Gainesville Entry #2 - Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park

The absolute highlight of our couple of days in Gainesville was exploring Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. After spending Friday night camping in the Wal-Mart parking lot, we woke up with the desire to get on the bikes to explore the area and particularly, Paynes Prairie which I had read about in the Florida State Parks guide.

After spending a few hours in the early morning at Panera, charging our phones and laptops, getting some work done and catching up on email, we packed some sandwiches (PBJ on bagels) and carrot sticks for lunch and packed them the bike bags along with sunscreen, hats, water bottles and sweatshirts and set off for the park which our MAPS app said was 5.8 miles away. The weather was perfect - mid 70's and sunny - and the riding was great. We certainly never needed the sweatshirts we'd packed. When we got to the point where MAPS said we were "there", we realized that the 5.8 miles was only the distance to the first observation deck, not the actual park itself. It was actually another 5+ miles to the visitor center and the park proper. Undeterred, we enjoyed our first view of the prairie from the observation deck and then continued on.

Paynes Prairie, also referred to as the Great Alachua Savannah, is a 22,000 acre wilderness that was designated a National Landmark in 1974. Its diversity provides an impressive array of habitat for wildlife and visitors can observe alligators, bison, wild horses and 271 species of birds.  An informational pamphlet provided at the visitor center explains that the prairie basin was formed when a number of sinkholes close together eventually merged. The lush grasses, sedges and flowering plants that cover the basin act as a filter purifying water in the vast wetland.

The area has a rich prehistoric history; waves of diverse people settled the area for over 12,000 years. The early Alachua people were followed by the historic Potano Indians, Spanish adventurers, Seminole Indians and finally Americans pushing down from the north.

After our first view of the prairie at the 6 mile mark, we rode our bikes the rest of the way to the park proper and the visitor center. It was a pleasant ride for the most part, although the sun was really starting to heat up the prairie and we could feel ourselves starting to burn a little bit. Soon enough, though, we were entering the beautiful shaded road that wound slowly toward the visitor center. We noted that there was a turnoff for a campground and made a mental note to check that out on the way back.

After checking out the displays in the visitor center, we walked our bikes along the beautiful pathways to the 50 foot observation tower, where we enjoyed a panoramic view of the prairie and also had our picnic lunch.

We found this sign amusing. It seems that someone has a bit of an axe to grind about "big, showy animals". None the less, we enjoyed the (apparently big and showy) wild horses we could see far off in the prairie. After lunch and our exploration near the visitor center, we rode our bikes over to check out the campground and picnic areas, which were quite beautiful.  Over near the Picnic area, the preserve abuts pretty Lake Wauburg and we rode our bikes right to the edge of the water to watch the sail boats and other activity on the Lake before heading out.

All told, we rode about 30 miles that day and didn't feel too bad at the end of the ride either. We woke up in the morning (Easter Sunday) and decided to drive the van back over to the park to enjoy the park one more time, as it was another gorgeous sunny morning. We hung out by the van in and around the picnic area and marina and finally headed out after lunch. It was a wonderful couple of days.