It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had the type of vacation I enjoyed as a child and a childless adult. I’d leave the state for a week or so to enjoy sites unknown to Floridian soil. Most of those sites involved (or were) mountains.

I love hiking in the mountains, though I am by no means very good at it (alas). Still, an easy- to medium-difficulty walk up and down a hillside/modest mountain is one of my favorite things. I love seeing the fauna change as elevation does; I like the shade of the low levels; I like the feeling of accomplishment at the higher overlooks.

It’s something I’ve never experienced in Florida–until we visited Ravine Gardens State Park.

Ravine Gardens was once a popular attraction, built to draw in tourists to fawn over Palatka’s slice of Florida’s natural beauty. Funds from the Depression-era Civil Works Administration (CWA) paid for the initial construction, which was performed by Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) workers. In no time they built up buildings for administration and concessions, a station for the entrance, garden features (some seen below), benches, terraces and retaining walls, and improved/restored roads and bridges.

(I do not know if the state ever fills up that fountain or not. We are technically in a drought, I believe, so perhaps they just have it temporarily drained?)

(When you pass the entrance gate, this is the site seen. It was vaguely reminiscent of Washington, D.C., for reasons you can probably guess at.)

The project received rave reviews, but apparently funds for improvements were always short. After the end of World War II and the Great Depression-fighting New Deal projects, the city of Palatka took over maintenance and operations of the gardens until 1970, when the site became what it is today: a Florida State Park. (See the end of this post for a link to my source for the park’s history.)

And that’s where my family enters the picture (a good 50 years later, of course). I had an errand to complete in Daytona Beach and wanted to make a short vacation of the trip. While searching for parks of note to see on the way up, I found Ravine Gardens, and was immediately entranced by the lush vegetation that more resembled, say, middle Georgia (or middle/lower Alabama) than Florida. My heart aches to see the Appalachians and their azaleas. The fact that it could be possible to experience something akin to them at only a three hours’ drive was delighting.

So we made our way to Palatka.

When we arrived at the park, we first made a stop in the civic center/ranger station, where clean, air-conditioned public bathrooms and those water fountains with built-in filters were found. We made use of both amenities. (Our drive had been relatively long, and the day was definitely hot.) They had a little terrarium that appeared to be empty of any living animals, but my son enjoyed looking at the turtle shell and LEGO ranger within.

After all that, we explored the area of the garden that lay nearest to the administration building. I’ve already shown you empty fountain and the brick paths lined with stone walls that still contain ornamental (native?) plants, but there were also pretty little pavilions and a gazebo to enjoy. (We didn’t bring lunch this time.)

When we’d walked through that section of the park (which took no more than five minutes), it was time to start the park’s 1.8 mile loop. The path was paved (a big plus with our stroller–though we did end up veering from it, as you shall see), and was shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, and even the occasional car. It began with a steady slope that seemed incongruent with the typical Florida vegetation that lined it.

My son had a great time for a while trying to climb the bricks that lay on the side of the road, placed to help prevent erosion.

As you advance along the trail, there are plenty of overlooks that give a view to the bottom of the ravine (which, I understand, is a natural feature of the land, built by springs).

There were also plenty of sets of stairs leading down to the ravine. We passed them by because of the constraints of our stroller, but I did allow my oldest to speed down the steps for a quick picture. (I should note that I was particularly excited about the fact that there appeared to be ash trees–or so my botanical knowledge from my time in Maine seemed to indicate. Ash treses! Those aren’t “Florida” trees! Those are VACATION trees!)

Other side-trails along the way involved simple stone steps winding downwards. These, too, we passed by–at first. I kinda wished we had brought our cloth baby carrier, but that may have been a poor choice–it was in the low 90s and both of us adults AND our pretty large baby were feeling quite hot.

The trail carried on…

And eventually I decided that my oldest and I should take a detour to see the suspension bridge–one of the features that drew me in the most about this park.

Since I had paid no attention at all to the map at the start of the trail, however, we ended up going what seemed to be the wrong way, and decided to return to the paved trail. The little detour was still very worth it, since we got to duck under and walk along the azaleas. When we got back to the paved trail, we stayed only a little while, though, because my husband decided to bite the bullet and bring the stroller through the wooded path.

(I tried to help when I could, but poor Kamil definitely bore the brunt of the effort…)

As we walked (or in the case of the baby, gently bounced) along, we came across the suspension bridge I’d thought I missed. The stroller barely fit, but in the end, we all made it across.

Not long after that, we made our way to the actual bottom of the ravine, where water pooled, encircled by trees.

We stopped to look at the fish swimming at the water’s edge for just a bit, and then set off to finish the last quarter mile of the walk.

I was incredibly gratified by our little visit/hike in Ravine Gardens. It was hot–see baby for proof*–but the feeling of not-Florida present in the park gave me a much needed sensation of escape.

So–do I recommend Ravine Gardens State Park? YES! I recommend it so heartily, in fact, that I would be semi-willing to bring up the recommendation in casual conversation with anyone, even a stranger. It’s accessible for all, thanks to its paved trails and the fact that even if mobility is limited, you can drive to various destinations; it’s unusual in regards to flora/biome(?) for our state, and, as icing on the cake, its an overall picturesque place which would, I think, hold its own in a competition with not just other Florida State Parks, but other wild places around the nation. There are literally no downsides to this park that I would deem worth to mention… except for the heat and a bit of mosquitos down near the water, which, as we all know, are both omnipresent in the Florida summer.

One last thing: on the way out, I spotted this sign, which tells that William Bartram (a pioneer of the 1700s who braved a long walk to Florida from parts more developed, acting as a naturalist along the way and, from what I remember of his diary, occasionally embellishing his description of Florida’s wildlife to be even more fearsome than they otherwise were at the time) had made a stop nearby. I have a relatively latent but long-lasting interest in Bartram, so knowing that I had visited an area connected to his travels was pretty cool.

History of Ravine Gardens State Park: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/ravine-gardens-state-park/history

Some more information on old Billy Bartram:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/naturalists/bartram/

*Hot baby was/is totally okay. We offered him a lot of water along the trail and we always make good use of his canopy to help keep him from sunburn.