Along the Nature Coast, Inverness offers an amazing array of hiking and backpacking opportunities in the Withlacoochee State Forest – which rambles across the length of Citrus County into adjacent Hernando and Sumter Counties – as well as water management district lands and state parks.
Chinsegut WEA – Big Pine Tract - The southernmost concentration of ancient longleaf pine in America, the Big Pine Tract of Chinsegut WEA is also the second largest contiguous tract of old-growth longleaf pine in Florida. Protected within over 400 acres flanking [...]
Chinsegut WEA – Nature Center Tract - At Chinsegut WEA, the Nature Center Tract is a birder’s delight. On a hike there with my parents, we saw at least two different pileated woodpeckers, and could hear sandhill cranes in the distance. The [...]
Crystal River Preserve State Park – Churchhouse Hammock - In Crystal River, you can immerse in the beauty of a palm and cedar hammock right across the street from the Crystal River Mall. A wooden boardwalk leads into jungle-like cabbage palm flatwoods, with a [...]
Florida Trail, Pruitt - It’s not just the ancient live oaks, but the switchbacks and scrambles, the habitat diversity, the stories that the landscape tells—and “Stonehenge.” These are some of the reasons that the Pruitt section of the Florida [...]
Florida Trail, Pruitt to Ross Prairie - As a protected corridor south of Ocala, this section of the Florida Trail is the westernmost segment on the Cross Florida Greenway, showing off the unusual terrain created during construction of the Cross Florida Ship [...]
Florida Trail, Ross Prairie to SW 49th Ave - As a protected corridor south of Ocala, this section of the Florida Trail on the Cross Florida Greenway offers delights you just can’t imagine from the roads that bisect it—CR 484 and SW 49th Avenue. [...]
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 [...]
Rainbow Springs State Park – Sandhill Trail - More than a century ago, the forests surrounding first-magnitude Rainbow Springs were a beehive of activity as miners dug pits in the limestone to find nuggets that made Dunnellon a boomtown—phosphate. This area was the [...]
Ross Prairie Loop - Starting at the Ross Prairie Trailhead, the 3.5-mile Ross Prairie Loop offers an overview of Ross Prairie, a sprawling complex of grasslands and ponds nearly three miles long. Edged by sand pine scrub, longleaf pine [...]
Ross Prairie State Forest – Holly Hammock Hiking Trail - At the Ross Prairie Trailhead of the Cross Florida Greenway, there are two loop trails you can access – and this is the shorter of the two, taking you on a journey into the quiet [...]
Withlacoochee State Forest – Citrus Hiking Trail - Four days, 43 miles: that’s just part of the challenge of the Citrus Hiking Trail, the second-longest backpacking loop on a single piece of land in the state of Florida. Add aggressively rolling sandhills, steep [...]
Withlacoochee State Forest – Johnson Pond Trail - One of my favorites for many years, the Johnson Pond Trail is Hike #3 in 50 Hikes in Central Florida. Although it combines elements of hikes I’m not fond of – shared use in a [...]
Withlacoochee State Forest – Oxbow Trail - A lesser-known part of Withlacoochee State Forest, the Oxbow Trail is on the northernmost tract of the forest along the Withlacoochee River, the trails and campsites all Eagle Scout projects. While the easy-to-follow big loop [...]
