Trails: Battlefield and Nice Wander Trails
Hike Location: Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park
Geographic Location: east of Lake City , FL (30.21398, -82.38878)
Length: 3.1 miles
Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: October 2014
Overview: A pair of loops featuring a Civil War battlefield.
Park Information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/olustee-battlefield-historic-state-park
Directions to the trailhead: East of Lake
City, take I-10 to US 90 (exit 324).
Exit and go west on US 90. Drive
US 90 west 5.4 miles to the signed park entrance on the right. Turn right to enter the park. Cross the railroad tracks and park in the
small gravel parking lot in front of the park museum.
The hike: It was February of 1864 when the American
Civil War came to Florida in earnest
for the first time. Against his
superior’s orders Union Brigadier General Truman Seymour led 5000 troops west from
Union-held Jacksonville into
north-central Florida . Seymour
hoped to destroy Confederate supply railroads and recruit black soldiers with
the ultimate goal of encouraging Florida ,
a reluctant member of the Confederacy from the start, to rejoin the Union .
Aware of
the Union ’s desires, Confederate Brigadier General Joseph
Finegan stationed 5000 troops of his own at the railroad town of Olustee ,
which was strategically located on a narrow land bridge with impenetrable
wetlands to the north and south. Seymour
became alerted to the Confederate presence by his skirmishers, or small bands
of exploratory troops. Not wanting to
let Seymour escape, Finegan sent
his troops east to engage the Union forces.
Thus, the Battle of Olustee actually took place 2 miles east of Olustee.
The battle
raged for 4 hours with both sides taking heavy casualties, but the Union
took the worst of the damage and was forced to retreat to Jacksonville . The Union lost 34% of
their troops, making Olustee the second bloodiest battle (expressed as a
percentage of troops engaged) of the Civil War for the Union . When you tour this battlefield, you will see
why so many casualties were taken by both sides.
In 1909,
the Florida legislature acquired
3 acres on this site, and in 1912 it became Florida ’s
first state historic site. I visited
this site in 2014, the battle’s sesquicentennial. Today the site contains a tall stone
monument, a small Visitor Center
 |
| Battlefield Trail trailhead |
Because the
Battlefield Trail features some nice interpretive signs that give a good
overview of the battle, I recommend hiking the Battlefield Trail first and then
viewing the long (by park standards) video in the Visitor
Center Visitor
Center
The mowed-grass
trail heads north with a seasonal pond to your left and the park road in sight
to your right. If you remember that this
was a battlefield as you walk, the reasons for the high casualty rate become
apparent. The flat terrain and sparse
longleaf pine forest gave soldiers nowhere to hide, and the marshy land
combined with the dense saw palmetto understory made running difficult. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, the
options were kill or be killed. Plenty
of both happened.
At 0.1
miles, the trail curves left to join an old road and head northwest. Plenty of sunlight comes in through the
longleaf pines, so you will want to wear a hat during the warmer months to
minimize sun exposure. Continue straight
where the trail crosses the end of a dirt road.
The trail here is marked with an arrow printed on a metal plate attached
to a longleaf pine tree, but the plate has partially fallen off the tree,
causing the arrow to point the wrong way.
 |
| Hiking the Battlefield Trail |
Where a
marked short-cut trail exits left, continue straight to hike the full
loop. The open grassy area you see
through the trees to the right is used for battle re-enactments, which take
place every February. Some scenes for
the movie Glory were filmed during these re-enactments.
Just before
reaching the site’s northwest boundary, the trail curves left and then left
again to begin heading southeast on a course that is parallel to the route you
walked only minutes ago. You see the Visitor
Center
Next, I
recommend stopping in the Visitor Center Visitor
Center Osceola
National Forest
 |
| Old USFS fire tower |
To get to the Nice Wander Trail
trailhead, walk back out the gravel park road toward US 90 and turn right at
the old US Forest Service fire tower, which is now closed to visitors. A trail information board marks the Florida
Trail’s Olustee trailhead. The Florida
Trail is marked with orange paint blazes, while the Nice Wander Trail is marked
with white paint blazes. Both trails
head down the gravel road with the battlefield to your right and US 90 to your
left.
Just past 0.1 miles into the Nice
Wander Trail (or 1.3 miles from the start of the hike), you need to use a
swinging pedestrian gate to walk around a vehicle gate in the road. On the other side of the vehicle gate, the
Nice Wander Trail splits to form its loop; a blue sign marks this point. To hike the most scenic trail first, I chose
to angle left, hike the loop clockwise, and use the gravel road to the right as
my return route.
The orange and white blazes of the
combined Nice Wander and Florida Trails head northwest through more longleaf
pine forest with a dense understory of saw palmetto and other sedges. Be warned that this trail is not nearly as well
cut and maintained as the Battlefield Trail you hiked earlier. You will want to wear thick pants on this
trail or else the wiregrass brushing up against your legs will leave abrasions.
 |
| Hiking the Nice Wander Trail |
Two signed options exiting right
provide opportunities to short-cut the loop, but hardy hikers will continue
straight at each intersection to see the entire Nice Wander Trail. If ever you are unsure you are still on the
trail, look for the orange and white blazes.
The blazes are sufficiently numerous to ensure that at least 1 pair of
said blazes remains in sight throughout this hike.
Near 2 miles into the hike, you
reach a short boardwalk that traverses a wet area. Lots of saw palmetto live back here, and a
couple of benches provide opportunity for rest and meditation provided the bugs
are tolerable. This hike was not one of
the buggier hiking experiences I have had in Florida ,
so you just may be in luck depending on the season.
 |
| Boardwalk on Nice Wander Trail |
At the north end of the boardwalk,
the Florida and Nice Wander
Trails part ways with the former continuing straight and the latter turning
right. Follow the white blazes of the
Nice Wander Trail as they head right and soon intersect the gravel road at a
vehicle gate, where you should turn right again. The return route along the road is very easy
but very boring: the road is dead straight for most of its length. You may be able to spot the white and orange
blazes you were following earlier that now lie a couple hundred feet to your
right. Stay with the gravel road to
close the loop, then retrace your steps to the battlefield Visitor
Center
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