Wheelchair-bound? You can get out and enjoy Florida’s outdoors on these trails that offer wheelchair-ready surfaces, either boardwalks, paved, or natural. Some natural surfaces require assistance for wheelchairs; check the hike information for details.
See a BIG map of all accessible trails
A.D. Barnes Park - A tiny slice of native pine rocklands survives in a corner of this Miami city park, where paved nature trails provide access for all into a glimpse of what landscaped yards would look like if [...]
Alderman’s Ford Park - An easy loop at this popular county park, the Lithia Nature Trail slips behind the nature center for a walk in deeply shaded woods. Along the river’s floodplain corridor, you are in hammocks where massive [...]
Arlington Lions Club Park - A breezy walk along the St. Johns River is an easy way to start your day in Jacksonville at the Arlington Lions Club Park. With a 3/4-mile unpaved trail, 1/4-mile accessible trail, and connecting boardwalks [...]
Bear Cut Nature Preserve - On the shores of Biscayne Bay at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, Bear Cut Nature Preserve is a precious sliver of natural bayfront in Miami. The preserve provides hiking along the waterfront and in the [...]
Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve - Nestled in an unexpected corner of Flagler Beach, Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve protects more than 200 acres of mangrove marsh, mud flats, and coastal uplands right on the edge of this downtown beach community. Established [...]
Big Cypress National Preserve – Kirby Storter Boardwalk - It took many years and a lot of local effort by the Friends of Big Cypress to get this gentle introduction to the wilds of the Big Cypress Swamp in place, but the Kirby Storter [...]
Big Tree Park - On March 2, 2013, the boardwalk at Big Tree Park reopened as part of the Seminole County Centennial celebration. The Senator is no more, but a clone of the Senator was planted on the grand [...]
Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake - Long known as Turkey Lake Park, the City of Orlando’s largest park covers 178 acres of rolling hills on the western shore of the lake. It’s an urban complex for outdoor recreation of all sorts, [...]
Blountstown Greenway - A ribbon of asphalt that connects communities and parks within the historic Apalachicola River town of Blountstown, the Blountstown Greenway is ideal for walking or biking and, in part, serves as a path for the [...]
Blue Spring State Park - If you’ve never seen manatees by the dozens, let alone a hundred or more, there’s no better place in Florida to watch these gentle giants drift past than near Deland along the boardwalk at Blue [...]
Boyd Hill Nature Park - Boyd Hill Park originally began its life as a zoo and botanical garden for the city of St. Petersburg. It has since evolved over the decades into a mosaic of natural habitats and wild tropical [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Seminole Rest Trail - At the site of a former plantation and important archaeological site on the Indian River Lagoon, Seminole Rest provides excellent interpretation of this coastal outpost across the shimmering waters from the former fishing village of [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Turtle Mound Trail - Along Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the prominent feature of Turtle Mound has been a navigational aid for generations. It is an oyster shell midden rising 35 feet above the Mosquito Lagoon, an archeological site dating back [...]
Castaway Island Preserve - Protecting more than 300 acres of coastal habitats along the meandering, estuarine San Pablo River, Castaway Island Preserve is a breezy spot to get away from the city neighborhoods and enjoy a breath of fresh [...]
Chapman Botanical Garden - Adjoining the historic Orman House in downtown Apalachicola, Chapman Botanical Garden honors the memory of Dr. Alvan Wentworth Chapman, a noted botanist who lived and worked as a medical doctor in Apalachicola. In 1860, Chapman [...]
Chattahoochee Nature Trails - Built on a foundation of the fabulous Angus Gholson Nature Trail, the new Chattahoochee Nature Trails system treats hikers to an exploration of botanically-rich habitats along bluffs and ravines near the Apalachicola River and an [...]
Colohatchee Natural Park - In what is now Wilton Manors near Fort Lauderdale, settler William C. Collier planted an orange grove in the 1890s and traded with the Seminole, who named the waterway that wove through the wilderness “Colohatchee” [...]
