Chuluota Wilderness Area and the Bronson State Forest: Flatlands, Wetlands, and Much More

In my quest to get acquainted with more sections of the eastern corridor of the Florida Trail, I celebrated this past New Year’s Day backpacking on the Florida Trail in the Chuluota Wilderness Area and the Bronson State Forest. A week earlier (yes, on Christmas Eve), I had done the same in the busy Little Big Econ State Forest, enjoying a night with more than a few neighbors on the Econlockhatchee River. By comparison, Chuluota WA and Bronson State Forest are quiet and uninhabited—by tourists, not wildlife.

Deriving its name from a Native American word thought to mean “island of yellow flowers,” the Chuluota Wilderness Area is a 625-acre park containing two loop trails spanning nearly three miles each with a two-mile portion of the Florida Trail running between them.  Lying directly southeast is the Bronson State Forest, established in 2008 after having been historically used for grazing cattle and harvesting turpentine, which sits closer to the St. John’s River and is crossed by four creeks.  I hiked on all but the southeastern most 2 ½ miles of the Florida Trail’s seven-mile section in Bronson SF, after beginning my 6 ½ mile hike in from the northwestern corner of the Chuluota WA and then nesting for the night at Fern Camp.

From the moment I left the parking area at the Chuluota Wilderness Area to the moment I arrived at Fern Camp, I was immersed in a quiet, kaleidoscopic fantasy land of natural Central Florida forest, swamp, and prairie, traveling back through time through ecosystems that seemed to change more quickly than I could note.  I began by hiking thorough a forest of young sand pines and rosemary scrub in the Chuluota WA, where tall skinny trees and chest-high shrubs crowded the stiff white sand trail and afforded broad views in all directions.  Within a mile, I was pulled into a twisting tunnel of thicker scrub oaks and hickory, where the sky above became less visible and limbs crowded the trail as I descended toward the boggy lowland.

Less than 2 miles into my hike, I began meeting tannic creeks, where boardwalks and stumps maintained by the FTA helped me cross a cozy expanse of rust-colored marsh.  I soon reached the final stretch of the Florida Trail in Chuluota, which eventually led to a forest road flooded so deeply that a broad planked boardwalk had to be crossed before the trail resumed on an embankment bank running between the road and a barbed wire fence.  At a curve in the road, I reached Chuluota’s border with the Bronson State Forest, where a covered bench stands beside the opening of the fence into the state forest.

From here, the Florida Trail slowly rose through a much more desolate forest, first through a grassy swamp of skinny pond pines, then rising and descending again through a hardwood forest of thicker oak and pine and the marshy floodplains of Buschombe and Joshua Creeks.  Halfway through my hike I passed the head of the connector trail to the popular Joshua Creek campsite.

From there I climbed through a palmetto savannah, then into a gorgeous pine savanna, where tall longleaf pines towered over prairie grasses and huge palmettos that often rose above my head.  Eventually I met the open sky again in low-rolling sandhills covered by turkey oaks, then reached the last stretch of my hike, where I descended into a dense palm hammock, crossing a pretty bridge at Christmas Creek. My hike ended by winding through a dense forest of cypress, cabbage palm, and palmetto, where the trail surface turned to compact dark mud frequently rooted by hogs.

The highlight of my adventure was Fern Camp, a broad clearing where the sturdy picnic table and fire ring sitting on a gravel bed is embraced by a circular wall of majestic lichen and fern-covered live oaks interspersed with the tall, thick longleaf pines I adore. The trees here are enormous, dwarfing the campsite and my tent.  Fern Camp is a gem—Nestled far from city noises where you can sleep beside the forest, you are able to gaze all night through the opening in the tree tops at a panorama of stars.  I was serenaded throughout the night by owls and packs of coyotes that often sounded not so far away.

Incredibly, this oasis of solitude lies close to the hustle and bustle of State Road 50 not far east of Orlando, and less than 15 miles south of the more visited stretch of the Florida Trail in the Little Big Econ State Forest. Although I passed a nice family with young children on my way in, this stretch had far fewer visitors than Little Big Econ. The one drawback is that campsite reservations are expensive by backcountry standards–$16.69 per night when including all taxes and fees.  But the price is justified by the isolation and beauty.  It’s worth a trip for any weekend warriors like me.

Portions of this article were borrowed from an article of mine in the February 2025 issue of The Footpath Newsletter, published by the Central Florida chapter of the Florida Trail Association.