General James A. Van Fleet State Trail

General James A. Van Fleet State Trail
Mabel Trailhead's picnic shelter, a.k.a. Mabel Station.
Length	29.2 mi (47.0 km)
Location	Polk, Lake and Sumter counties, USA
Designation	IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Trailheads	Mabel Bay Lake Green Pond Polk City
Trail map

General James A. Van Fleet State Trail is a rail trail in Florida, named after General James A. Van Fleet, who was a distinguished combat commander in both World Wars and the Korean War.^[1]

It is protected as a Florida State Park and occupies a 29.2-mile (47.0 km) abandoned portion of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's Miami Subdivision through Central Florida's Green Swamp area. It extends from Polk City in the south to Mabel in the north.^[2]

It passes through Bay Lake and crosses Lake, Polk and Sumter counties.

The entire 29.2-mile (47.0 km) length of the trail is paved approximately 12-foot (3.7 m) wide and is mostly straight, containing only one slight curve toward the southern end of the trail just north of the Polk City trailhead.

Fauna

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Among the wildlife that can be seen along the trail are egrets, herons and various raptors. Also sighted are white-tailed deer, Florida gopher tortoises, American alligators, raccoons and nine-banded armadillos.

Recreational activities

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Activities include walking, running, inline skating, hiking, horseback riding, biking, and viewing wildlife.

Hours and fees

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Florida state parks are open between 8 a.m. and sundown every day of the year (including holidays). There is no admission necessary to use the park.

Accessibility

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The trail has four trailheads with parking areas specifically for the trail, each spaced approximately 9.6 miles (15.4 km) apart. These are located in Polk City at the intersection of State Road 33 and County Road 665; Green Pond at the intersection of Green Pond Road and the trail itself; Bay Lake at the intersection of Bay Lake Road (County Road 565) and the trail itself; and finally in Mabel where the trail intersects just south of State Road 50. The right of way for the former railroad line continues north on its way to Coleman. This line carried the Silver Meteor between Coleman and Auburndale until 1988, and had a bridge under SR 50. The bridge was kept intact for a future horses-only extension of the trail toward Coleman. The extension was never built, and the bridge was dismantled the early-2010s.^[3]

Amenities

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Amenities include a picnic pavilion, several picnic tables, restrooms, and drinking fountains.

Parking, restrooms, and drinking fountains are available at all four trailheads.

Gallery

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Green Pond Trailhead
Green Pond Trailhead
Green Pond Trailhead
Polk City Trailhead
Polk City Trailhead

Notes

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^ "General James Alward Van Fleet". 29th Field Artillery Regimental Home Pages.
^ "General James Van Fleet State Trail". Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, Office of Greenways and Trails. 2012. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
^ "SR 50 Mabel Bridge Reconstruction". Central Florida Roads; FDOT. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

External links

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Media related to General James A. Van Fleet State Trail at Wikimedia Commons

Protected areas of Florida

Federal level

National parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National wildlife refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other national protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Marine Sanctuaries	Florida Keys Key Largo (1975–1990) Looe Key (1981–1990)
National Estuarine Research Reserves	Apalachicola NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR
National Wild and Scenic Rivers	Loxahatchee River Wekiva River

State level

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier–Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Price's Scrub Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Marks River St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical garden parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, rivers and springs parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Three Rivers Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Troy Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, historic sites, and archaeological sites	Addison Blockhouse Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Disney Wilderness Estero Bay Green Cay Wetlands Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Jacksonville-Baldwin Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Local level

Preserves and reserves	Boyd Hill Gumbo Limbo Moccasin Lake