Horizon West Regional Park: The 215-Acre Park a Boomtown Waited For
Phase 1A opened in 2026 and Phase 1B is under construction. What the county's biggest Horizon West park offers now — trails, Lake Hartley, pavilion and playground — and what is still to come.
3 minute read
Every fast-growing community promises a great park someday. Horizon West finally got its someday in 2026, when Orange County opened the first developed phase of Horizon West Regional Park — 215 acres between Hamlin Groves Trail, Tiny Road, and Bridgewater Middle School that had spent years as open hiking ground while the neighborhoods rose around it. If you read only one outdoor story in our Horizon West coverage, make it this one: the regional park is the piece that turns a master plan into a hometown.
What Phase 1A actually delivered
Orange County Parks and Recreation opened Phase 1A in February 2026, with a playground, restrooms, a pavilion, picnic areas, and parking — the unglamorous infrastructure that turns acreage into a usable park. It sounds modest until you remember what was here before: a large, scenic, largely unimproved site that residents used for hiking and equestrian trails from dawn to dusk, with little more than a gravel lot. The new phase keeps the natural Florida landscape at the center of the design rather than paving over it, and the park’s multi-use trail network still loops past its ponds and along Lake Hartley, the small lake on the park’s southern edge.
Trail listings describe the main multi-use loop at about 3.2 miles, grassy and sandy in stretches, suitable for walkers and mountain bikers, with roughly six miles of unpaved trails in the wider system. This is Florida walking, not mountain hiking: bring water, expect sun, and do the long loop early. Birders and tortoise-watchers do well here — the park is known locally for a significant gopher tortoise population, with burrows scattered through the sandhill sections, so watch the trail edges and give them room.
Phase 1B and the long build-out
The county broke ground on Phase 1B in June 2026 while Phase 1A stayed open, with current projections pointing toward completion in 2027. Treat every date beyond that as a sketch. The park’s master plan divides the site into active, lake, natural, and passive recreation zones and has long contemplated much more — sports fields, a community presence, a library branch in the wider vision, boardwalk and dock access on Lake Hartley — spread across multiple phases over many years. Some of that will arrive; some will be redesigned; all of it is subject to funding and scope changes, and honest coverage should say so rather than selling renderings as facts.
What is not speculative is the park’s role right now. In a community where most green space is a subdivision amenity — a clubhouse lawn, a village playground, a private trail — the regional park is public, county-run, and big enough to get lost in for an afternoon. It hosts the kind of unstructured use no HOA amenity center schedules: dawn runs, weekend picnics under the pavilion, kids learning to ride on quiet paths, and neighbors from different villages ending up in the same place for the same sunset.
How to do the park well
Go early or go late. Midday in the warm months is punishing on the exposed trails, while mornings bring the best wildlife and evenings bring the light across Lake Hartley that regulars plan around. Pair the park with the neighborhood parks rather than choosing between them: Summerlake Park, Taborfield Park, and the new Watermark Park handle the daily playground run, as we detail in Family Parks and Playgrounds, while the regional park is the weekend expedition. The Friends of Horizon West Regional Park maintain HWRP.info with current trail and facilities notes, which is worth a check before a first visit because construction zones shift as Phase 1B proceeds.
Drivers should use the Hamlin Groves Trail entrance at 4715 Hamlin Groves Trail and confirm current hours and any closures with Orange County Parks and Recreation, since park hours vary seasonally. Cyclists coming from the villages can fold the park into the wider trail web described in Lakes and Trails. And if you are scouting the area from our Orlando Top Spots Map, put the park at the center of your mental map of Horizon West — geographically and civically, that is exactly where the county put it.
Orlando Citizen by email
The weekly edition, in your inbox
One email, every Saturday: the week’s edition of Orlando Citizen — the week’s stories, rankings and winners, gathered in one place. Free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Related Stories
Editor’s Picks
Spotted an error? Tell us — corrections · How we rank