Goethe State Forest in Levy County, Florida

Photograph: Pinus elliottii forest3.jpg by Riverbanks Outdoor Store · 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.

Levy County attraction

Goethe State Forest

Levy County · Gulf Coast

Seventy-six thousand one hundred and sixty-two acres across Levy and Alachua counties, northwest of Dunnellon.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The state established it in 1992 and named it for James Tillinghast Goethe, a local lumber company owner who sold most of the land to Florida rather than to developers. What that purchase saved is one of the larger surviving blocks of longleaf pine in the state, and with it the red-cockaded woodpecker, a bird that will nest only in mature living longleaf and has disappeared from most of the southeast as the old pine went. Trail access centers on County Road 337. Horses are the main use here: the trail network was laid out for riders and for carriage drivers, and there are few places in Florida with this much open riding. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission co-manages the main tract as the Goethe Wildlife Management Area, so hunting seasons apply and it is worth checking them before walking in. The Watermelon Pond tracts were bought in 2007 and added in 2010. Walking, cycling, birding and fishing are all permitted

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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