River Rise Red Trail: A Perfectly OK Hike

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Today’s trail is the Red Trail at River Rise Preserve State Park in High Springs, Florida. It’s technically in Fort White, but I’m going with High Springs.

River Rise is a park that’s more popular for horseback riding than hiking but the trails are usually multiuse, including the Red Trail.

The trail starts off wide and sandy before branching off and becoming slightly more narrow and sandy.

While there were a few views along the trail I enjoyed, I have to say, this was a pretty unremarkable hike.

We did this in February or March so none of the trees had leaves. It was a very bare and brown experience.

The trail was easy to follow, had a few small ups and downs, and was a windy little loop, which is a nice change of pace from a lot of flat and straight trails.

Once we got near the end, we could have gone back the way we came for a slightly more scenic walk but we decided to take the wider path that we started on the rest of the way.

There really wasn’t even much for plants in the woods here, they were pretty wide open.

I know this is probably the most boring post ever, but I’m still sharing it because I think it’s important to share that not everything is fun and pretty and exciting.

I find some duds along the way and while this wasn’t an awful hike by any means, in comparison it is a bit of a dud, and that’s ok.

This doesn’t mean don’t do this trail. But I would do it when it’s green. And I would pick this one if I’ve done everything else in the area and just want to do something different.

Overall, it was just fine. I didn’t dislike it while we were there but I really have little recollection of it and my pictures aren’t helping much.

Travel Services I Recommend:
AllTrails – This is my favorite hike tracking app.
America the Beautiful – The national park pass is essential.
Booking.com – This is great for finding and booking hotels.
Get Your Guide – I recommend Get Your Guide for booking tours.
National Park Obsessed – This is the best national park planner.
Skyscanner – Skyscanner is great for finding and booking flights.
Enterprise – This is my rental car recommendation.
See all my resources here.

Where is the River Rise Red Trail?

The Red Trail at River Rise is NOT at the same spot as the River Rise trail (where you go to see the Santa Fe River Rise).

This one is just outside of High Springs on Highway 27. “River Rise West. Horse Camping And Trails” will get you there on Google Maps.

It’s about 5 minutes from High Springs and 45 from Gainesville. I wouldn’t come from further away than those for this one specifically.

How long is the River Rise Red Trail?

AllTrails clocked us at just over 3 miles for the loop. It says it’s the Red and Green Loop Trail but our track doesn’t match the official trail track for that.

That whole loop is 6.9 miles (someone else said it was 4) so we just did the red part, which is the first part of the trail (though they also say red turns to green so it’s hard to say).