# The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90

A 8-day, ~1000-mile Southern road trip from St. Augustine.

- **Days:** 8
- **Distance:** ~1000 mi
- **Starts in:** St. Augustine
- **Themes:** History, Outdoors, Food
- **Routes chained:** [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida), [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast), [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor), [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)

The 1920s sea-to-sea auto trail's entire Southern act, end to end: from the Zero Milestone in America's oldest city to the Sabine River crossing into Texas — every mile on or beside old US 90, with zero feet of I-10.

## Why this itinerary works

Starting in St. Augustine, this 8-day itinerary connects US 90: The Florida Backbone and US 90: The Creole Coast and Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie and US 90: Rice & Rails. It suits travellers interested in parks, coast, mountains & water; barbecue, boudin, oysters & tamales; battlefields, the movement & the past. The day-by-day bases let you split roughly 1000 miles into a sequence of visits rather than trying to cover every linked route end to end. Use the daily highlights to decide which places deserve your longest stops.

## Day by day

### Day 1: St. Augustine → Lake City

Photograph the Zero Milestone, take the old road to Jacksonville's Treaty Oak, then west into the pines: Olustee's battlefield late afternoon. Overnight Lake City.

Highlights to consider:

- **Treaty Oak** (Jacksonville) — A 250-year-old live oak saved in the 1930s by a journalist who invented a Native treaty protecting it — fake news in the service of a real tree. Its limbs cover half a city block. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Olustee Battlefield** (Olustee) — February 20, 1864: Florida's largest Civil War battle, fought in open pine flatwoods — Union forces including the 54th Massachusetts retreated to Jacksonville. February's reenactment is one of the Southeast's biggest. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Way Down Upon the Suwannee** (White Springs) — The Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center on the dark-water river he rhymed but never visited; a 97-bell carillon plays his songs. The Florida Folk Festival has run here every Memorial Day weekend since 1953. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)

### Day 2: The Suwannee → Tallahassee

White Springs and the actual Suwannee (carillon at the top of the hour), Madison's porches, Monticello's haunted opera house — into Tallahassee for a canopy-road golden hour and the capitol deck.

Highlights to consider:

- **Madison** (Madison, FL) — Courthouse square, four-freedoms monument and deep porches — the cotton-belt Florida nobody pictures, two hours from the theme parks and a century away. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Way Down Upon the Suwannee** (White Springs) — The Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center on the dark-water river he rhymed but never visited; a 97-bell carillon plays his songs. The Florida Folk Festival has run here every Memorial Day weekend since 1953. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Monticello Opera House** (Monticello, FL) — An 1890 opera house above the storefronts in a town that bills itself the South's most haunted small town — the ghost tours are a cottage industry; the watermelon festival (since 1949) is the older tradition. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **The Canopy Roads** (Tallahassee) — Five official canopy roads tunnel under centuries-old live oaks — Old St. Augustine Road is the genuine 1600s Spanish mission trail this whole route is named for. Drive one at golden hour; the capitol's 22nd-floor observation deck is the free overview. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)

### Day 3: Red Hills → DeFuniak Springs

Quincy's Coca-Cola mansions, Florida Caverns at Marianna, the Two Egg and Britton Hill detours for collectors, Falling Waters' vanishing waterfall — sleep by DeFuniak's round lake.

Highlights to consider:

- **Quincy** (Quincy, FL) — In the 1920s the town banker quietly urged tobacco farmers to buy shares in an Atlanta soda company — Quincy became, per the lore, the richest town per capita in America. The Coca-Cola fortunes built the mansions you're driving past. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Florida Caverns** (Marianna) — Florida's only public cave tours — draperies, sodas and calcite rimstone 65 feet down. Marianna also carries the heavy history of the Dozier School for Boys; the town tells both stories now. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Falling Waters** (Chipley) — Florida's tallest waterfall: 73 feet straight down into a cylindrical sinkhole — and then it simply vanishes underground. Nobody knows exactly where it goes. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **DeFuniak Springs** (DeFuniak Springs) — Victorian cottages ringing a nearly perfectly round spring-fed lake — the 1885 winter Chautauqua's southern campus, Hall of Brotherhood still standing. The Christmas lights around the lake are a Panhandle institution. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)

### Day 4: Blackwater → Pensacola

Morning paddle out of Milton (Canoe Capital, it's official), then into Pensacola: Joe Patti's, Palafox Street, Blue Angels practice if it's a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Highlights to consider:

