and follow the paved path to the environmental education center.
A map of the trail system is posted here. This hike follows one of the longer routes, keeping close to the Perimeter Trail for a large portion of the hike.
Leaving through the front door of the environmental education center, turn right and start down the trail. At the Cypress Dome Boardwalk sign, turn right.
Cypress Dome BoardwalkThe broad boardwalk snakes between the cypress trees. Marsh ferns sprout from the forest floor, which may be dry or wet, depending on recent rains.
Benches are inset at numerous spots along the boardwalk, providing places to watch lizards race across the railings.
After making a sharp right, the boardwalk ends. at a small clearing with a kiosk and a chickee.
It’s an interpretive area for educators to share the clash of cultures between the Spanish invaders and the native Timucua in the 1500s.
ChickeeWalk past the chickee and away from the environmental center into the pine flatwoods on a nice broad path between taller, older longleaf pines.
At 0.4 mile reach a T intersection with the Gallberry Trail, blazed with yellow triangles. Turn left.
Yellow-eyed grass blooms in the footpath, and the shiny blueberries sparkle with white blooms in early spring.
Broad path among the pinesEven though this preserve is inside the city limits of Gainesville, they are able to manage the forest with periodic prescribed burns.
Where the understory has not been burned recently, gallberry chokes the forest floor under the tall longleaf pines.
Some of the saw palmetto are old enough to stand atop lengthy root systems that act like trunks.
The Gallberry Trail meets the Perimeter Trail at a T intersection. Turn right to follow the blue blazes.
The footpath turns to gravel in a low spot, enabling water to flow out of a bayhead and yet keep the trail dry.
Sweetgum and red maple surround the trail. Keep alert for a trail on the right amid a mound of grapevines at a half-hidden post with double yellow diamonds.
Turn right to start the Blueberry Trail. It’s a boggy one, the footpath is slightly squishy. Around it, and bog wildflowers, like small butterwort, star-rush and wild bachelor’s button, thrive.
Make a sharp left and climb into a drier landscape. Bluestem palm yields to saw palmetto under the pines. Longleaf pines tower overhead.
The Blueberry Trail is lined with shiny blueberry bushes. The understory is very open; you can see a great distance in every direction, providing the illusion of not being in a city.
Young longleaf pines rise within the understory. Pass a tall tree with a bit of metal still stuck in it from the days of turpentine tapping.
North Perimeter Trail.Gently meander through this vast pine flatwoods on a nicely groomed footpath. Cardinals and towhees call out, their songs echoing between the pines.
At 1.2 miles, reach a T intersection with the blue blazed North Perimeter Trail. Turn right to continue on the outer loop.
A thicket of saw palmetto and gallberry crowds against a line of posts on the old fenceline.
Continue onto a boardwalk through a cypress dome, with a view of the marsh in the center of the dome. Like small wooden pyramids, cypress knees poke out of the dark, tannic water.
Sign at the north end of the trail systemLeaving the boardwalk and passing a bench, come up to a junction with Sandhill Road at 1.3 miles. Continue straight ahead to stay on the North Perimeter Trail.
Gaining a little elevation, the habitat shifts to sandhills, with sand live oaks and turkey oaks overhead and nurseries of young longleaf pine clustered together in the open understory.
As the trail makes a curve to stay within the property boundary, it enters an oak forest within the sandhills.
Given the grassy forest floor, this part of the trail is spectacular in fall when the wildflowers are blooming.
It isn’t until a spot where saw palmetto grows more thickly there is a little bit of deer moss growing on the white sand. The trail is paralleled by an old road on the left.
Bird boxes are scattered throughout the woods, revealed as the sun shines on them because they have metal shields to prevent predators from climbing up to disturb them.
The trail parallels a line of fence posts along the old fenceline and there is evidence of fall blooms.
At 1.7 miles the trail reaches a Y intersection with the Gallberry Trail in a place called the Restoration Area.
Tall chalky bluestem and broomsedge grasses have a wheat-colored hue, with young longleaf pines growing among them.
Restoration areaStay left to continue along the Perimeter Trail. The fenceline is edged with wax myrtle and blackjack oak.
To the right are the beautiful longleaf pines, accented by the colorful grasses beneath them.
And then you reach the fence. It was a necessary addition around the Living History Farm.
It secures the historic buildings and keeps deer out of the gardens, but it does detract from the beauty of the trail.
