Florida Trail, Chuluota Wilderness to Joshua Creek

With a surprising amount of habitat diversity for such a short stretch of trail, the hike between Chuluota Wilderness and the Joshua Creek trailhead of Bronson State Forest is a very scenic one.

Hiking this section southbound gives the distinct feeling of going downhill, as habitats transition from the high, dry scrub down through pine forests and into the floodplains of two creeks.

Well-designed and well maintained, this is a very pleasant section of the Florida Trail that’ll have you smiling over the natural beauty you’ll find around every bend.

Resources

Overview

 
Open dawn to dusk. Leashed pets welcome. Hunting is permitted in Bronson State Forest, so check on hunting dates and wear bright orange.

Hunting is not permitted in this wilderness area, so if you’d rather avoid walking through a hunting area, do a round-trip hike from the Chuluota Wilderness trailhead.

Directions

Hike

Starting at the Chuluota Wilderness Area trailhead, which has a picnic table in the shade by the trailhead, the footpath starts off in a oak hammock yielding quickly to sand pines.

After you cross a forest road – which is used as an equestrian loop through the preserve – the trail enters a forest of young sand pine scrub.

Within a quarter mile, the pines are much taller, with mosses and lichens growing riotously on tree limbs and across the forest floor.

You start to see large rounded shrubs. These are Florida rosemary, and there are enough of them to refer to this spot as a rosemary scrub beneath the sand pines.

Crossing a forest road sometimes used as a firebreak, you enter a younger scrub forest, and beyond it, more rosemary scrub.

The trail twists and winds between the shrubs as it loses elevation. You head towards a wall of pines. A gopher tortoise burrow is off to the right.

The habitat transitions from scrub into hardwood hammock with saw palmetto, cabbage palms, and oaks, with intrusions of sand pine scrub.

The trail crosses a another forest road used as part of the equestrian trail. Off to the left you can see a round red marker with an arrow. Stay with the orange blazes that mark the Florida Trail.

Descending through hickory and water oaks, southern magnolia and a smattering of sweetgum, you can see a bayhead off to the left as you walk through the shade. Watch for the double blazes at the sharp turns along this section.

After a mile, the trail makes a sharp left and heads into a tunnel of scrub oaks, narrow and twisting, with a canopy close overhead. The trail seems to double back, snaking through the thickness of the vegetation.

As you see another bayhead swamp in the distance, the trail descends from the scrub and a mixed hardwood forest dense with hickories, rich in texture and color.

The trail draws close to a barbed wire fence along a ranch before descending to a footbridge over a small tributary.

The trail meets a forest road and follows it up to the property boundary between Chuluota Wilderness Area and Bronson State Forest at a nice rest stop, a covered bench at 1.7 miles.

Pass through the fence on the right to enter Bronson State Forest.The trail parallels an old forest road and uses it to avoid mucky spots in the floodplain, with frequent twists and turns. Watch the blazes!

Reaching a trail junction with signage at 2 miles, the blue-blazed trail to the left – the County Line Connector – leads to the white-blazed River Trail that crosses the entire forest at a diagonal.

For this hike, you’re staying with the orange blazed Florida Trail, so continue straight ahead.

Passing through a stand of pond pines, the trail enters a hardwood hammock before dropping into a mushy bayhead area. The aroma of fallen leaves rises from the forest floor, which is full of roots to trip over.

At the base of a Southern magnolia, a lengthy boardwalk lifts the trail slightly above the floodplain of Bunscombe Creek, which is quite marshy. Plants poke right up through the boardwalk, making footing a bit tricky.

After the boardwalk ends, footing is a little difficult through the hardwood forest. This bit of forest sits between two creek basins that sometimes overflow.

Crossing an old sand road that is part of the equestrian trail system, the trail reaches a sign that says “Joshua Creek Campsite.” At 3.1 miles, the campsite is down a short side trail to the right, and not far from its water source.

The boardwalk begins, and it is slippery in places. It ends briefly at an island in the middle of the Joshua Creek floodplain and resumes, ending soon after you cross the tannic, sand-bottomed creek.

Climb up a slope through a saw palmetto thicket into a pine savanna, where scattered longleaf pines shoot up through the dense saw palmetto and prairie grasses.

Dropping through a small drainage, the trail rises up into an old pasture dotted with colorful wildflowers, incuding paw-paw and wild bachelor’s button.

As the trail gains a little elevation, the habitat shifts to sandhills. You reach the intersection with the blue blaze to the Joshua Creek trailhead at 3.7 miles. Turn right.

The blue-blazed trail zigzags between the stands of oak trees, attempting to optimize the shady spots between the turkey oaks. Once pasture, this is sandhill reclaiming its own.

You complete your hike as you emerge from the forest to the gap in the fence at the Joshua Creek trailhead at 3.9 miles.

NORTHBOUND: Curryville Road Roadwalk
SOUTHBOUND: Florida Trail, Wheeler Road to Joshua Creek

Explore More

Slideshow

Our slides from hiking this segment of the Florida Trail

Nearby Parks and Trails

Other trails and destinations along this route

Culpepper Bend

One of the lesser-known trails of Little Big Econ State Forest, Culpepper Bend leads you to a panorama where the Econlockhatchee River meets the St. Johns River

Florida Trail, Bronson State Forest

A quick sampler of the beauty of Bronson State Forest, this walk on the Florida Trail to Bunscombe Creek and back offers a great perspective on summer wildflowers.

Florida Trail, Little Big Econ State Forest

One of the most beautiful hikes near Orlando is rugged, too: the Florida Trail atop bluffs above the Econlockhatchee River through Little-Big Econ State Forest.

Florida Trail, Mills Creek

As the Florida Trail follows the curve of the basin in which Mills Creek into a bowl of marshlands, enjoy old-growth trees and long boardwalks along this 2 mile hike

Florida Trail, Wheeler Road to Joshua Creek

Along its 9.4 mile route, the Florida Trail through Seminole Ranch and southern Bronson State Forest provides an unexpected array of botanical delights

Lake Mills Park

One of Seminole County’s prettiest county parks with boardwalks through a cypress swamp, Lake Mills Park makes an excellent family destination.