These beachfront communities on the southern ends of Okaloosa and Walton Counties include a string of natural lands protecting some of the world’s rarest lakes, the coastal dunes lakes. They are freshwater bodies that flush out to the sea sporadically. Large bays punctuate this coast, providing even more shoreline for hiking.
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 [...]
Eden Gardens State Park – Tucker Bayou Trail - Best known for its antebellum mansion with one of the most extensive Louis XVI furniture collections in America, Eden Gardens State Park has its wild side, too. The Tucker Bayou Trail, recently relocated, starts and [...]
Florida Trail, Eglin East - This segment of the Florida Trail near Destin is on a swath of public land with a long and storied history. Established concurrently with the Ocala National Forest in 1908, the Choctawhatchee National Forest protected [...]
Florida Trail, Eglin West - Bordered by the tangled floodplain forests of the Yellow River to the north, this 14.2-mile segment of the Florida Trail traverses high, dry sandhills topped with longleaf pine forest and planted pine, dropping in elevation [...]
Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park - Hugging the shoreline of Rocky Bayou, an important aquatic preserve, Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park near Niceville has one of the prettiest campgrounds in the Florida State Park system – well air-conditioned by a [...]
Garcon Point Trail - On a peninsula separating Blackwater Bay and East Bay, Garcon Point Preserve presents an open landscape of wind-swept prairies punctuated by oak hammocks and tall longleaf pines.The Western Gate Chapter of the Florida Trail Association [...]
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 [...]
Gulf Islands National Seashore – Naval Live Oaks Preserve - Naval Live Oaks Preserve outside Pensacola was our nation’s first tree farm, established in 1828 by President John Quincy Adams to protect a significant coastal stand of live oaks for military use. In those days, [...]
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 [...]
Pine Log State Forest - Mist rising off Sand Pond in morning—a must-see, making the cypress-lined lake ever so ghostly in the middle of Florida’s first state forest, Pine Log. From the Sand Pond trailhead, which starts near the campground, [...]
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 [...]
