Rainbow Springs had a couple of trails I wanted to check out. It also looks like a fun little place to be during the summer to go swimming in the springs and summer. I however was just looking for some trails to check out.
I did not intend this series to go quiet for so long. Between quite a lot of bad weather and some other stuff. It took a bit longer to get out to an area I scouted out quite a few months back to hit some trails.
As happens from time to time. The Alltrails routes I had and the “official” trails shown above were not the same. The people on Alltrails tend to just make their trails that sometimes combine multiple routes. This ends up working out better than what is usually there when it occurs.
For quite some time many trails in the area had been closed from all the hurricanes from the past year. It seemed a part of the trail here was even changed. Not sure if it was hurricane-related. I was just thrilled to see they were back in operation. It can be quite annoying when then going to a place to hit up some trails to find out they are all shut down or most of the route is.
According to Alltrails the first trail I wanted to hit up they are called Blue Trail. It’s the trail that takes you around some human-made waterfalls. It also connects to other trails in the area.
I ended up running into a couple of people who told me to watch out. They ended up getting a bit lost and went on a much longer route around the state park than they were expecting. It became clear later on how that could occur when I went back for the other trail I wanted to do here.
While I did not go down to the spring swimming area. You can see the orange buoy and rope around the rather nice-looking patch of water through the trees. Even in the cooler temperatures when I was in this area there were still a few people swimming around.
There is even a little covered area with some places to sit, a shop, and a place to order some food. For only $5 per car to get into the place. All of that alone is quite nice.
It did not take long before I started seeing some man-made waterfalls. At first, I thought this might have been it. I would not have been shocked as that is sometimes how these things are. Thankfully it was not. There are a couple and much bigger waterfalls in the area.
While this time of year was not great for those who love to look at flowers. There were still a few around the place. Mostly a bunch of whatever this area. While I do garden a little bit that tends to be more on the food-growing side of things. These flowers were at least nice to look at.
This trail was nice and paved. It made it easy to get around. There would also be little side trails that would take you off towards a viewing area. Since this trail lacks for the most part proper markings. It was more of something you wander around.
At least there were many guardrails and other indications that you were still on the correct route. I would once in a while open up the trail app I use just to make sure I did not get turned around or was heading back to the parking lot. This thing loops you back to the swimming area if you end up going too far.
It did not take long before finding another waterfall. I found it kind of funny they had to include no swimming or climbing signs. Along with using a fence to further discourage people from attempting.
One of the little side trails on the Blue Trail took you out to an observation dock. I did not see any alligators down there in the water. I could only guess there had to be some lurking in what looked like a swamp.
I noticed a couple of people were out there doing some water activities. Outside of someone on a boat. I’d later see a paddle boarder and a kayaking. You could not pay me to want to get into that open water in a kayak let alone a boat.
Then came the point of the giant waterfall that I used as the cover of this post. Further up the trail is even the loopback that takes you up to the top of it. That all alone made my trip out here worth it. There are some other spots I was not expecting.
While it is no longer in operation there is a tiny little zoo area. It was just a couple of cages to hold things like foxes and bobcats. I was not expecting that. This spot must have been quite the hopping little hidden gem back in the day.
It was not a massive zoo but it was cool to see what had remained from it. This place was mostly empty. It seems most people come to visit the waterfalls and then turn around and head back to the swimming area. Leaving it quite a nice quiet spot in the zoo area.
There were even some fenced-off areas that used to have a barn and other stuff. All that remains is the foundation for some of it.
Final Thoughts
Since I did not want to leave the same way I entered. I took a steep route up to the top of the waterfall. There was even a little bridge to walk over a section of it. There were then multiple paths out some shorter than others to be taken back to the swimming area.
Overall, a fun little trail filled with some man-made waterfalls and no longer an operating zoo. Sometimes it’s not about how large a trail is. It’s what you get to see along the way.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
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