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Next up in my mission to hike as much of the Gainesville area as I could was Longleaf Flatwood Reserve.

There are a few different trails here you can do (red, yellow, and white for sure) but we just did the White Trail.

Looking at the map, there are kind of three nested loops you can do, and the White Trail is the shortest inner-inner loop. It can easily be combined with the other sections though.

We did the loop counterclockwise but I think it would be fine either way since it’s all flat.

The trail is well marked, wide, and easy to follow. It’s mostly wide grass and dirt/sand and fairly even.

We did encounter a few spots on the trail covered in water but it wasn’t super deep. We could have gone through if we didn’t care about getting feet wet but it was easy enough to go around the edge.

The area is mostly made up of pine flatwoods and cypress swamp, but this trail is through the pine area.

It’s pretty typical Florida pine woods, with the tall skinny pines and palmettos on the ground below. I love it.

In one of the puddles along the trail we saw a frog just floating and hanging out (it looked alive). Otherwise we didn’t really see any wildlife.

There was also a really cool tree that almost looked liked fingers coming out of the ground spread out, but they were all from the one middle spot. I don’t think I have a better way to explain that.

We also saw a palm kind of growing around another palm? It was fairly small and under a bigger bush but it looked like it was almost eating the other palm. It was pretty cool!

Overall, it’s not a thrilling trail, but it was beautiful and it’s a really great option if you want to hike near Gainesville somewhere that isn’t as busy (as in, we saw no one else here).

Where is the Longleaf Flatwood Reserve?

The Longleaf Flatwood Reserve is southeast of Gainesville, slightly northeast of Micanopy, and just north of Cross Creek. It’s almost right in the middle of Lochloosa Lake, Orange Lake, and Lake Pithlachocco.

It’s about 15 minutes from Gainesville, 40 from Ocala, 10 from Micanopy, and 15 from the La Chua area of Paynes Prairie.

How long is the White Trail at Longleaf Flatwood Reserve?

Alltrails tracked us at 1.7 miles for the loop we did. I’m not sure how long anything here is really supposed to be, I can’t find any good maps or trail lists.

There is a 2.5 mile loop and a 5.2 mile loop on AllTrails, and the loop we did is like, the smallest one if you’re looking at the map. It’s like the inner inner loop.

Is the White Trail at Longleaf Flatwood Reserve hard?

Nope! There are 13 feet of elevation gain on this loop (62 on the longest one on AllTrails) so it’s pretty flat. There was some water on the trail but nothing we couldn’t go around.

Is the White Trail at Longleaf Flatwood Reserve worth it?

I think so. It was nice and it was quiet. If you want a hike near Gainesville that isn’t busy and like the tall pine forests, this is a great choice.

And since it’s a trail system, you can easily add more mileage if you want to.

Other posts you may like

Orange Lake Overlook hike

Kathy Cantwell Trail at Prairie Creek Preserve

Lake Pithlachocco Trail In Gainesville, Florida

Visit Micanopy, Florida

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park

Gainesville Trails

Easy Florida hiking

Have you hiked at Longleaf Flatwood Reserve? Which trails did you do? What did you think of it?