A Guide to the Geneva Wilderness Area

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Geneva Wilderness Area
One of my favorite places to visit here in Seminole County is the Geneva Wilderness Area, which is located in Geneva, FL [map]. The Geneva WA is about 180 acres with about 2 miles of trails through flatwoods, pine scrub and bay swamp environments. The trail takes you by three ponds, and there's a rustic chapel that overlooks a grassy clearing with two of the ponds. You can find a brochure with a trail map here.  I find this area truly beautiful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves hiking, beautiful scenery, and wildlife.

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Carolina Chickadee
Trails
There are two main trails in the wilderness area, and both are relatively easy trails to walk.  The Loop Trail with red markers takes you on a loop around the ponds.  The trail with yellow markers takes you to Flagler Trail, a trail that takes you through the Little Big Econ State Forest. When I go in search of wildlife, I normally walk the trails in such a way that I can see a lot of the diversity in the park.  Here's my typical route: from the main parking lot, there's an open field to the left.  I walk out to that field and then turn right, looking for sparrows and other birds in the taller grasses. Shortly after this, the caretaker's house will appear on the right and gravel road leading to the nature center.  I make a left there and walk past the nature center to the trail.  At this point I'm walking through a scrub environment.  The trail leads to a loop around two ponds.  I usually make a right at this trail. Live Oaks then begin to appear, as well, and then taller grasses among pines.    Eventually I come to the chapel on the left.  This is my favorite place in the park.  There are several dead trees (my daughter calls them woodpecker trees) there.  I usually walk out to see the two ponds and look for shorebirds, wading birds, and ducks. I then continue on the trail around the ponds through the pines until I complete the loop.  Just past where I entered this loop there's a trail that goes to the right.  This trail goes past the third pond, which is on the left.  This is another good place to look for ducks, wading birds and shorebirds.  When I finish there, I continue on the path to a smaller trail to the right that goes back to the parking lot through a pine scrub environment.  This walk takes about 1.5 hours at a leisurely pace, stopping occasionally to view or photograph scenery and wildlife.

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American Kestrel
Wildlife
While not as diverse as some of the other places I visit, the Geneva WA supports a pretty nice diversity of wildlife.  I frequently see White-tailed Deer in the park, occasionally find Gopher Tortoises, and on rare occasions, I've seen Bobcats.

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Bobcat
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Gopher Tortoise
So far I've cataloged 73 species of birds at the park.  This park is one of the best places in Seminole County to find certain species of birds, especially Brown-headed Nuthatches, Carolina Chickadees, Eastern Towhees, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Whip-poor-will, Common Ground Dove, and Northern Bobwhites.  And during the cooler months you may also find shorebirds--I've seen both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson's Snipe and Killdeer. I've also seen flyovers of interesting species such as Roseate Spoonbills and Swallow-tailed Kites.

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Brown-headed Nuthatch
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Eastern Bluebird
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Eastern Whip-poor-will
Other species that are more common throughout Seminole Co. can also be found here.  Bald Eagles, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks are common here, and a couple times I've seen an American Kestrel.  This is also a good place to find Wood Ducks, and sometimes you may even find Blue-winged Teal, Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Mottled Ducks and Mallards. While I wouldn't go to this park looking to find wading birds, I often see a few here, especially Sandhill Cranes, Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons and Great Egrets. You may also see an assortment of warblers when they're in the area--Northern Parula, Pine, Palm, Yellow-rumped, Yellow-throated and Common Yellowthroat.  Other than Eastern Towhee, I've only found one species of sparrow here so far, Chipping Sparrow.  You can find many woodpeckers here: Red-bellied, Downy, and Pileated are common, and on occasion you may also find a Northern Flicker.  Also commonly found here are Tufted Titmice, Northern Cardinal, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, White-eyed Vireos and Carolina Wrens.

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Tufted Titmouse
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Northern Cardinal
Accomodations
The accommodations inside the park are rustic at best, but nice.  On their website, they say that there's one primitive campsite that can be reserved, though the trail map shows two, and I've found two campsites in the park.  I don't know if that means there's a mistake on the website or if one of the campsites is no longer available for camping.  There is supposedly a restroom at each campsite, but I haven't found either (nor have I looked very long).  But the campsites are quite beautiful situated among the pines--one is by the nature center and the other is by the lake.  There's an outdoor chapel that looks like it could hold about 30 people for prayer or worship services. The Ed Yarborough Nature Center is there as well.  I haven't ever gone inside though, so I can't tell you much about it.

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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
All in all, this is a pretty great place to visit, especially if you love walking among the pines.  Take water, bug spray (during the summer months), a good pair of shoes, binoculars and a camera. During the summer, it can be quite hot, and some parts of the trail have little shade, so don't forget a hat and sun screen.

Comments

  1. There is so much of Florida I should have explored while I lived there. This looks like a terrific location!

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  2. Terrific looking blog Scott, learnt something from your 'exposure' tips article and loving your pics ... never been to the USA but very tempted by Florida now .... you have a new follower!
    Tim@ Timbobaggins Abroad

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  3. Thanks! It is a pretty great place. There's so much more I need to explore too.

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