The Green Mountain Scenic Byway
Winter Garden to Mount Dora, by way of Sugarloaf Mountain
The Green Mountain Scenic Byway meanders through Central Florida’s Hill Country along the east side of Lake Apopka. You’re barely a stone’s throw from Orlando the entire time, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. You pass through countryside and small towns that boomed in the 1920s. At the end you can go on to Mount Dora (the Club’s destination for our drive in November), or back into Orlando via Tavares or go through Yalaha to I-75 & the west coast.
The road certainly isn’t challenging, and non-Floridians might refer to the road as “flat,” but the curves and elevation changes are pleasant. There’s detours to the ‘summit’ of Sugarloaf Mountain (312 feet above sea level, with a 245 foot prominence over the surrounding areas), and a pleasant walk in the hills & down to the lake at the Ferndale Preserve.
The Green Mountain Scenic Byway Map (courtesy of greenmountainbyway.org):
A view from the ‘summit’ of Sugarloaf Mountain, via Panoramio:
(This is the second in a series about fun or rewarding drives around Florida. You can read the first here: Out on the Ozello Trail.)