Conservation Park - It’s not easy to find Conservation Park, hidden in plain sight behind a commercial district along US 98 in Panama City Beach. There are no signs on this major highway – yet – to point [...]
Constitution Convention Museum State Park - At the Constitution Convention Museum State Park, interpretive exhibits and artifacts put a face on Florida’s frontier days, with a special focus on the historic city of St. Joseph (now Port St. Joe). Established by [...]
Coquina Baywalk - Explore Leffis Key on a series of trails and boardwalks through mangrove tunnels on the Coquina Baywalk. A unspoiled sliver between the Gulf of Mexico and Sarasota Bay, Leffis Key sits between Bradenton Beach and [...]
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - You’ll find Florida’s best and most extensive boardwalk hike at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, meandering 2.3 miles through an old-growth cypress forest. Managed by the National Audubon Society since 1912, Corkscrew Swamp, encompassing 315 square miles, [...]
Daggerwing Nature Center - Behind Daggerwing Nature Center in busy South County Regional Park, a boardwalk leads you into habitats that have all but been erased from the surrounding crowd of suburbia in west Boca Raton. The trails and [...]
Deer Lake State Park - The coast of Walton County is home to rare coastal dune lakes, an ecosystem that only exists in Florida and in Australia and Africa, and you’ll find them at Deer Lake State Park. As the [...]
Ding Darling NWR – Cross Dike Trail - Connecting Wildlife Drive and the Indigo Trail, the Cross Dike Trail at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is an easy paved walk along a dike between two impoundments. An observation deck provides a spot for [...]
Ding Darling NWR – Indigo Trail - One of the most popular birding sites in the entire National Wildlife Refuge System, Ding Darling NWR was established in 1945 thanks largely to efforts spearheaded by Sanibel Island resident and famed editorial cartoonist J.N. [...]
Ding Darling NWR – Red Mangrove Overlook - The shortest walk in Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is one you shouldn’t miss on your drive along Wildlife Drive. Pull off a mile into the refuge to head down to the Red Mangrove Overlook, [...]
Ding Darling NWR – Shell Mound Trail - The last of the nature trails you’ll find while following Wildlife Drive through Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, the Shell Mound Trail provides a peek into the ancient history of Sanibel Island, with a boardwalk [...]
Disney Wilderness Preserve - Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the Disney Wilderness Preserve is a 12,000 acre showcase for habitat restoration and conservation in a region where development continues – with major loss of habitat – at a startling [...]
Doris Davis Foreman Wilderness Preserve - A pretty patch of tropical hammock hides amid the bustle of suburbia in Parkland, a Broward County community, within the 20-acre Doris Davis Foreman Wilderness Preserve. The half-mile loop, mostly boardwalk, guides you through a [...]
Eagle Lake Park - In the heart of Pinellas County, Eagle Lake Park is the legacy of the Taylor family, who helped to found Largo – then known as Citrus City – with their groves and citrus packing plant. [...]
Erna Nixon Park - Although Erna Nixon Park is just down the street from one of the busiest shopping malls on the Space Coast – Melbourne Square – it transports you right out of suburbia and back into the [...]
Everglades National Park – Anhinga Trail - For most visitors, the Anhinga Trail is their first and perhaps only glimpse into Everglades National Park. Its proximity to the park entrance guarantees its popularity, and wildlife here is so common and complacent you’ll [...]
Everglades National Park – Bobcat Boardwalk - The Bobcat Boardwalk at Shark Valley is a popular destination in winter and spring to see migratory and nesting birds. Most visitors opt to bike or take the tram around the 14-mile paved loop through [...]
Everglades National Park – Gumbo Limbo Trail - At Royal Palm Hammock, home of the Anhinga Trail, the Gumbo Limbo Trail is a paved path that gets you up close and personal with a tropical hammock. This was once called Paradise Key, owned [...]
Everglades National Park – Guy Bradley Trail - In the early 1900s, naturalists were well aware of the vast bird life in the Everglades, and so were plume hunters, looking to cash in on the use of heron plumage as a New York [...]
