Made up of four loops and several spurs, the 4.6 mile trail system at Paynes Creek Historic State Park links the museum and the day use area.
With two separate trailheads, it can be hiked all at once or in three distinct pieces. To explore the westernmost trails, begin at the visitor center and museum.
Visitor center and museumInside, browse the exhibits for background on this historic site and its importance to the history of the Seminole removal from Florida.
The hike begins through the back door of the museum on the Fort Site Trail, a short accessible path.
Path leading to Fort SiteResources
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Overview
Location: Bowling Green
Length: 1.6 miles
Trailhead: 27.623090, -81.808885
Address: 888 Lake Branch Rd, Bowling Green
Fees: $3 per vehicle
Restroom: At the museum
Land manager: Florida State Parks
Phone: 863-375-4717
Open 8 AM to sunset. Leashed dogs welcome, but not inside the museum.
Directions
Follow US 17 south from Bartow to Bowling Green. In Bowling Green, turn left onto Main St and follow it east a quarter mile to Lake Branch Rd. Turn right and drive 1.1 miles. The park entrance is on the right. Once inside, make a right off the entrance road at the sign for the museum and park outside it.
Hike
Extending from the museum’s exit doors into the scrub forest behind the building, the short, accessible Fort Site Trail winds through walls of scrub oaks.
At a T intersection at a “Historic Trail Head” sign, continue to the right, ending at a set of interpretive markers.
T intersectionThe open, sandy expanse behind them is where the blockhouse of Fort Chokonikla is thought to have sat, with a view across a once-cleared landscape to Paynes Creek.
The creek once served as the northern boundary of the Seminole Reservation. A trading post sat on reservation land on a bluff above the creek.
The presumed location of Fort ChokoniklaReturn to the trail junction and follow the sand path through the scrub, crossing a forest road beneath a cluster of oaks.
Posts with black squares signify the route of the Historic Trail, which branches off to the left and downhill. To tackle the near loops first, turn right.
Sand path through scrubQuickly meet the upper junction for the Flatwoods Trail, a loop marked with green diamonds on its posts.
Bear right at the sign to start it counterclockwise. Pass a pair of oaks. The landscape opens up into an expanse of palmetto prairie.
Palmetto prairieCross the sandy forest road again and join another, curving towards the distant treeline along the edge of scrubby flatwoods.
A sprawling prickly pear cactus sports bright yellow blossoms at a curve leading up to a bench.
Prickly pear blossomsContinuing gentle curves along the edge of the palmetto prairie, reach the junction with the Mary Jane Trail in front of a bench at 0.4 miles. Turn right to begin this trail.
The most distant loop in the chain of trails extending to the Peace River, the Mary Jane Trail traverses uplands above the Paynes Creek floodplain.
Start of the Mary Jane TrailPosts are marked with orange circles. A brief connector leads to the loop. Turn right.
At a T intersection with a track along the edge of what appears to be former pastureland, turn left, the route confirmed by a post across from a pair of benches.
Benches before the prairieThe pasture is reverting to prairie, tall orange-hued grasses waving in the breeze. Crossing the expanse, meet treeline, the track losing elevation as it enters a tunnel of shade.
Passing a bench, follow this steady downhill, emerging into the open again in an overgrown pasture. A grassy track comes in from the right.
Bench along the downhillContinue straight downhill into the forest, reaching a trail junction at a gate and bench at 0.9 miles.
The sign ahead denotes the route to the park’s group camp, which sits along Paynes Creek. Turn left to stay on the Mary Jane Trail.
Junction with Group Camp TrailIt enters a corridor of upland forest. A bench sits in the shade. The forest is obviously second or third growth, a smattering of cabbage palms among oaks and sweetgum.
As the understory thickens, the path descends and narrows towards a floodplain.
The density and variety of ferns beyond a stand of loblolly bay in a sometimes-muddy spot.
Ferns along the floodplain’s edgeAscend from this damp habitat to a bench marking the start of a long straightaway. At 1.2 miles, close the loop on the Mary Jane Trail. Turn right to exit.
Meeting the junction with the Flatwoods Trail, turn right to continue along its loop. Quickly come to a junction of it with the Historic Trail.
The final leg of the Flatwoods Trail loopTo return to the museum, keeping your focus on the uplands at this end of the park, bear left.
Both the Flatwoods Trail and the Historic Trail share this path.
Follow an ecotone: xeric flatwoods fade into a thicket of saw palmetto and ferns beneath the pines above a bayhead.
Along the ecotoneTo the left is the same expanse of palmetto prairie circled by the first segment of the Flatwoods Trail.
Finishing the Flatwoods Trail at 1.4 miles, meet the Historic Trail again. A right allows you to tackle that route, but it’ll also require more backtracking.
Paynes Creek Historic Trail Linking the Peace River Trail and the Flatwoods Trail, a 1.9 mile hike on the Historic Trail provides interpretation of physical sites linked to the Seminole Wars.Better to approach it from the day use area, as described. Cross the forest road and walk through the scrub along the Fort Site Trail sidewalk.
Return through or around the building to the parking area to complete this 1.6 mile hike.
Returning to the museumTrail Map
Explore More!
Learn more about Paynes Creek Historic State Park
Paynes Creek Historic State Park Straddling the former treaty boundary of Seminole lands, this interpretive site along the Peace River features a network of trails tied together by a swinging footbridge. Video
Hiking the Flatwoods and Mary Jane Trails
Slideshow
See our photos from the Flatwoods and Mary Jane Trails
Nearby Adventures
Peace River Park On 155 acres fronting the Peace River through the rural Hardee County seat of Wauchula, Peace River Park immerses visitors in the beauty of river bottom hammocks. 
Hardee Lakes County Park A collection of former phosphate pits adjoining the floodplain of Paynes Creek provide anglers and campers with a destination west of the Peace River basin. 
Peace River Hammock Walk softly through the immersive Peace River floodplain beneath enormous trees to a scenic bluff along the river where paddlers can come ashore.
Peace River Park Greenway With river views near its ends, a graded 2.5 mile linear path in Fort Meade follows a slender strip of public land parallel to the east shore of the Peace River. 
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