Old Florida Heritage Highway

The Old Florida Heritage Highway from Gainesville: the route crosses Paynes Prairie on US-441 to Micanopy, takes county roads through Evinston to Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings country, and comes back north on CR-325 and Hawthorne Road. It's 43 miles of live oaks, prairie and lakes, flat and quiet. Watch for wildlife crossing US-441 on the prairie and for cyclists on weekends.

The Old Florida Heritage Highway is a state scenic highway designated in 2001 through the rural country south of Gainesville. From the city the route takes US-441 across Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, about 21,000 acres of wet prairie where bison and wild horses graze; a boardwalk and overlook on the side of US-441 has its own parking lot. South of the prairie it reaches Micanopy, a small town of live oaks and antique shops, where Pearl Country Store, a gas station that serves barbecue, sits on US-441.

From Micanopy the route takes CR-234 to Evinston, with its old post office and store, and county roads east to Cross Creek, where Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived and wrote from 1928 to 1953; her farmhouse is now a historic state park a little south of where the route turns. It comes back north on CR-325, where sandhill cranes winter along the road, and returns to Gainesville on Hawthorne Road. It's 43 miles, flat and quiet. Animals cross US-441 on the prairie, and cyclists ride these roads on weekends.