Trail Extenders from Hillsborough River State Park
Pamela sees trails everywhere! That’s me! One of our favorite things to do when going to a new park or area is to scout out all the trails available for hiking and biking in the park and the surrounding area. So many times parks will list the trails in the park but often don’t mention the trails that interconnect to Rails to Trails/ Greenways and state trail systems etc.
It is our plan to share these extensions with you! While writing this, we are here at Hillsborough River State Park in Florida … in JUNE! Yes, it is super hot but surprisingly the bugs are manageable even with all the recent rains. This park has 4 official trails but one of the ways that I challenge myself, satisfy my need for doing research and find new experiences is to find new trail loops.
My initial goal here at Hillsborough River state park was to connect the Parks’s River Rapids hiking trail to the nearby Dead River County Park River trail. Yesterday, after following the river rapids trail past the campground kayak launch, I followed what appeared to be a hiking trail down river towards Dead River park along the river bank successfully for over 3/4 mile. I then ended up lost without a trail and boggy swamp on both sides of me. With alligator grunting sounds as my soundtrack, I bushwhacked and bug swatted my way back the kayak launch area at the park. I label this attempt a FAIL. I spoke with a Ranger later in the day and he affirmed that there ONCE was a trail that connected the two parks along the river however since Dead River County park is still recovering from the past and recent hurricanes it has not been maintained for many years. However, as you kayak down river you will see the trails I speak of on the left hand side of the river. The trails you see on the right side of the river as you are kayaking down river are part of the Seminole trail in the park which is part of the Florida Trail.
So with my first attempt thwarted, on day 7 of our stay at this park… I came up with plan #2. Here is the video of this adventure.
This time I started from the Hillsborough River State park wetlands restoration trail then onto the Dead River County Park River trail to the 2 mile canopy park road and returned back on the Fort King/wetland trails back to Hillsborough River State park.
Well, it is only day 8 here for us at this park, so today I decided to find out if I could extend the Rapids River Trail UP RIVER since down river was a fail a few days earlier. So from the campground I got on the connector to the River Rapids Trail and started hiking up river on the trail.
Once I passed the official turnoff to the parking lot the trail became a bit more unkempt in some areas but very easy to follow and super gorgeous as it meandered along the river.
Traffic sounds got louder as I approached hwy 301 and the trail was easy to navigate under the bridge and this led very shortly to a small bridge that led to the Fort. Please realize that the fort is officially closed and not open for tours except on certain days. I have connected that information HERE. So please keep your distance from the fort so that this trail will remain open to all. If you walk to your left (after the small bridge I mentioned) you will see a larger bridge spanning over the River … walk over that!
I walked around this area a bit and it had little trails everywhere. I then chose to return via the road to the park but you could easily just hike back the way that you came. This was an aprox 2.4 mile one way hike.
Thanks for reading about our adventures. Happy Trails to ALL!