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Spring basin in Florida woods

Mud Spring Trail

At Mud Spring, mud isn’t what you’ll see in the gently rounded basin that cradles an underwater garden, but a glassy natural pool.

Welaka State Forest  |  Welaka
( 29.4688, -81.6603 )      1.7 miles

272 shares

Sometimes, names deceive. At Mud Spring, mud isn’t what you’ll see in the gently rounded basin that cradles an underwater garden in its crystalline waters.

This glassy natural pool is the payoff halfway around a gentle hike that is one of the highlights of Welaka State Forest.

Mud spring clear water Mud Spring


Resources

Resources for exploring the area

50 Hikes in North Florida book cover North Florida Panhandle Explorers Guide book cover Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State book cover

Disclosure: As authors and affiliates, we receive earnings when you buy these through our links. This helps us provide public information on this website.


Overview

Location: Welaka
Trailhead: 29.4688, -81.6603
Length: 1.7 mile loop
Fees: $2 per person for day use
Land Manager: Florida Forest Service
Phone: 386-467-2388

Open sunrise to sunset unless permitted to camp. Leashed dogs welcome.

Trails are open to cyclists and equestrians except where posted.

Trail through pines


Directions

 
From Palatka, follow US 17 south to Satsuma. Turn right onto CR 309 and follow the brown signs through Satsuma and Palatka. Look for the Mud Spring trailhead on the right, across from the visitor center and park headquarters.

Hike

Follow mint green blazes into the pine flatwoods. When you reach the first trail junction, turn right.

Little plank bridges carry you over the drainages of bayheads scattered throughout the longleaf and pond pines. Tall and gnarled sand live oaks stand in small groves.

Trailhead kiosk Trailhead for Mud Spring Trail


At 0.3 mile, you meet the junction of the return loop. Continue straight, passing the “Spring” sign.

Blueberries and bracken ferns crowd the understory. After you cross a bridge, you come to a trail junction. Bear left.

Lime green blaze on pine Footpath meandering through forest


At the next intersection, a sign says “Eagle Nest Row.” It’s one of the network of named forest roads in Welaka State Forest.

Continue straight across, following the mint green blazes into a mixed hardwood forest full of oaks and southern magnolia.

Trail through forest Mixed hardwoods near the spring


Dropping past towering saw palmettos, the trail crosses two short boardwalks through a floodplain forest of hickory, red maple, and cabbage palms.

After 0.7 mile, you emerge in a clearing with a picnic pavilion off to the left. Mud Spring lies directly ahead. Turn right to walk around it.

Picnic pavilion above spring Mud Spring and picnic pavilion


No larger than a swimming pool, this spring pumps out as much as 1.4 million gallons of water each day.

It flows under the trail out to Mud Spring Run, which is only a half mile long, to reach the St. Johns River. A boardwalk leads out to the edge of the run.

Old walkway on spring run Old walkway along the spring run


From the grassy shore, the water seems perfectly clear. Peer into its depths to see strands of strapleaf sagittaria and curving streamers of coontail.

Within its virtual forest, striped bass and sheepshead dart. Mind the edges of the spring, as that’s where you’re most likely to spy a water moccasin.

Cypress knees and ferns Cypress knee on the spring’s edge


As you leave Mud Spring, pass by the picnic pavilion and the sign for Bobcat Crossing, the forest road that leads down to the clearing with the spring.

Eventually, the trail joins Bobcat Crossing and follows it up to Eagle Nest Row. Soon after this intersection at 1.1 miles, watch for the mint green blazes to guide you left at a junction.

Massive pine tree Tall pines


Looping around, the trail leads you into drier habitats until you’ve entered a straightaway through a scrub forest.

Reaching a T intersection with the incoming trail, you complete the loop at 1.4 miles. Turn right to continue uphill to exit.

Tall trees in forest Tunnel of forest near the end of the loop


Trail Map

Mud Spring Trail Map


Explore More!

Learn more about Welaka State Forest

Well-groomed trail corridor in pine forest

Welaka State Forest

Protecting more than four miles of deeply forested waterfront on the St. Johns River, Welaka State Forest provides a glimpse at a Florida that botanists John and William Bartram saw on their 1700s expeditions.

Slideshow

See our photos of the Mud Spring Trail


Nearby Adventures

More worth exploring while you’re in this area.

40 Acre Park wetlands

40 Acre Park

A community park in Welaka, 40 Acre Park is a great stop for birding, with little-used trails that ramble around a series of wetlands once used in the fish hatchery

Mount Royal historic marker

Mount Royal

One of Florida’s largest mounds, Mount Royal was first documented by William Bartram in 1765, when it was an important central feature of a large village along the St. Johns River.

Beecher Run Nature Trail

Beecher Run Nature Trail

A stop along the Bartram Trail, the Beecher Run Nature Trail at Welaka National Fish Hatchery provides a walk beneath ancient pines along the edge of the hatchery ponds, which are fed by historic Beecher Spring.

Bartram Trail Welaka

Paddling the Bartram Trail in Welaka

Learning how botanists William and John Bartram traveled along the St. Johns River in the 1700s, I followed an experienced river guide for a look at part of the Bartram National Recreation Trail from the water on our Bartram Adventure Tour in Palatka.

Trail Map (PDF) Official Website

Category: Access by water, Biking, Day Hikes, Hikes, Loop Hikes, North Florida, Off Road Biking, Springs, TrailsTag: Bartram Trail, Crescent City, Dog-friendly, Family-Friendly, Florida State Forests, Palatka, Picnic, Scenic Hikes, Welaka, Welaka State Forest

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