- **Blackwater Canoe Country** (Milton) — Milton is the official Canoe Capital of Florida — sand-bottomed, tannin-dark rivers through longleaf pine. Put in for two hours before the last run into Pensacola. [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida)
- **Joe Patti's Seafood** (Pensacola) — A working seafood market the size of a supermarket, bedlam since 1931. Get royal reds. McGuire's Irish Pub nearby has over a million signed dollar bills on the ceiling. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **National Naval Aviation Museum** (Pensacola) — Free, vast, and the Blue Angels practice overhead most summer Tuesday and Wednesday mornings — locals bring lawn chairs. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)

### Day 5: Pensacola → Mobile Bay

The Creole Coast westbound: Flora-Bama straddle, Bamahenge in the pines, Point Clear and Fairhope's utopian pier. Overnight on the Eastern Shore.

Highlights to consider:

- **Bamahenge** (Elberta, AL) — A full-scale fiberglass Stonehenge hidden in the pines of Barber Marina, with life-size dinosaurs lurking down the road — all by Virginia roadside auteur Mark Cline. Free, weird, perfect. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **Fairhope** (Fairhope, AL) — Founded 1894 as a single-tax utopian colony — the experiment technically still runs. Bookshops, flowers on every corner, and the pier at sunset over Mobile Bay. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **National Naval Aviation Museum** (Pensacola) — Free, vast, and the Blue Angels practice overhead most summer Tuesday and Wednesday mornings — locals bring lawn chairs. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **Flora-Bama Lounge** (Perdido Key) — The honky-tonk that straddles the state line — home of the Interstate Mullet Toss, where thousands hurl dead fish from Florida into Alabama each April. Songwriters' nights are shockingly good. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **Orange Beach** (Orange Beach, AL) — Home of the Gulf's largest charter fishing fleet, The Wharf's 112-foot Ferris wheel, and back-bay dives reachable by boat — including Pirate's Cove across Arnica Bay, where the floor is sand and the dogs swim. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)

### Day 6: Mobile → New Orleans

Africatown's Heritage House (unhurried), the Carnival Museum, then the Mississippi Sound: Pascagoula's singing river, Biloxi's median lighthouse, 100 Men Hall — across the Rigolets into New Orleans.

Highlights to consider:

- **Africatown** (Mobile) — Founded by survivors of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship (1860, fifty years after the trade was banned). The wreck was finally found in 2019; the Heritage House museum tells the community's story. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **100 Men Hall** (Bay St. Louis) — A 1922 chitlin'-circuit dance hall — Etta James, Big Joe Turner — still throwing shows in a town that calls itself 'a place apart.' [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **Mobile Carnival Museum** (Mobile) — Mardi Gras started here in 1703 — fifteen years before New Orleans existed, as Mobilians will gladly remind you. Trains, crowns and Joe Cain's whole story. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **The Dew Drop Inn** (Mobile) — Mobile's oldest restaurant (1924), home of the upside-down hot dog. Jimmy Buffett name-checked it; locals never needed the endorsement. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)
- **Pascagoula Abduction Marker** (Pascagoula) — In 1973, two fishermen reported being floated aboard a craft by clawed beings — one of the most documented UFO cases ever. The city put up a historical marker in 2019. The river already had legends; it sings, after all. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast)

### Day 7: New Orleans → New Iberia

US 90 west: Des Allemands catfish, Houma's swamps, Morgan City's Tarzan claim, the Teche's oak tunnel through Franklin and Jeanerette (hot-bread light!), Avery Island's Tabasco salt dome.

Highlights to consider:

- **Des Allemands catfish** (Des Allemands) — 'Catfish Capital of the Universe' by act of the Louisiana legislature. Spuddy's or a roadside shack — wild-caught, thin-fried. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Morgan City** (Morgan City) — The first Tarzan film (1917) was shot in these swamps. Tour 'Mr. Charlie,' the first transportable offshore rig, then note the festival name: Shrimp & Petroleum, since 1936. Only here. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Avery Island** (Avery Island) — Tabasco has aged on this salt dome since 1868. Jungle Gardens shelters a snowy-egret city and a centuries-old Buddha in a glass pagoda — the McIlhennys were eccentric in the best way. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Swamp tour country** (Houma) — Family outfits run flat-boats into the Terrebonne wetlands — gators, Spanish moss, and guides whose accents are the real attraction. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Laurel Valley Village** (Thibodaux) — The largest surviving 19th-century sugar plantation complex in the country — rows of weathered cypress quarters along the cane. Thibodaux also carries the memory of the 1887 massacre of striking Black cane workers; the general store museum is the keeper of all of it. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)

### Day 8: Lafayette → the Sabine

Boudin breakfast in Scott, Rayne's frogs, Crowley's hidden opera house, Jennings's first-oil derrick, Lake Charles's carpenter Victorians — end at Niblett's Bluff, where the Trail forded into Texas. Toast its remaining 1,500 ghost miles.

