Things to do in Gainesville: The Hawthorne Trail
From https://www.traillink.com/trail/gainesville-hawthorne-state-park-trail/
Connecting the university town of Gainesville with rural Hawthorne, this 16.5-mile trail makes for a great day trip, complete with a hill or two and plenty of wildlife. While the path roughly parallels State Route 20, it also traverses one of Florida's most environmentally sensitive areas: Paynes Prairie State Preserve. Just south of Gainesville, the park—though not the trail—is accessible via US Highway 441.
The well-maintained trail accommodates users with a 10-foot-wide paved path, regular trailheads and benches and even a convenience store here and there. Between the Gainesville and Lochloosa trailheads, equestrians are given free rein on an adjacent grassy trail.
From its western endpoint in Gainesville's Boulware Springs Park, the trail soon leads to the Paynes Prairie overlook, and 2 miles from the trailhead you'll enter the preserve itself. This area boasted a thriving lake with routine steamboat activity until 1891, when a sinkhole drained the basin, leaving behind a mixed landscape of prairie, marsh and open water.
Several trailside overlooks offer views of the prairie, home to bison, wild horses and numerous alligators. Park regulations ban visitors from feeding the gators, and dogs are not permitted, even if leashed. Rangers strictly enforce these rules. A half-mile into the park, a side trip on the La Chua Trail leads to another viewing area; bicycles are not permitted on this unpaved spur.
The trail connects with the Waldo Road Greenway - Depot Avenue Rail-Trail - Kermit Sigmon Bike Trail.
