Kolokee Trail Little Big Econ

One of the most scenic places to hike in the Orlando metro, Little-Big Econ State Forest offers a day hike loop best accessed from the Barr Street trailhead.

Named the Kolokee Loop after a turn-of-the-century railroad town along the Florida East Coast Railway, it’s along the Florida Trail and includes three trails.

Tunnel of palms along the Kolokee Trail

Rugged and rooty in many places, the hike includes high bluffs and bridges, campsites along the route, and several benches for stops to savor the views.

Enormous alligators sun on river banks and in the swamps below the trail. Keep alert for raccoons in the trees and flocks of songbirds winging through.

Straightaway section on the Flagler Trail

It takes a 1.1 mile hike on the Florida Trail to the white-blazed Kolokee Trail, a 1.2 mile connector to the Flagler Trail.

Following the Flagler Trail a half mile to the Econlockhatchee River, you catch the Florida Trail’s most scenic piece along the river bluffs and river swamps back to your starting point.

River view along the Florida Trail

Resources

Resources for exploring the area

Central Florida Orlando Explorers Guide book cover

Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State book cover

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Overview

Location: Oviedo
Length: 5.6 mile balloon loop
Trailhead: 28.687403, -81.159278
Fees: $3 parking at Barr Street trailhead
Restroom: None
Land manager: Florida Forestry Service
Phone: 407-971-3500

Leashed dogs welcome. Insect repellent a must. Primitive campsites available at West Camp, must be reserved in advance.

The short portion of the loop that utilizes the Flagler Trail (from the east end of the Kolokee Trail to the Econlockhatchee River bridge) is multi-use.

An problem along this route is unauthorized equestrian use, obvious from holes knocked through bridge decks on footbridges not meant to carry the weight of a horse. Use caution.

Check ahead regards flood conditions along the Econlockhatchee River. At flood stage, this trail is unsafe to hike.

Directions

From downtown Oviedo, follow Geneva Dr (CR 426) east towards Geneva. The trailhead is on the right not long after you pass Lockwood Blvd.

Hike

Starting at the Barr Street trailhead, follow the white blazes through a dense, humid hammock of cabbage palms and large live oaks festooned in resurrection fern.

Watch your footing, as it’s rooty underfoot. You reach the orange blazes of the Florida Trail after 0.2 mile. Turn left.

Junction of trails at Salt Creek

Cross the bridge over Salt Creek. The trail turns right and parallels the creek as it flows down to the Econlockhatchee River, ducking in and out of tunnels of shade before it reaches benches on the bluff.

West Camp starts to the left, paralleling the forest road, with the group campsite #1 nearest. Walk past the sign and look for the turnoff towards the river bluff.

Bluff looking towards Salt Creek confluence

Follow the Florida Trail along the bluff, where it offers views of the river between screens of vegetation. A memorial bench perches at one scenic point.

The trail turns towards the forest road again, rejoining it. Pass Sites 2 and 3, and a side channel flowing into the river that serves as a water source.

Site 2 at West Camp

The trail leaves the forest road for the narrow footpath through the oaks, pines, and hickories along the bluffs, the river only visible down little social paths to the bluffs.

Beyond the LE-30 sign at 0.8 mile, the trail leaves West Camp and the pine forest for the lush humid hardwood forest that makes up most of the rest of this hike.

First footbridge past West Camp

Passing what remains of the crossed palms in the ditch, you come up to the first in a series of many footbridges in this section. Many show age or damage, or both. Watch for holes in the flooring.

The trail becomes a sandy path in the hardwood forest, reaching the white-blazed Kolokee Trail at the LE3-32 sign at 1.1 mile. Turn left.

Trail junction with the Kolokee Trail

Cedars and oaks dominate the canopy, with the softly draped fronds of bluestem palm in the understory. Low spots cradle tannic waters.

During fall and winter, sweetgum and red maple sport autumn colors through the sparse forest canopy to the left, revealing floodplain swamps where cabbage palms thrive.

A hint of fall color in the floodplain

In a quarter mile, the trail reaches a collection of benches just before a bridge over a deep but narrow waterway. Oaks tower on higher ground, with more palm hammocks beyond.