Highlights to consider:

- **Niblett's Bluff** (Vinton) — Where the Old Spanish Trail crossed the Sabine on a ferry — Civil War earthworks still ridge the bluff above the river park. Texas is the far bank; the trail kept going 1,500 miles. [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)
- **Evangeline Oak** (St. Martinville) — Where Longfellow's exiled Acadian lovers were said to part. The Acadian Memorial next door names the real deportees of the Grand Dérangement — the sadness under all the romance. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Vermilionville & Borden's** (Lafayette) — A living Acadian-Creole village with Sunday jams, the Blue Moon Saloon's porch dancehall — and Borden's (1940), the last old-line Borden's ice cream parlor anywhere. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Liberty Theater** (Eunice) — 'Rendez-vous des Cajuns' — the Cajun Grand Ole Opry — broadcasts live most Saturday nights from this 1924 movie palace. Two-stepping in the aisles encouraged. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **The Boudin Capital** (Scott) — Officially 'Boudin Capital of the World' by legislative resolution (2012). Best Stop and Billy's sit 500 yards apart — eat both, vote with a second helping. Boudin is breakfast here. [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)

## Practical planning

Budget an average of about 125 miles per day across the whole trip, or roughly 2.8–4.2 hours behind the wheel at an assumed 30–45 mph back-roads pace. This is a planning estimate, not a measured time for each leg: transfer days can be longer and rest days shorter. Add meal stops, tours, ferries, traffic and hikes separately; use each day's navigation link for current driving estimates.

### Overnight bases

- Day 1: Lake City
- Day 2: near Tallahassee, FL
- Day 3: near DeFuniak Springs, FL
- Day 4: near Gulf Breeze, FL
- Day 5: on the Eastern Shore
- Day 6: Mobile → New Orleans
- Day 7: near New Iberia, LA
- Day 8: near Orange, TX

### Best season & route notes

- [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida): Olustee's reenactment (February) and the Florida Folk Festival (Memorial Day, White Springs) are the route's two big dates.
- [US 90: The Florida Backbone](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-florida): This corridor is the hurricane evacuation spine — gas stations are plentiful, motels old-school.
- [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast): The Fort Morgan–Dauphin Island car ferry (about 40 minutes, dolphins likely) turns the two beach spurs into a loop — check the schedule, it bends to weather.
- [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast): June through November is hurricane season — the coast shrugs, but watch forecasts.
- [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor): Hurricane-season summer is steamy — festival season (spring/fall) is the move.
- [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west): Time it: Rayne Frog Festival (May), Crowley Rice Festival (October).

## Frequently asked questions
### How many days and miles is The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90?

The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90 is a 8-day trip of about 1000 miles.

### Where does The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90 start?

It starts in St. Augustine.

### Which routes does The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90 chain together?

It chains US 90: The Florida Backbone, US 90: The Creole Coast, Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie and US 90: Rice & Rails.

### Where are the overnight bases on The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90?

Day 1: Lake City; Day 2: near Tallahassee, FL; Day 3: near DeFuniak Springs, FL; Day 4: near Gulf Breeze, FL; Day 5: on the Eastern Shore; Day 6: Mobile → New Orleans; Day 7: near New Iberia, LA; Day 8: near Orange, TX.

## Related itineraries

- [The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/red-dirt-run) — 6 days, ~900 mi
- [The Gulf Crawl](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/gulf-crawl) — 6 days, ~480 mi
- [The Deep South Grand Circle](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/deep-south-circle) — 14 days, ~1700 mi
- [Boudin, Cracklins & Plate Lunches](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/boudin-loop) — 2 days, ~140 mi
- [The Whole Hog](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/whole-hog) — 28 days, ~4300 mi
- [The Long Way to the Opry](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/music-epic) — 21 days, ~3000 mi

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Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/)  
Last updated: 2026-10-04