Find the top rated birding trails in Ocala, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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This trail would be amazing if Pasco County had budgeted to make parking areas at the major road crossings. This includes Ridge Rd., Shady Hills Rd. and Countyline Rd. If you want to park at the trail, you have to drive to SR 54 or to Hernando County. Or you can get ticketed by Pasco County Sheriff's Office for parking under the overpass at Shady Hills Rd. For such a nice trail, it is almost completely inaccessible to Pasco County residents.
Nice long trail with wildlife and lots of shady canopy cover which is great in the summer. Saw an otter, tortoise, armadillo and many owls. Great time!
I have ridden dozens of trails across Florida over the past several years and this one was by far the most confusing. I wanted to go from Lake Monroe trailhead all the way to Delon Park.. to get in close to 50 miles roundtrip.
It starts out great with mail markers along the way then off of a sudden you have to cross a major intersection, and pick up the trail where there is no signage the rest of the way.
I had to stop multiple times to check the online map to find the various turns and such that I had to make to stay on a trail. Then it just ends. The description does say there is a "gap"... but when you get to the end... you literally are at a dead end... nothing to tell you where or how to pick up the rest of the trail.
So I just went back to Lake Monroe and got a little over 30 miles.
Lake Monroe to Delon Park
This trail is worth your time! Great surface and beautiful views especially at the bridge. I'm blessed to live near it.
I did this ride with some friends when we parked in downtown Winter Park and rode over to meet up with the West Orange Trail. After a few miles, on side roads, it took to the Lake Apopka Loop Trail. It was a lot of fun. We saw gators, birds, and lots of other wildlife. I highly recommend sunscreen and making sure that you have plenty of water on a hot sunny day.
We started at Felburn Park, very nice with plenty of parking. Only 1 road crossing. Not much for shade but a nice view of the channel alongside the trail. Some bumps near the park. We did the trail twice. We would do this trail again.
We actually rode this trail February of 2026. Enjoyed the ride but grew desperate to find privacy to pee being a female. Did find a place but didn't notice trail markers for next time. Definitely would ride trail again.
Parked in the park on the South side of the bridge and started the trail from there. Road approximately 11 miles to Hastings. Turned right on Main Street and went about 2 blocks and ate lunch at Norma D’s. Great little local restaurant and the sandwiches were fantastic. Headed back the way we came. We had beautiful weather, 78 degrees and a slight breeze. Great ride!
Rode the WST for first time today. Started at the Owensboro trail head and rode 23 miles up to Floral City. So peaceful & quiet especially compared to Suncoast that we did earlier in the week. Was a very nice ride even though we did run into a couple of scary situations. Right where the good neighbor trail intersects with the WST there was a rattle snake on the pavement. Very thankful to the rider that came off the GNT and stopped and pointed it out to us. Without his heads up I likely would have ran over it. The 2nd scary event was coming back to the trailhead we had started at. Somewhere between mile 1 & 2 there were 2 large black dogs that came out of the woods and started going after my wife. Fortunately, I heard her screaming and looked back. 2 dogs chasing her and 1 of them was at her ankles. She got away by having to hit the throttle on the e-bike. Be aware.
I was visiting my friend and Palakta is her home. I started trail at Hitchcock’s grocery store because best place to park to get right on trail. From this location it was 19.3 miles to end of trail. There is one restroom along the way and it’s about 16 miles. There is the town of Hastings that has restaurants etc. and it’s about 8 miles from Palakta. Once at the end of trail, it just ends and you will see the railroad track and that’s it. You are not in the city of St. Augustine. There is no bench or anything.
This trail was our first of hopefully many rides in Florida. We used the trail head in Brooksville. Plenty of fee parking but reasonable at $5 (you’ll need the park mobile app). We went south for about 17 miles. Would agree with others that it is very noisy and also not very scenic. But it is paved which was nice. Bike traffic was very minimal. One set of restrooms 6 miles from where we started (at the athletic fields). Crossing traffic in some places was a bit daunting but in the very busy areas there were crosswalk traffic lights. We did see an armadillo on our ride back to the trail head we used. That was cool. All in all a great first Florida outing.
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