HISTORY & HERITAGE
Lake Butler Heritage Trail
Union County · North Florida & First Coast
The paved four-and-a-half-mile stretch of rail trail that runs through Lake Butler itself.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
This is the northernmost finished section of the Palatka-to-Lake Butler State Trail, and people in town treat it as a walk of its own. It runs from State Road 237 to the old Union Depot at the edge of downtown. The surface is asphalt, twelve feet wide, and it is dead flat, because it is laid on an abandoned railroad bed rather than cut through the woods. That makes it usable for wheelchairs, strollers, skates and road bicycles as well as for walkers. Parking is at the Lake Butler trailhead near Main Street, within walking distance of the courthouse, the shops and the Townsend-Green Building. The depot at the end is the original station building, still standing beside the corridor. Past the paved section the route continues east toward Keystone Heights as part of the longer state trail. Black bears, deer, bobcats, turkeys, snakes and alligators are all present along this corridor, so a walker should watch the edges rather than assume a trail through town is an empty one. There is no fee and no gate
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