The humidity created by the river and these floodplain swamps covers the tree limbs above in a soft fur of bromeliads.

Benches and a bridge beyond

The forest gets denser, closer, a tunnel in places, with palm fronds grazing you as you hike. Dark water creeps up to the edge of a low bridge along a cypress slough.

A floodplain is up ahead, with the start of a two-plank boardwalk evident. Follow it around the treed swamp and it leads to higher ground, the habitat transitioning to pine flatwoods.

Low bridge and cypress knees

Pass the LE-34 sign before the trail reaches the next bridge at 1.9 miles, a strudy short one built as an Eagle Scout project. Beyond it, the habitat becomes palm hammock.

Palms yield to pines. A paralleling forest road, a designated equestrian trail, is obvious to the left. The footpath may get mucky here. Pass under low-hanging oak limbs.

Beautiful palm hammock two miles along the hike

The next bridge is narrow and older. Not far beyond it, you see light up ahead, the habitat changing to sandhill.

At 2.4 miles, the white-blazed Kolokee Trail ends at a prominent intersection with the Flagler Trail. Two shaded benches flank the corners. Turn right at the Mile 6.5 marker.

Covered benches where trails meet

Built as a spur off the Flagler Railroad over a century ago, the railbed sits above the surrounding floodplain swamps.

Pass a white-blazed turnoff on the left, a separate trail leading to forest headquarters.

The straightaway is deeply shaded and surprisingly brief. It ends above another bowl of swamp, the trail itself jogging to the left through a depression.

Oxbow pond near the Econlockhatchee River

Cross a sturdy bridge and follow the footpath down to the right, between the old wooden piers of the railroad. The trail jogs left.

Dead ahead is another broad bridge, this one over the Econlockhatchee River itself. You meet the Florida Trail’s orange blazes here at 2.9 miles.

Old trestle piers along the Econlockhatchee River

After taking in the river views from the bridge, backtrack and follow the orange blazes along the river bluffs past a bench. You cross a narrow bridge over a tributary soon after.

Oaks tower in this lush forest. The trail slips around a swamp covered in duckweed before passing the LE-40 sign, meandering into palm hammocks soon after.

Sunlight filters through the forest

One incredibly tall loblolly pine should catch your attention, between the girth of the blazed trunk and how it towers above the rest of the forest.

The trail edges to the river bluffs, with views through palm fronds and pine needles, before it reaches a bridge at the LE-41 sign at 3.4 miles.

River view from the bluffs

Heading to the bluffs soon after, it affords both panoramas and a spot to scramble to a small beach where a live oak stretches far out over the water.

A sharp curve in the trail soon after provides a look at a curve in the river, where we saw alligators of enormous proportions sunning on the sandy shores below.

River through screen of palms and bromeliads

Peeking at the river through palms and bromeliads

The trail makes a hard jog away from the river on bluffs above a vast bowl of swamp. Here, too, are massive alligators, fortunately well below the footpath.

Eventually the trail drops to water level, but it climbs quickly again, with sweeping views of the green-coated swamp. Turtles sun on logs.

A huge alligator suns along the swamp’s edge

Bromeliads deck the oaks and magnolias through the deeply shaded forest beyond the swamp. The trail affords another river view before it curves right to follow a tributary upstream.

Reach a long, high bridge just before the LE-42 marker. Pieces of the former bridge are scattered far below where the trunk of a cabbage palm arcs across the waterway.

The former bridge was along this fallen palm

Circling another swamp basin, the trail is crowded by bluestem palms. Pop out on a crumbling bluff where a relocation is in progress. As the river fluctuates, the sandy bluffs erode.

At 4.2 miles, the next bridge is old and tired but short. The sandy path leads to another great river view, this of a peninsula between a side channel and the river.

View of peninsula from bluffs

Amid hickories, oaks, and magnolias, loblolly pines tower once more as you near the LE-43 sign. Cedars form a screen behind which a bowl of swamp sits.

You close the loop after 4.5 miles, reaching the fork where you took the Kolokee Trail.

Continue straight ahead through familiar territory, across bridges and bluffs and past West Camp, to complete this 5.6 mile hike.