Paynes Prairie Bolen Bluff

Birding / Hiking / Adventuring Roadtrip Info

ROUGH DRAFT

Mar 2018

What's It Like
Kind of Birds
Wildlife
Ammenities
Time Needs
Experience

Typical view [?]

Photo Galleries

Typical View (29)

Snapshots! (9)

GRADES: Click each for info, = Note*
How Big	Not Rated
Importance	Not Rated
Revisit?	B
Birding	B
Wildlife	A
Summer Heat	B
Terrain	C *
Fun Hike	A
Maintained	B
Mosquitos	C
Biting Files	B
Ticks	C

NOTE: You can trip on tree roots etc

LOCATION: Accuracy: Read me

On Big Map: Click map (or on google maps). Address: Bolen Bluff Trail, Micanopy, FL, Alachua, USA, 32667

5 CLOSEST (Map)

Miles	Location
1.2	Paynes Prairie US441 Observation Platform
3.1	Barr Hammock Preserve
4	Paynes Prairie La Chua
4	Micanopy, FL
4.3	Sweetwater Wetlands

OFFICIAL INFO:

1) What It's Like

Pretty thick oak forest and an earthen slope into Paynes prairie - a sea of grasses when it isn't flooded.. .then a sea of water and dead grasses.

3) Wildlife

Anything is possible but we've seen armadillo, bison, deer, and wild horses.

4) Amenities

A place to drop in money and a parking lot. That is all.

5) Time Requirements

It takes 35 minutes to talk to the Prairie part and it's basically a loop ending there.

Experience

I like this trail a lot. It's mostly a forest trail but also you can walk down an earthen ramp into Paynes Prairie. In college I'd mountain bike here and a few highlights:

Running into very large alligators on the prairie around a corner so I got the TV-worthy hiss and swiping of the tail. It was fine but probably my worst alligator run in.
Bison - again I rounded a corner and there was a little grass clearing with this guy standing there blinking looking at me like he was announcing a side-quest in a video game. huge animal. And they leave huge piles of poop you'd see more often.
A mother and a couple baby armadillos circled around me and treated me like I was nothing to worry about like a tree or something.
Endless snakes would slither onto the road to sun themselves and be run over. ENDLESS. I'd bike over then and always worry a biter wouldn't be as dead as I thought.

Other than that it's a very quiet place except there are quite a few warbler/mixed-flock type birds in here. I'm guessing that's because the proximity of the prairie. The prairie itself is kind of neat to walk out on and you see some birds out there but it's not close to get to the water when it's not flooded. And even if it is flooded you're better going up the road to the boardwalk on 441 to see water birds.

Very nice trail - recommended.

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