Passing a gate into the fenced complex, walk along in the shade until the next Y intersection at 2 miles.
Here, the trail to the right follows the fenceline to the parking area where you started. Stay to the left to continue along the Perimeter Trail.
As the Perimeter Trail curves right, it’s avoiding a bayhead swamp on the left. Note scattered loblolly bay among the oaks and one oddly shaped pine with a wiggly trunk.
Make a sharp right turn and then reach a T intersection where there is an old house on the right. The blue blazes lead left.
Beyond a dead pine with a catface and a metal insert for turpentine tapping, the trail makes another sharp right.
Pass a sign that says “End Trail Maintenance” before it continues down a long straightaway under the pines.
Walking past a roped-off gate, you’ve reached the picnic area not far from the parking area.
It has restrooms and a water fountain. At 2.2 miles, you’re not quite halfway through the hike.
Leaving the picnic area, the trail isn’t obvious but follows the edge of the parking area to the south.
The blue blazes make a sharp left down the Ecotone Trail, leading into the sandhills, where there are more catfaced pines.
SandhillsTraffic noise picks up on the approach to the fence along the park’s perimeter with SR 26. The trail makes a sharp right and burrows through a thicket of gallberry under the pines.
With its proximity to the highway, this section of the trail is a counterpoint to the quiet immersion in longleaf pine habitat you enjoyed in the northern part of the preserve.
At 2.5 miles, the Power Line Trail joins in from the right. As the trail curves right, there is a patch of poison ivy. The Ecotone Trail reaches the park road. Double blazes point left.
In the pine flatwoodsWalk down the park road a short distance to find the entrance to the Flatwoods Loop Trail: before you get to the park gate, look for the blue blaze on the right-hand side.
Quickly narrowing down to a tight but nicely groomed corridor, enter pine flatwoods, looping around the perimeter of a bayhead.
Sprinkled across the footpath, yellow jasmine blossoms stand out against the pine needles and the netted chain fern along the trail’s edge.
The trail map shows Moccasin Creek nearby as the trail turns to the right, away from the traffic noise, and starts heading north.
Smilax drapes over understory plants and pine needles dangle from everything, everywhere.
Gain a little elevation, leaving the bayhead behind. The pines are very tall and the wind rushes through them well overhead.
Curve to the right past a bed of ferns beneath red maples to pass a bench. At 3.2 miles, reach the junction with the Bird Blind Trail. Turn right.
Bird blindWalking past large clumps of saw palmetto, note a transition into sandhill habitat. At the four-way junction, turn right to walk down to the bird blind.
The wooden structure is like a small shed you can peer out of while sitting on a bench with a bird identification handbook handy. Bird feeders attract songbirds, particularly titmice.
After you’re done birding, walk back up the path, passing a bench, and continue straight ahead through the four-way intersection. Take the Bird Blind Trail back to the nature center.
This trail winds along the ecotone between the open flatwoods and flatwoods with a denser understory.
Passing the entrance to the Cypress Dome Boardwalk, complete the outer loop by 3.5 miles.
While it’s quicker to walk past your car to get to the Living History Farm, the trail network will get you there on several paths that you haven’t explored yet.
Pass the front of the nature center and its native plant garden and walk around the back side of the nature center.
Look for the pink blazes of the Persimmon Trail to your right. Reaching a Y intersection, keep left.
Persimmon TrailContinue through the sandhills past more catfaced pines. You can see the parking lot off to your right.
Passing a trail to the right, the path makes a left turn and you find a confirmation pink blaze almost looking like a lichen on the tree.
At the T intersection, turn right, reaching the Gopher Trail at 3.8 miles. It, too, follows an ecotone between denser pine forest and sandhills.
At the next intersection, you can see the perimeter fence of the farm compound again. You’ve reached Sandhill Road. Turn right.
By 4 miles, reach the entrance to the Living History Farm, where there is a bench on the right as you walk up to the gate. A sign warns that dogs are not permitted inside the farm complex.
Farm residentsAn orange grove grows near the pioneer school, and a dairy cow grazes in the barnyard. On weekends, you’ll see the blacksmith and other “farm residents” bringing history to life.
After a wander through the farm, which takes about a quarter mile to walk around, exit the complex and walk down the broad path to the parking area.
Returning to the kiosk, complete a 4.6 mile circuit of Morningside Nature Center.
Near the northeast corner of the parkTrail Map
Explore More!
Slideshow
See our photos from Morningside Nature Center
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