Everglades National Park – Mahogany Hammock Trail - Tree islands are tropical oases in the Everglades “river of grass,” punctuating the sawgrass prairie where there is a slight bit of elevation, enough to make an enormous difference in the flora. I’ve always loved [...]
Everglades National Park – Pa-Hay-Okee Boardwalk - Pa-Hay-Okee is the Seminole word for “River of Grass,” the name Marjorie Stoneman Douglas bestowed on the Everglades while advocating to have the region protected as a National Park. This trail is a short boardwalk [...]
Everglades National Park – Pine Land - One of my favorite Everglades nature trails, Pine Land is a showcase for South Florida’s weird and wonderful karst, a limestone bedrock that’s full of Swiss-cheese like holes, crevices, pits, and tiny caves. Pine rocklands [...]
Everglades National Park – West Lake - At West Lake, the Mangrove Trail loops through a forest that has seen its share of hurricane-related damage, from salty mud flats deposited by Hurricane Donna to the storm surges of 2005 from Hurricanes Katrina [...]
Falling Creek Falls - See one of Florida’s fabulous but little known waterfalls on a short walk just north of Lake City. Take a quick detour from I-10 to see a spectacular root-beer-colored cascade, which plummets more than 10 [...]
Fanny Bay Trail - If you’re driving along I-10 from Jacksonville to Lake City and want to take a break by taking a hike, this interpretive trail in the Osceola National Forest provides an interesting spot to stretch your [...]
Florida Panther NWR – Leslie M. Duncan Memorial Trail - Two separate loops make up the Leslie Duncan Memorial Trail, an exploration into the cypress sloughs and wet prairies of the Big Cypress Swamp. The accessible 0.4 mile loop allows those in wheelchairs and strollers [...]
Florida Trail, Baseline to Marshall Swamp - Along this woodland in Ocala, enjoy a swath of true urban wilderness, a mile-wide corridor edged on both sides by subdivisions and strip malls. Both remain gratefully out of sight and sound as you walk [...]
Florida Trail, Clewiston to South Bay - As of May 1, 2013, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed this section and it will not reopen until sometime in 2014. Backpackers / thru-hikers / section hikers: please use the Okeechobee West route. [...]
Florida Trail, Henry Creek to Okeechobee - Arcing northward along the shoreline of Lake Okeechobee, this paved segment of the Florida Trail – known locally as the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail – offers spectacular sweeping views of the open water of one [...]
Florida Trail, Lakeport to Moore Haven - Along the western marshes of Lake Okeechobee, the segment of Florida Trail between Lakeport and Moore Haven offers something that no other portion of the trail around the lake does: several miles where the dike [...]
Florida Trail, Moore Haven to Clewiston - One of my favorite sections of the Florida Trail around Lake Okeechobee, the walk from Alvin Ward Park in Moore Haven to Clewiston Park offers up the best sunrises to be found anywhere along the [...]
Florida Trail, Nice Wander Loop - In the Osceola National Forest, this short loop adjacent to Olustee Battlefield is one of the easiest places in the state to see red-cockaded woodpeckers. It’s part of the statewide Florida Trail, and provides a [...]
Fort Cooper State Park - Fort Cooper is a quiet place, a woodland on the shores of Lake Holathlikaha just south of Inverness, a place where families come to play and picnic and walk gentle trails where wildlife sightings are [...]
Fort De Soto Park – Barrier Free Trail - Dangling like an anchor into the southern waters of Tampa Bay, Mullet Key is known to the world as Fort De Soto Park, home of a rare find: unspoiled, uninhabited Suncoast beaches. During the Spanish-American [...]
Fort Matanzas Nature Trail - If there is a place in Florida where ghosts walk the dunes, this would be it. In the early 1560s, France established a foothold in Florida, with Jean Ribault claiming the land for France. The [...]
Four Mile Cove Eco Preserve - A forest of mangroves along the Caloosahatchee River, Four Mile Cove Eco Preserve is a rare find in Cape Coral, where most of the landscape has been developed (to the detriment of those little burrowing [...]
