Chuluota Wilderness Area

4 Stars for a solid hiking trail that may lack in animals, but makes up for it in changing ecosystems along the way.
You may miss the entrance if you don’t have GPS on your phone because the parking area and start to the trail are pretty barebones and unremarkable. There aren’t any bathrooms so make sure you’ve prepared before you arrive.
We interrupt this review for a few Pro-​tips:
1– Read this guide to the trail (
) and print a copy to take along with you as it gives great points of reference and information about the plants and sites you’ll encounter. We were so glad we had it and only got a bit lost once. (I imagine we’d still be on the trail if we didn’t bring it along!)
2– Wear waterproof shoes (you’ll see why later in the review)
3– Bring a hat. There’s a section that has very little canopy coverage and depending on the time of day the sun can be a bit brutal.
Though it may look disappointing at the outset — the trail begins alongside a fence with large power lines just on the other side — you’ll soon find yourself immersed in a fairly tight, cozy path whose plants and general habitat changes noticeably along the hike.
The trail is about 4 miles long and has little to no elevation so it’s great for beginners on a day hike. We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t see any animals. Literally not a single bird… I was wondering if we were about to experience the apocalypse or a natural disaster because it was so quiet. But the scenery was nice and being outdoors lifted any latent family Thanksgiving stress.
If I lived closer, I could see this being a fun hike to do again.
Note: around the end of the trail, you can continue on to another trail. But tend to flood when there’s been rain and we actually had to turn back earlier than we though because the entire trail was submerged and impassable.