The Seminole Wekiva Trail at Heathrow: Fourteen Public Miles Past the Gates
The best free thing in the Heathrow corridor isn't behind the gates: Seminole County's Showcase Trail runs the old Orange Belt Railway bed through Heathrow and TownPark to the Wekiva River. Trailheads, logistics and the Heathrow stretch, explained.
3 minute read
The best free thing in the Heathrow corridor is not behind the gates. The Seminole Wekiva Trail — nearly 14 paved miles built along the former Orange Belt Railway — runs from Altamonte Springs through the Heathrow corridor to the Markham Trailhead in Lake Mary, passing the community’s high-tech office district and Colonial TownPark on its way to the Wekiva River. Seminole County designates it one of its Showcase Trails, and the stretch west of the I-4 overpass doubles as part of the Florida National Scenic Trail and the statewide Florida Coast-to-Coast Trail. For visitors to Heathrow, and for residents stepping outside the gates, this is the corridor’s public outdoors at its best.
The Heathrow stretch
The trail’s northern miles are the Heathrow experience. Coming north from Longwood’s canopied neighborhoods, the path enters the corridor the county’s own trail description celebrates: through Heathrow for dining or shopping, through the high-tech corridor, and on to Colonial TownPark for entertainment, dining and nightlife. Just past mile marker 9, a spur leads east to a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 4, joining the Cross Seminole Trail — the junction that turns a local ride into a cross-county one. A tunnel under Lake Mary Boulevard at International Parkway connects the sections, so the full trail rides with only a handful of signaled road crossings. The Painted Trail of fences, a beloved local quirk on the southern stretch, rewards riders who go the full distance.
Trailheads and logistics
The county keeps it simple. The trail is open dawn to dusk. The northern anchor is the Markham Trailhead at 8515 Markham Woods Road in Lake Mary, with restrooms, a water fountain, trailer parking, an equestrian paddock, a bike wash station and access to mountain bike trails in the Markham Woods area. The Jones Trailhead sits mid-route on Markham Woods Road at Long Pond Road in Longwood, and the southern anchor is the San Sebastian Trailhead on SR-436 in Altamonte Springs. Ride the Heathrow segment as an out-and-back from Markham and you get the corridor, the I-4 bridge and the TownPark spur in a manageable morning; ride point to point and you have a proper half-day.
Rail bed, river country
The trail’s bones explain its character. Seminole County built it along the former Orange Belt Railway — at one time, the county notes, the longest railroad in the country — which is why the path runs so true and level through country that roads wind around. The northern miles trade suburbia for the Wekiva basin’s woods and pastures as the trail approaches the river, and the wildlife follows the habitat: this is black bear and deer country as much as it is commuter-cyclist country, and dawn rides in particular should be ridden with eyes up. Dogs are welcome on leash. The shade that makes the southern, canopied miles famous thins on the corridor stretch, so summer riders should take the Heathrow segment early, carry water — the Markham Trailhead’s fountain is the reliable refill — and treat TownPark, a short spur off the path, as the air-conditioned midpoint it was practically designed to be.
Why it matters here
Heathrow’s own paths, lakes and Sawyer Lake Park are residents-only — a fact this magazine states plainly wherever it comes up. The Wekiva Trail is the counterweight: a genuinely public, genuinely beautiful piece of infrastructure threaded through the same landscape, free to anyone with a bike or a pair of shoes. It is also the corridor’s connective tissue, linking the Heathrow office parks and TownPark’s restaurants to neighborhoods from Longwood to Altamonte Springs without a car. Cyclists finishing at TownPark have earned the Hangry Bison; riders based at the Marriott or Westin can be on the trail in minutes.
Plan it on our Orlando Top Spots Map, pair it with the dining in our Where to Eat Near Heathrow guide, and see the Lake Mary hub for the rest of the city the trail runs through. The gates stay closed. The trail is open. Around Heathrow, that is the right way round.
Photo: DanTD, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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