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 SpringResources
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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.
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 for Mud Spring TrailAt 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.
Footpath meandering through forestAt 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.
Mixed hardwoods near the springDropping 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.
Mud Spring and picnic pavilionNo 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 along the spring runFrom 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 knee on the spring’s edgeAs 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.
Tall pinesLooping 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.
Tunnel of forest near the end of the loopTrail Map
Explore More!
Learn more about Welaka State 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
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
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
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.
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.