Frenchman’s Forest Natural Area - Who would expect a nature preserve to be hiding behind the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens? That’s what you’ll find at Frenchman’s Forest Natural Area, a 172-acre natural area with seven different habitats to [...]
Gator Creek Preserve - As the headwaters of four of Central Florida’s largest rivers, – the Hillsborough, the Withlacoochee, the Ocklawaha, and the Peace – the Green Swamp is one of Central Florida’s most crucial natural resources. Despite the [...]
Gemini Springs Park - More than 150 years ago, this forest along the marshes of the St. Johns River was cleared for farming, becoming the Padgett homestead on outskirts of busy Enterprise. It later operated as a cattle ranch [...]
Grassy Waters Preserve - Protecting a sheet flow of rainfall moving steadily southward and parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, Grassy Waters Preserve bears a striking resemblance to the Florida Everglades. It’s hard to imagine now, with the crush of [...]
Green Cay Wetlands - Boardwalks meander through a recreated wetlands that bring a touch of the Everglades back to its original home in Boynton Beach. One family can make a difference in the quality of life for their community. [...]
Green Spring Park - Hidden deep in a leafy glade, a shimmering pool rises from the earth to pour through palm hammocks towards the St. Johns River. At Green Spring Park, the trails are short but well-groomed, with options [...]
Highlands Hammock State Park – Cypress Boardwalk - Teeter-tottering above a swamp isn’t an ideal situation for some people, but adventuresome hikers who want to have a little fun on a nature trail need to experience this stretch of old-time catwalk through the [...]
John Chesnut Sr. Park - With its extensive waterfront on Lake Tarpon and Brooker Creek in Oldsmar, John Chesnut Sr. Park has always been a popular natural getaway for folks near Tampa and Clearwater Beach. Pop in any weekend and [...]
John Pennekamp State Park – Mangrove Trail - One of Florida’s most well-known state parks, John Pennekamp State Park is famed for its coral reefs, but not so well known for its trails. Two nature trails showcase the land-side habitats of the park, [...]
Juniper Springs - Surrounded by the dryness of the Big Scrub, the world’s largest scrub forest, Juniper Springs is a playground of hydrological wonders, the center of a jungle-like oasis of riotous growth. Here, you’ll find every sort [...]
Juno Dunes Natural Area - Diversity is the name of the game along the trail at Juno Dunes, where you’ll find not just coastal scrub atop the Atlantic Coastal Ridge but an interesting mosaic of wetlands among the swale between [...]
Kelly Park – Kelly Loop Trail - Most folks come here for the tubing – the narrow, gushing channel down which Rock Springs Run pours is the best natural water park in Florida – but some of us appreciate the trails, too. [...]
Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park - Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park is truly a botanical treasure, with the highest concentration of champion trees in one place in the United States—and none are over 45 feet tall. Current and prior national [...]
Lake Ashby Park - At this small rural park, explore the cypress-lined shore of Lake Ashby on a gentle trail system consisting of a boardwalk and easy pathways beneath deep shade along the lakeshore. An excellent spot for birding, [...]
Lake Lotus Park - In the most improbable of places, surrounded by highways, apartments, and shopping centers where Altamonte Springs and Maitland meet, Lake Lotus Park was my secret getaway when I lived far too close to I-4 and [...]
Lake Mills Park - One of Seminole County’s prettiest county parks, Lake Mills Park perches along the southwest shore of Lake Mills, where a hardwood swamp dominated by tall cypresses provides a focal point for a series of boardwalks [...]
Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park - At Letchworth Mounds you can walk around the base of the tallest and most complex ceremonial mound in Florida. There are four mounds in the complex, with the tallest 46 feet high. The mounds are [...]
Limestone Creek Natural Area - With a grand stand of healthy pine flatwoods providing a gateway to 53 acres of protected land hemmed in by residential and commercial development in Jupiter, Limestone Creek Natural Area is a green gem in [...]
Loftin Nature Trails - In a densely wooded corner of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, the Robert W. Loftin Nature Trails are a prime place for trail runners and hikers to play. Protecting 500 acres, this sanctuary [...]
