Grab your inner tubes and head to this community park in Niceville, just south of Eglin Air Force Base. Turkey Creek Nature Trail is a fabulous mid-summer destination for families, since it’s a long boardwalk with a series of landings along a crystalline but cold stream. Walk down to the end with your inner tube [...]

Thanks to Barbara Bowen from New Port Richey, owner of Riverbank’s Outdoor Store, I learned about a new preserve in this very urban area along the Gulf Coast and set out to find it on a recent visit. What a delight to find a lengthy boardwalk winding along the scenic Pithlachascotee River, especially on a [...]

With stormy skies threatening, I didn’t feel comfortable going after a full re-hike of Key Vista Park last week as I planned, so I stopped at Anclote Gulf Park instead. These parks adjoin along the Gulf Coast north of the Anclote River, which marks the divider between Pinellas and Pasco Counties. What intrigued me about [...]

Within just a few miles of the Fort Lauderdale Airport, I-95, the Florida Turnpike, and the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, there’s a Secret Woods right under Fort Lauderdale’s nose. That’s Secret Woods Nature Center, the first-ever designated urban wilderness in Florida, established in 1978.  With a little over a mile’s worth of trails [...]

If you’re driving from Naples to Miami and don’t have a lot of time to spare to stop and enjoy the Big Cypress National Preserve, make a point of pulling off the Tamiami Trail at the Kirby Storter wayside, 14.1 miles east of the blinker at SR 29 outside Everglades City. The boardwalk trail is [...]