Hikes along beaches or that are connected to beachfront access along both Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast, as well as bays and inlets throughout the state. These hikes provide balmy salt breezes, sweeping scenery, and an opportunity to enjoy a swim after your walk.
Bald Point State Park
Beaches in the Big Bend are rare, since this stretch of shoreline is defined by coastal estuaries and there is a lack of barrier islands. Still, in the sweep of the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico between Apalachicola and Cedar Key, you’ll find slim ribbons and tiny patches of beach. Where Ochlockonee Bay meets [...]
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 shade of tropical trees on a trail system of footpaths that intertwine with paved trails, ending up at an overlook [...]
Big Talbot Island State Park – Blackrock Beach
THIS TRAIL IS CURRENTLY CLOSED DUE TO CONSTRUCTION OF A MULTIUSE TRAIL BISECTING IT. SIGNS SAY IT WILL REOPEN IN JULY 2012 A barrier island on the Atlantic Coast between Amelia Island and Little Talbot Island, Big Talbot Island is best known for its unusual rocky shoreline called Blackrock Beach. One step on this beach, [...]
Big Talbot Island State Park – Bluffs Beach Walk
From the high bluffs at Big Talbot Island State Park, you can see forever—or at least to the horizon, the Atlantic Ocean shimmering in the sun. Within the main state park complex, the Bluffs Picnic Area, with its picnic tables and popular fishing spots, the park offers access down below the high bluffs to some [...]
Blowing Rocks Preserve
Stretching more than a mile along Jupiter Island, a tall limestone terrace dominates the meeting of sand and sea, the longest and most dramatic stretch of rocky shoreline in Florida. Preserved by local residents in 1969 and turned over to The Nature Conservancy, the Blowing Rocks Preserve protects 73 acres of Jupiter Island, from the [...]
Caladesi Island State Park
Protecting a windswept shoreline and a variety of habitats on a barrier island off the historic coastal community of Dunedin, Caladesi Island State Park is undoubtedly one of the gems of the Florida State Parks system. It’s been named the top beach in the United States, thanks to its quiet and remote location, the view [...]
Caspersen Beach Park
Ancient sharks once cruised the waters off modern-day Venice, carcharodon megalodon, a shark more than 52 feet long that outweighed a t.rex. Folks flock to Caspersen Beach today not just because it’s at the end of the road, but it’s the prime spot along the coast to unearth the fossilized teeth of these ancient sharks, [...]
Cayo Costa State Park
To spend a day or a weekend on your own deserted island…heaven. Cayo Costa State Park is one of the tougher and costlier state parks to get to, but well worth it. Solitude is guaranteed. The trail system meanders through the location of an old village and takes side trips out to the shoreline; you [...]
Coconut Point Sanctuary
Call it the Ocean-to-Lagoon Hike: this loop trail through one of Brevard County’s most diverse natural lands connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River Lagoon in Melbourne Beach. Showcasing an array of habitats that change as you step up and down from coastal dunes to the shores of Florida’s largest lagoon, Coconut Point Sanctuary [...]
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 freshwater lakes become too full, they naturally spill over and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. At that time seawater [...]
Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park
At the northernmost end of Naples, the breezy shores of Delnor-Wiggins State Park entice thousands of beachgoers on summer days – especially on weekends. On weekdays and early mornings and evenings, people who like a stroll on the beach have it all to themselves. One of the best places along this coast to find massive [...]
Egmont Key State Park
Resources Overview Location: Egmont Key Length: 1 mile Lat-Lon: 27.613088, -82.736473 (for ferryboat dock) Type: round-trip Fees: state park access fee Difficulty: easy to moderate Bug Factor: moderate Restroom: not on the island Pets are not allowed on the island. Egmont Key State Park website Directions The Tampa Bay Ferry departs from Fort De Soto [...]
Florida Trail, Fort Pickens
At the westernmost point of Santa Rosa Island, along the shimmering sands of the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Trail comes to an end at one of the most important historic sites in Florida’s Panhandle—Fort Pickens. Construction of Fort Pickens began in 1829 under supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers. President Abraham Lincoln considered [...]
Fort De Soto Park – Arrowhead Nature Trail
Explore several coastal habitats on the Arrowhead Nature Trail at Fort De Soto Park, an interpretive walk with plenty of stops where you’ll learn all about the salt-dependent plants along the rim of Mullet Key Bayou. Several openings in the mangroves enable you to enjoy scenic views with a wide sweep of the shallows of [...]
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 War, the pressure was on to protect Tampa, since troops shipped out of the port for Cuba, and thus Fort [...]
Fort De Soto Park – Soldier’s Hole Nature Trail
Its name comes from legends of soldiers deserting the fort in the dead of night, slipping through the mangrove swamps to freedom. Soldier’s Hole is a cove in the mangrove forest, abuzz with mosquitoes and thick with tidal muck. It’s a nursery for fish and crustaceans taking their nutrients from the detritus formed by fallen [...]
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park
The southernmost hike in the United States is one of the lesser-known attractions of Key West, where pub crawls are more popular than nature walks. Still, this classy and quirky historic city has its natural charms, if you just know the nooks in which to look. Fort Taylor is one of the more obvious sites, [...]
Grayton Beach State Park
Along the South Walton coast, Grayton Beach State Park preserves special treasures—not just a waterfront with emerald waves and sparkling sand, but a rare coastal dune lake with freshwater mere feet from the sea. The trail system introduces you to a coastal dune lake and its surrounding habitats. Start with the Barrier Dunes Nature Trail, [...]
Henderson Beach State Park
If you’ve spent any time at the beach, you know that sand collects around the dune grasses and builds up, forming larger dunes. At Henderson Beach State Park, one of the more immense dunes built up around an old military bunker, and it’s now the home of the Henderson Beach Nature Trail, a 3/4-mile pet-friendly [...]
Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park
With cool ocean breezes and a plunge in the surf after your hike, the 2.7-mile trail at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park in Jacksonville is a great choice for a summer outing. Hanna Park, as it is best known, is one of the region’s largest, with recreational opportunities ranging from camping and fishing to mountain biking [...]
Little Talbot Island State Park – Island Hiking Trail
A barrier island on the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the St. Johns River, Little Talbot Island attracts a steady stream of beachgoers from nearby Jacksonville. But if your idea of a day at the beach isn’t just to lie around, the park has two trails – one long, one short – to introduce [...]
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 particularly significant archeological site, it’s also nature’s last stand on the barrier island where auto racing was born. Thanks to [...]
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 New Smyrna Beach, Smyrna Dunes Park is one of those rare places where most recreational users are accommodated. The 2-mile [...]
St. George Island State Park – Gap Point Trail
Tall slash pines dominate the windswept remnant of coastal scrub forest that St. George Island State Park protects at the easternmost tip of this barrier island dividing the mouth of the Apalachicola River from the Gulf of Mexico. Starting from the campground area, the 5-mile round trip Gap Point Trail offers an opportunity to backpack [...]
St. Joseph Peninsula State Park – Wilderness Preserve Trail
If you’ve dreamed of camping on a deserted beach, here’s your chance. The westernmost tip of the St Joseph Peninsula is set aside for hikers to explore, a wilderness of windswept coastal scrub and sand dunes out to Cape San Blas, where St. Joseph Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico. Camp along a beach with [...]
UWF Dunes Preserve
If you’ve ever wanted to scramble up and down Florida dunes, here’s your chance! This part of Santa Rosa Island is a coastal desert that the Florida Trail weaves up and over. The Florida Trail is the only National Scenic Trail to meander along a beach—the beaches of Santa Rosa Island—and this is one of [...]
