Hiking Manatee Springs North End Trails

This 4.7 mile route on the North End Trail System follows the perimeter of the trail system to make the longest loop hike in the park.

It encompasses three-quarters of the Scenic Trail along with the Loop Trail and a variety of interconnecting trails to lead to and around mysterious Shacklefoot Pond.

All trails may be used by offroad cyclists, but as the landscape is riddled with karst features, water may rise up from the ground and flood low-lying areas of the loop.

Trails are old roads, some of which were established for access in and around land purchased by Isaac Hardee, who founded Hardee Town in 1860.

Trailhead for the North End Trail System (Chris Stevens)

Resources

Resources for exploring the area

North Florida Panhandle Explorers Guide book cover

Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State book cover

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Overview

Location: Chiefland
Length: 4.7 miles
Trailhead: 29.496137, -82.964246
Address: 11650 NW 115 St, Chiefland
Fees: $4-6 per vehicle
Land Manager: Florida State Parks
Phone: 352-493-6072

Open 8 AM until sunset daily. Leashed pets welcome. Park gates close when capacity is reached.

Use insect repellent: forests along the Suwannee tend to have more than their fair share of ticks, and there are a lot of mosquitoes in the shade.

Directions

From the intersection of US 19/98 and US 129 in Chiefland, head north on US 98 for 0.8 mile, then turn left onto SR 320. Continue for 5.8 miles to the entrance of Manatee Springs State Park. Past the ranger station, follow the main park road for 0.6 mile, and the trailhead parking will be on the right.

Hike

At the parking area kiosk, begin your hike on the Scenic Trail, which has interpretive markers matching a brochure found at the kiosk.

Start the walk through a shady upland forest dominated by Southern magnolia, hickory, and American holly.

At the junction with the Loop Trail, take the left fork. At 0.5 mile, saw palmettos encircle a sinkhole.

After the trail swings away from the sinkhole, it approaches a T intersection with Scenic Trail, completing the outer Loop Trail. Turn left onto Scenic Trail.

There are numerous benches along the Scenic Trail (Chris Stevens)

Coontie sprouts between the pines. This is a second-growth forest of loblolly pines, the site of Hardee’s plantation. His wife Esther died here in 1860 and is buried at Clay’s Landing.

At 1 mile, meet the junction with the Clay Trail at 1 mile. Continue straight. Despite its name, the western end of the Clay Trail dead-ends long before it reaches Clay’s Landing.

The same is true for most of the named roads off this loop. None reach the Suwannee River. Better to focus on the loop. At the next trail junction, the Hardwood Trail, turn left.

Keep alert for a rusted old chain looped around a set of rotted logs—perhaps hitched together to be pulled by oxen down to the river landing.

One of the water-filled sinks in this karst landscape

Rusty lyonia and sand live oaks form a low canopy overhead. At the fork, keep right, staying on the Hardwood Trail.

Come to a T intersection at 1.6 miles. Turn right, walking up a straight, long path under the trees, reminiscent of an old road leading to a river landing.

At the “Fence Trail” sign at the corner of a rusty barbed-wire topped fence, continue straight along the fence line, walking through the oak hammock.

At 2.2 miles, the Fence Trail and the Hornet Trail meet at a T intersection. Turn left to follow the fence line to reach the hidden gem of this trail system, Shacklefoot Pond.

Buttonbush near a pond

When the fence makes a sharp right turn, follow it. Numerous gopher tortoise burrows riddle the soft sand.

The forest transitions to a higher, more open canopy of laurel oak, loblolly pine, and live oak.

The ground on the right slopes down from several directions into a broad, shallow sinkhole. Sand cordgrass grows along its edge.

Massive Spanish bayonets rise from the forest floor. Homes are visible on the opposite side of the park boundary fence.

Saw palmetto in the upland forest

Dropping into a floodplain forest, the trail becomes a causeway with bald cypresses on both sides. Wild pine thrives high up the cypress limbs.

The trail gains elevation, with open sky ahead. Reaching the intersection of the Fence Trail and the Shacklefoot Trail, turn right.

On the left, the ground slopes down to Graveyard Pond, a murky duckweed-covered cypress swamp.

At 3 miles, pass a “Shacklefoot” sign on the left. Keep alert for access to Shacklefoot Pond on the right. A short access path invites examination of this primeval cypress swamp up close.

Royal ferns sprout out of the stumps of ancient cypresses, logged long ago to be made into citrus crates and shingles.

Shacklefoot Pond is a glimpse of ancient Florida, a place for quiet reflection on how humans have altered the land.

Stump of an ancient cypress at Shacklefoot Pond

Returning to the main trail, turn right. Reach an intersection with the Spur Trail at 3.5 miles. Continue straight, rising up into an upland forest.

The trail jogs left, returning moments later to its arrow-straight path. More coontie pokes up through the leaf litter.

Walk past a bowl surrounded by saw palmettos, another solution hole, before reaching a major trail junction at 3.7 miles. Trails come in from four directions.

Make a left to continue on the Shacklefoot Trail, rejoining the inner interpretive loop of the Scenic Trail. A stand of longleaf pines grow across from a bench.

Sign for Shacklefoot Pond Trail

Walk past another large solution hole at 4.2 miles. Reaching the gate at 4.6 miles, walk around it and turn right.

Tightly winding between the bushes, a connector trail leads to the parking area, rounding a cypress swamp.

A broad, curving sinkhole sits off to the left, a leaf-filled bowl with rocks at the bottom.

The trail ends at the parking lot after 4.7 miles. Straight ahead is a sign for the Springs Trail, a 0.4 mile linear connector to Catfish Hole and Manatee Spring.

Cypresses along the connector trail (Chris Stevens)

Trail Map

Explore More!

Learn more about Manatee Springs State Park and its trails

Manatee Springs State Park

Showcasing the lower Suwannee River, Manatee Springs State Park centers around a clear blue spring, one of Florida’s largest and most picturesque

Morning light in the upland forest at Manatee Springs

Manatee Springs Scenic Trail

In a shady forest above the floodplain, the Scenic Trail at Manatee Springs lives up to its name while interpreting what life was like for early settlers along the Suwannee River.