Merritt Island NWR – Visitor Center Boardwalk - Offshore from Titusville, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is one of the top destinations in Florida for winter birding. The Visitor Center boardwalk eases you into an introduction to typical habitats on the refuge and [...]
Mosaic Peace River Park - The site of an open-pit phosphate mine until the early 1980s, this reclamation project borders the Peace River floodplain, where the boardwalk winds through the floodplain forest out to the river. Interpretive signs give background [...]
Oakland Nature Preserve - One of the closest trail systems to Florida’s Turnpike, Oakland Nature Preserve showcases 128 acres of natural shoreline on Lake Apopka, Florida’s third largest lake and, like Lake Okeechobee, one that has undergone dramatic change [...]
Okeeheelee Nature Trail - A network of wheelchair-accessible paved paths and hardpacked limestone natural walkways wind through 90 acres of pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, and dense palm hammocks behind the Okeeheelee Nature Center at popular Okeeheelee Park. Enjoy birding [...]
Oscar Scherer State Park – Lake Osprey Trail - Circling one of Oscar Scherer State Park’s notable water features, Lake Osprey, the wheelchair-accessible Lake Osprey Trail – the park’s newest trail, opened in 2010 – offers a natural surface exploration of the uplands surrounding [...]
Oscar Scherer State Park – South Creek and Lester Finley Trails - Protecting more than 1,300 acres of uplands in a region where development has swarmed across the natural landscapes, Oscar Scherer State Park is a stronghold for the Florida scrub-jay, a colorful species found only in [...]
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park – La Chua Trail - There are a handful of places that stand out as excellent locations for wildlife watching in Florida – Circle B Bar, the Anhinga Trail, Shark Valley, Green Cay Wetlands, Orlando Wetlands Park – but the [...]
Pelican Island NWR – Centennial Trail - Pelican Island isn’t just a National Wildlife Refuge, it’s the National Wildlife Refuge that started the whole concept going, back in 1903. Even further back, in 1858, the small island in the Indian River Lagoon [...]
Ponce De Leon Park - Protecting the tip of a peninsula where Little Alligator Creek meets Charlotte Harbor, Ponce De Leon Park is a city park where residents of Punta Gorda can enjoy dramatic sunsets over the harbor from a [...]
Ponce Preserve - Just south of Daytona Beach, Ponce Preserve protects a cross-section of barrier island habitats in a 40-acre ribbon between the Atlantic Ocean and the Halifax River at Ponce Inlet. Home of the Green Mound, a [...]
Pondhawk Natural Area - Once part of the vast IBM complex in Boca Raton where the personal computer was born, Pondhawk Natural Area protects 79 acres of scrub habitats and wetlands, including a relict pond apple slough with some [...]
Riverbend Park - Riverbend Park has been more than a decade in the making. It’s been more than a decade since Riverbend Park was first established, and now that it’s open, the 680 acre preserve is an ideal [...]
Robinson Preserve - A 487-acre mosaic of mud flats, mangrove swamps, and beaches, Robinson Preserve is a testament to the spirit of Aldo Leopold. Formerly farmland in a district of Bradenton known for its tropical plant nurseries, this [...]
Rocky Point Hammock - An oasis of tropical hammock in a sea of suburbia, Rocky Point Hammock is perched along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge in Port Salerno, south of Stuart. This unique location creates an appealing mix of scrub [...]
Secret Woods Nature Center - Where I-95 and I-595 meet, you’d hardly believe there’s a place for green space. Port Everglades looms to the east, and jets take off and land at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. But Secret Woods [...]
Serenoa Glade Preserve - Atop one of the higher elevations in Boca Raton, Serenoa Glade Preserve is a rare undeveloped piece of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, featuring a transition zone from scrub habitat on the Atlantic Ocean side to [...]
Shingle Creek Regional Park – Historic Babb Landing - Most notable as the northernmost waterway feeding the Everglades ecosystem – via the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee – Shingle Creek rises from wetlands in a part of Orlando buried by the bustle of International [...]
