Welcome to Florida Hikes! I'm Sandra Friend, a Florida author and travel writer, and I've been writing guidebooks about Florida hiking since 2001. After blogging about Florida hiking it for several years, I set up this website in August 2007 and expanded its capabilities in August 2008 to provide an online community for Florida hikers. The latest upgrade to the website includes easier-to-use embedded maps so you can get directions to any trailhead on the site, and I'm rummaging through eight years of research to provide extremely detailed information, including data points collected with my GPS and measuring wheel, plus GPX and KML files with tracks of the hikes, to my subscribers.

Membership is free to My Florida Hikes, the forum section of this website. Just sign in and get your user id and password to start sharing your passion for hiking with other Florida hikers. If you'd like to keep up with all that's new in Florida hiking, please sign up for the Florida Hikes eNews, a weekly recap of blog posts and special announcements.

If you subscribe to the site, you'll help support my efforts to build the most comprehensive database of Florida hiking available to the public. Annual subscriptions are $27 and include all of the detailed data and downloadable GPS tracks, plus trail maps and Grab-and-Go Hikes as we make them available, and a subscription to the Hike-A-Week, which brings you a new Florida hike every week in your inbox. In addition, I'll be adding new hikes to this site all the time. I'm making a special effort to visit recently opened trails that aren't in anyone's guidebook, plus going back and visiting hikes I haven't seen in a while. You're always welcome to send in your updates, too! Here's where to subscribe

If you're not a subscriber, you can still read through the listings and pick up enough details about each trail, plus directions to the trailhead, to get out there and take a hike.

Need suggestions on a particular kind of hike? Curious about what a certain trail is like? Post a question in the forum! Your questions will help guide what trails I add to the website next. You can also reach me via this contact form, and if your question appears to be helpful to the general public, I'll post my answer on the blog.

Information on this website is provided for your personal use.
You're welcome to email it, print it out, or link to it.

• If you wish to reuse any of my descriptions or photos in print or on another website, please contact me about setting up a licensing agreement.
• If you represent a destination or service that fits the content presented here, feel free to inquire about advertising opportunities on this site.
• If you're wondering about the cartoons on this site, they're provided by my husband and frequent hiking companion Rob Smith, Jr., who also blogs about our treks with sketches he's made along the hike
• For more about my background, read my official bio.

This website is a work-in-progress as I sift through research and photos covering over 700 places to hike in Florida. While I started with an ambitious goal to add three new hikes per week, I'm adding at least one hike every week, and encourage you to share your finds, as well. Stop by often and watch Florida Hikes! grow!