← THE REGISTER / NORTH FLORIDA / ALACHUA COUNTY
The Devil's Millhopper
Gainesville, Alachua County
GEOLOGICAL ANOMALY
6STRANGENESS
OUT OF TEN
OUT OF TEN
WHAT IT IS
A 120-foot limestone sinkhole with its own climate and the bones of extinct animals in the walls.
The roof of a cavern collapsed and left a bowl 500 feet across. Small streams drop over the rim and vanish into the floor. It is measurably cooler at the bottom, and the vegetation changes as you descend the 132 steps. This is the closest Florida gets to a ravine. Nineteenth-century farmers named it for the shape of a mill hopper and the assumption that the bones in the walls were bodies being fed to the devil.
HOW IT SCORES
Rarity8/10
Is there anywhere else like it?
Backstory6/10
How did this come to be?
Disrepair4/10
What is holding it together?
Commitment6/10
How far do they take the bit?
NEARBY
BEFORE YOU DRIVE
- ENTRY FEE
- $4 per vehicle
- HOURS
- Wed–Sun 9am–5pm
- BEST TIME
- After rain, when the twelve waterfalls actually run.
- HOW LONG
- 1 hour
- PARKING
- Free with entry
- PAYMENT
- Cards accepted
- ACCESS
- Boardwalk stairs only; rim trail is accessible
COORDINATES
29.7047° N, 82.3947° W
NW 53rd Ave, northwest Gainesville. Check the stairway is open before you drive.
OPEN IN MAPS →DETAILS COMPILED FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES. FEES CHANGE. CALL AHEAD.