Shingle Creek Regional Park – Historic Steffee Homestead - On its southward flow towards Lake Tohopekaliga, Shingle Creek – the northernmost tributary feeding Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades – winds through what is now some of the densest urban mass in Central Florida. Shingle [...]
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve - Humidity crept into the still morning air, coloring the swamp with a mild haze. Standing behind his medium-format camera, the photographer watched and waited, waited and watched. A green heron appeared, fluttering down to the [...]
Smyrna Dunes Park - As the wind whips across a broad, sweeping peninsula reaching out towards Ponce Inlet, you can hear the squawks of shorebirds and the rustle of gopher tortoises intermingle with engines gunning and dogs barking. At [...]
Snake Warrior Island - Protecting what was once the headwaters of Snake Creek and was the oldest eastern Glades settlement of the Seminoles, Snake Warrior Island Natural Area is a small urban oasis not far from I-95 in Miramar. [...]
Spring Creek Park - Along US 90 in Marianna, a highway pulloff provides a quiet place to duck into the woods and sit a spell along the shores of a crystalline waterway—Spring Creek. The creek begins at Blue Spring, [...]
Tall Cypress Natural Area - Botanical diversity abounds in the 66-acre Tall Cypress Natural Area. Along the boardwalks, you’ll wander through a cypress slough that is a wonderland of ferns, with a profusion of giant sword ferns, marsh ferns, giant [...]
Tarkiln Bayou State Park - In 2003, The Nature Conservancy assisted the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) with the purchase of this critical wetland along Tarkiln Bayou, known as the Perdido Pitcher Plant Prairie. Adjoining wetlands had already been [...]
Tate’s Hell State Forest – Ralph G. Kendrick Dwarf Cypress Boardwalk - Why build a boardwalk in the middle of one of the most impassible swamps in Florida? Along the Gulf Coast near Carrabelle, Tate’s Hell is well-known for being a wild place. Its name is derived [...]
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park - A sweep of fragile dunes along a shore that’s vanished, over time, under the rush of development: Topsail Hill State Park is a very special place. Protecting more than 3 miles of oceanfront on the [...]
Turkey Creek Nature Trail - A broad boardwalk trail that showcases a clear, healthy tannic stream draining the sandhills of Eglin Air Force Base, the Turkey Creek Nature Trail is a community park and gathering place where children are almost [...]
Turkey Creek Sanctuary - Surrounded by suburbia in Palm Bay, Turkey Creek Sanctuary is a precious preserve of 117 acres, protecting the gentle bends of Turkey Creek as it carves a deep path through sandy banks on its winding [...]
Viera Wetlands - On the boundary between modern subdivisions and the floodplain of the St. Johns River, Viera Wetlands – modeled after Orlando Wetlands Park, to process wastewater naturally – has proven to be one of the best [...]
Wadsworth Park - Along a cove on a tidal creek that flows out to the Intracoastal Waterway, Wadsworth Park near Flagler Beach provides a gentle introduction to the marshes. While it’s a 45-acre county park with the usual [...]
Wakodatahatchee Wetlands - Wading birds everywhere: that’s the delight of a walk along the boardwalks of Wakodahatchee Wetlands. The first wetlands park in the region, it continues to draw a regular crowd for morning stolls, photography, and serious [...]
Wekiwa Springs State Park – Wet to Dry Trail - While the Wet to Dry Nature Trail at Wekiwa Springs State Park is the shortest of all of the park’s hiking trails, it’s also the busiest. Starting near the outflow of Wekiwa Springs as it [...]
Woodmont Natural Area - The last patch of woodlands in suburbia, the Woodmont Natural Area in Tamarac is one of the rare islands of nature left remaining after development throughout western Broward County into the Everglades. This 22-acre site [...]
Yamato Scrub Natural Area - A 217-acre natural area atop the Atlantic Coastal Ridge in Boca Raton, Yamato Scrub protects the largest chunk of native scrub habitat found this far south in Florida. Walking the northernmost trails in this preserve, [...]
