Gainesville Experience

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Five Experience You’ll Find Only in Gainesville

If you’re a Gainesville newbie, you’ll find no end of experiences that are unique to your new hometown.

Some are big and some are small, but all are available only in Gainesville and Alachua County. Gainesville anchors the inland portion of north-central Florida, where natural beauty and resources are abundant, and so are some of the man-made ones.

Here’s our list of five things you’ll find only in Gainesville.

The Gainesville Solar Walk

Bring the kids along for this one. It’s nearly a mile of sidewalk marked by sculpted columns that portray the solar system as a four-billion-to-one scale model. It includes the sun, all planets, a few stars, and is the work of artist Elizabeth Indianos. Tim Mallas designed each column’s bronze plaque. …show more content…

Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park

This is a National Natural Landmark, but one you probably didn’t know about until now. Devil’s Millhopper is a sizable sinkhole — 120 feet and 500 feet wide — that contains lush, tropical vegetation. The visitors’ center will fill you in on particulars, but expect a couple of nice hikes, one a half-mile trail around the sinkhole’s rim, and the other a 232-step boardwalk that winds to the bottom. Fossils have been found here and water trickles down the sinkhole’s walls.

Devil’s Millhopper is located at 4732 Millhopper Road in Gainesville.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

The circa-1930s home of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this state park preserves Rawling’s slice of north-central Florida that inspired her books — The Yearling and Cross Creek. All buildings on the property, as well as gardens and an orange grove, are completely restored. Guided tours are available.

This state park is located on S. County 325, in Cross Creek (near the town of Micanopy).

Historic Haile

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