Maclay Gardens State Park
Here's a trip report from our visit to Maclay Gardens State Park, in Tallahassee Florida.
Maclay Gardens State Park
A state park brochure refers to Maclay Gardens State Park as a "masterpiece of floral architecture", a description that seems fitting.
The park is located in Tallahassee, less than a mile off of Interstate 10, so it's easy to find and get to even if you are just passing through the Florida panhandle on your way to somewhere else.
Maclay Gardens would merit a visit any time of year, but the spring flowering season is when it really shines. We were lucky enough to visit during mid-March, when the azaleas and dogwoods and are at their flowering peak, and were quite impressed even though we're not gardeners ourselves.
Click Photo To Enlarge
The heart of the park is the 28 acres of gardens that were designed by the original owner of the property, Alfred Maclay.
We entered the gardens from the parking area, and followed the brick lined path shown above through the gardens to the Maclay House.
As we ambled up the brick path, admiring the tunnel of flowering plants around us, we passed by Lake Hall. There is a covered pavilion next to the lake and we stopped for a bit to watch teams of students from Florida State University rowing boats across the lake.
The Maclay House sits on a hill overlooking a long grass lawn that extends down to the shore of Lake Hall.
You can tour the house and view displays that explain the history of the area and the Maclay family.
After we left the house we began to make our way back towards the parking via a series of paths that wind through the heart of the garden.
Click Photo To Enlarge
Our first stop was the walled garden full of pansy. After you've explored the enclosed confines of the walled pansie garden for a bit, you exit out another gate and encounter a long shallow wading pond. The length of the wading pond aims your eye down a row of imposing bushes to an inviting vista of Lake Hall in the distance.
If you follow your eyes down that trail towards the lake, and then make a few right turns on the path, you'll come to another larger artificial pond.
On the day of our visit this pond was spectacularly surrounded by walls of color on all sides, thanks to the many blooming azaleas and dogwoods.
As soon as you leave the pond you begin walking up a hillside that is densely planted with azaleas. During the spring blooming season this hillside is a waist high carpet of color surrounding you in all directions. Very impressive!
And That's Not All
Although the gardens are the heart of this state park, and the big draw during the spring, there's a good bit more available at Maclay Gardens State Park that we look forward to exploring on future visits.
As we mentioned, there is Lake Hall, which has it's own parking lot and picnic area. The lake is large enough, and wild enough, to merit exploration in your canoe or kayak.
Click Photo To Enlarge
On the other side of the gardens you'll find Lake Overstreet, which appears on the map to be larger and wilder than Lake Hall. We didn't get a chance to inspect it on our visit, but there is a 3 mile long hiking/biking trail around the entire lake you can use for your own exploration.
As you leave Lake Overstreet you'll pass by Gum Pond on your way to another trail system.
There is Ravine Trail, a 1.5 trail for bikers and hikers, and a 2.8 mile trail that appears to be reserved for bikers.
All in all, we were very pleasantly surprised to find such a beautiful natural place just off I-10 right in Tallahassee. Don't be put off by the eight lanes of cross town traffic you will cross between I-10 and Maclay Gardens State Park. Once you're in the park you'll leave all that behind.
Click Photo To Enlarge
Given the season we came prepared to share the park with large crowds but were lucky enough to arrive on a quiet day. There were other people there of course, but it seemed that we usually had whatever part of the garden we were in at the moment to ourselves. I'm guessing the park is probably quite busy on weekends during the spring so you might do as we did, and come as early as you can on a weekday.
Maclay Gardens State Park earns our five green thumbs up award as the best garden we've visited so far in our travels around north Florida. Our compliments go out to the park service and volunteers who have put this impressive show together.
How To Get There
Maclay State Gardens is easy to find. Just head towards Tallahassee from the east or west on I-10.
Get off I-10 at exit 30 and go north on U.S. 319, which is also known as Thomasville Road.
You'll go only a half mile or so on a busy road, and will then turn left at the light at Killarney Way.
As usual, the state park system has been generous in providing road signs to the park, so you shouldn't have any trouble following the signs from the highway to the park.
This Mapquest map may be useful.
Navigation
