Osceola National Forest in Baker County, Florida

Photograph: Flatwoods (5752751644).jpg by Chris M Morris · CC BY 2.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Baker County attraction

Osceola National Forest

Baker County · North Florida & First Coast

About 200,000 acres of pine flatwoods and cypress swamp across four counties, set aside in 1931 and the smallest of Florida's national forests.

QUESTIONS THAT NAME THIS PLACE

Are There Bears in Florida?

ABOUT THIS PLACE

President Herbert Hoover proclaimed the forest on July 10, 1931. It covers roughly 200,000 acres of northeast Florida across parts of Baker, Columbia, Bradford and Hamilton counties, about fifty miles west of Jacksonville, and most of it is pine flatwoods broken by cypress and hardwood swamp. Ocean Pond sits near the middle of it, a natural lake of about 1,760 acres with a 67-site campground on the shore, and it is the part of the forest most visitors see first. Big Gum Swamp Wilderness takes up 13,660 acres of the forest under formal wilderness designation, which means no roads, no machinery and no easy walking. A 28-mile stretch of the Florida National Scenic Trail runs through, along with shorter routes. Black bear, bobcat, alligator and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker all live here, and the woodpecker is the reason for a good deal of how the longleaf pine is managed. Camping, hiking, fishing and permitted hunting are all open, with developed campgrounds at one end of the scale and primitive hunt camps at the other

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official National Forests in Florida guide ↗

MOVING TO BAKER COUNTY?Fourteen services. One business each.

Attorneys, movers, insurance, title companies, roofers and nine more — one listed business per service in Baker County.

See local help in Baker County →

Keep comparing

Return to the Things to Do choices in Baker County.

Back to Baker County