Fall color on a red maple in the floodplain forest
2/27/2019: Park gates are padlocked and no information about length of closure available yet.
A short but deeply-shaded and scenic walk, the nature trail at Sarah Maude Mason Nature Preserve in Howey-in-the-Hills spends most of its time on a boardwalk over a floodplain forest along Little Lake Harris. Bring your binoculars for the excellent birding along the lake!
Resources
Overview
Location: Howey-in-the-Hills
Length: 0.6 mile
Lat-Long: 28.701150, -81.764067
Type: loop
Fees / Permits: None
Difficulty: easy
Bug factor: moderate
Restroom: No
Open dawn to dusk, with interpretive information available at the kiosk. There is an additional entrance from Griffin Stormwater Park with a connecting paved trail to downtown Howey-in-the-Hills.
Directions
From SR 19 in Howey-in-the-Hills, drive 0.9 mile on Rebel’s Road. Turn right at Buckhill Road at the “Nature Preserve” sign; follow the red clay road 0.2 mile to the trailhead parking area on the left.
Hike
As you walk beneath the shady canopy of trees, ferns grow in profusion beneath the sweetgum, maples, and cypresses. Looping back into a thick hardwood hammock, the boardwalk ends and the trail forks, with the right fork headed to a walking trail along Lakeshore Blvd, and the left fork following a forest road through the woods back to the main trailhead. It’s a charming short walk through a floodplain forest without getting your feet wet.
We tried to go there today Feb 26, 2019 and we found both entrances were padlocked shut. Would have been nice to know park was closed.
Thanks for informing us. With thousands of parks in Florida, we don’t hear about closures unless we stumble across them or our readers let us know. We’ll check with Lake County on its status.