Old Fort King to Hillsborough River State Park

HRSP Wetland Trail

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Well it was a beautiful day so Koda and I decided to take a walk. We went to the Old Fort King Area for the 500th time because its so close and free. However, I wanted to change it up again. Once again, this area is just south of Hillsborough River State Park (HRSP)on Hwy 301. The actual Wetlands Restoration Trail will link the two areas together. You can park at Old Fort King and walk or bike into HRSP. I wanted to give this a go as I have never walked it and wanted something different. This portion of the Wetlands trail is barely .5 miles and will take you to the paved loop in HRSP. We turned around and headed back but broke off the trail onto another trail that is basically a fire break between the two properties. This trail was washed out at the first way point. The swamp crossed the trail here and was about 2 feet deep. Almost lost a shoe in the mud! We wound up back at the Wilderness trail but further down. We continued on the fire break till we found a trail heading north. We took this for a while and came to a fork. At first we went left yet to find another wash out at the second way point. The trail started to get real faint so we doubled back and passed the trail that brought us here. Continuing on, we finally wound up at Hillsborough River at the third way point. The trail followed the river right into HRSP at the forth way point. We decided to double back to the fire break. At a break in the barb wire we got onto the wilderness trail and took it to the edge of the property then doubled back and took the Wilderness trail back to the truck.

This was a nice hike as it was new and finding trails that aren't on maps is always fun. These trails got real rustic and Koda was always hearing something. We also so a white tailed doe. Overall fun hike. Cant wait to get back out there and check out a few of those trails we passes up.

Have fun!