Dating back to 1656, Mission San Luis is truly one of Florida’s great archeological treasures. It’s the only restored Spanish mission site of a string of missions that once stretched from St. Augustine to Pensacola.
Spanish settlers in period garb go about their daily duties of tending the friary, looking after the church, minding the fort, and raising crops (and children) in the village.
The reconstructed Apalachee council house is one of our favorite structures anywhere: it looks like a giant wooden volcano, complete with smoke curling out of the top.
On the slope forest below the mission grounds, walk the Julia Munroe Woodward Nature Trail through a woodland hiding secrets from Tallahassee’s history.
Resources
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Overview
Location: Tallahassee
Entrance: 30.44853, -84.32010
Trailhead: 30.450993, -84.318922
Length: 0.3 mile of the 0.7 mile circuit of the grounds
Address: 2100 W Tennessee St, Tallahassee
Fees: $5 adults, $3 seniors 65+, $2 ages 6-17. Free for under 6, members, and active military
Restroom: At the visitor center
Land manager: Florida Department of State
Phone: 850-245-6406
Open Tue-Sat 10-4. Closed Mondays. Leashed pets welcome. Picnic grounds provided.
The nature trail is particularly steep, and there are portions with roots sticking out of the footpath, so watch your footing. Poison ivy may grow along the the footpath. The nature trail is not wheelchair accessible, but the rest of the grounds are.
Directions
From the junction of US 27 (Monroe St) and US 90 in downtown Tallahassee, follow US 90 (W Tennessee Street) west for 2.6 miles. Turn right at the prominent sign to the parking area up the hill.
Hike
After a walk through the exhibits of the visitor center, exit the building and start a counterclockwise circuit of the reconstructed Spanish village.
Your hike starts at the “Julia Munroe Woodward Nature Trail” sign back against a limestone wall at the edge of a grassy area near the village gardens.
A short stile steps you the wall and into the woods, where the trail clings to the steep slopes of this tall Tallahassee hill. It’s the tallest hill in the region, chosen as both meeting place for the Apalachee and later the site of the Spanish mission.
For a short distance, the trail stays close to the wall, losing elevation as it heads deeper into this lush slope forest. Blue blazes mark the trail, but the footpath is well-worn.
You won’t lose track of it, and in fact, you can see places where water seeps across the trail when the water table is high. Birdsong fills the air.
The trail is deeply shaded, dense with water oak, magnolia, and hickory, and drops down the slope rapidly. In the understory are many short trees with glossy leaves and bright red berries.
These are yaupon holly, which the Timucua used to prepare their “black drink,” cassina, used to purge before ceremonies and battles. Woodlands phlox peeps up amongst the southern lady ferns.
After a tenth of a mile, the trail jogs sharply left, and reaches a sinkhole. This low spot is where water from the seepage springs above percolates and disappears.
Just uphill from the sinkhole are a variety of structures created over the years to keep water from the seeps where people could make use of it. The first one you pass is a spring house on the right.
While the spring house no longer has a roof, you can see water inside the foundation; it’s fenced in so you don’t take a plunge.
A former brick well and pump house provided water for the latter-day settlers who lived here, perhaps as early as the Randolph plantation that occupied the hilltop in the 1860s.
In earlier times, the Timucua and Spanish settlers would have walked down the hill to obtain water. Since most of the trees in these woods are relatively young, it’s unlikely the slope was heavily forested a century ago.
Beyond the pump house, there is a bench sitting up on a high perch up the hill on your left, a good place to quietly sit and watch (and listen) for warblers and other songbirds that flit around the seepage springs.
The trail makes a sharp jog to the left before beginning its last steep ascent through a segment marked as the Via Cubierta (“covered way”).
When the fortress was occupied, Spanish soldiers had a way to walk down to the springs beneath some sort of roof or canopy.
Loblolly pines rise well overhead, and roots snake through the footpath, providing virtual stairs for climbing up the steep slope. Mulberry shades the footpath with its massive leaves.
Reaching the open grassy hilltop, the trail emerges just below the reconstructed fortress walls. Rejoin the paved path to visit the Spanish fort before continuing the circuit back to the visitor center.
Explore More!
On a Mission Tallahassee's newest portal to the past is also its oldest, the reconstruction of history at Mission San Luis.Slideshow
See our photos from Mission San Luis
Nearby Adventures
Tallahassee Museum In a setting of natural beauty along Lake Bradford, the Tallahassee Museum is a largely outdoors educational center highlighting the natural and cultural history of the region. 
Dorothy B. Oven Park Only seven acres in size, Dorothy B. Oven Park is a Tallahassee city park developed on a former nursery established by one of Florida's earliest camellia growers.
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park Explore a true Tallahassee treasure on gentle garden paths amid plantings dating back to 1923 or along well-trodden trails into wild woodlands along Lake Hall and Lake Overstreet. 
Lafayette Heritage Trail Park Hike, bike, paddle, or fish along the well-marked trails of Lafayette Heritage Trail Park in a deeply wooded landscape east of downtown Tallahassee.
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