A favorite destination for my family for decades, Jupiter is the northernmost outpost of Palm Beach County – which means easy access to natural lands along the Intracoastal Waterway, Atlantic Coastal Ridge, and the North Everglades Natural Area (NENA for short), where you’ll find the vast Ocean-to-Lake Greenway. It is the best area for backpacking in Southeast Florida.
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 [...]
Florida Trail, Ocean to Lake: Corbett WMA
Seen on your GPS or a satellite photo, Corbett WMA appears to be wetlands, wetlands, and more wetlands. But this popular wildlife management area west of West Palm Beach is a place of superlatives: vast prairies, enormous trees, and landscapes that seem to go on forever. Painted with colorful wildflowers in every season, it echoes [...]
Florida Trail, Ocean to Lake: DuPuis Reserve
It took more than a decade of planning to get the project on the ground, but the Ocean-to-Lake Trail, a spur of the 1,400-mile Florida Trail leading from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean at Hobe Sound, is now a reality. The easternmost segments provide some ongoing access challenges, but the western section – accessed [...]
Florida Trail, Ocean to Lake: DuPuis to Corbett
Deep in the heart of the Ocean-to-Lake Greenway, this 9.7 mile segment of the Florida Trail bridging DuPuis Reserve and Corbett WMA is one of the most wild and scenic treks in southeastern Florida. It’s necessary to backpack in from one end or the other of the Ocean-to-Lake western segment in order to experience the [...]
Florida Trail, Port Mayaca to Henry Creek
One of five segments of the Florida Trail that are paved around Lake Okeechobee, the 13.7-mile walk between Port Mayaca and Henry Creek offers unparalleled vistas of both open water and the marshes of Chauncey Bay, teeming with bird life. This is definitely a section that city folks who exercise on pavement will excel at, [...]
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 humanity along this coast, but this shimmering sheet of sawgrass once was part of the River of Grass, feeding directly [...]
Jonathan Dickinson State Park – East Loop Trail
For backpackers headed to the urban southeastern part of the Florida, Jonathan Dickinson State Park provides more than 11,000 acres to roam on a series of three trails maintained by the Florida Trail Association. Although the East Loop took some severe battering during the hurricanes of 2005, losing the sand pine scrub canopy along the [...]
Jonathan Dickinson State Park – Hobe Mountain Trail
Catch a sweeping view from an observation tower atop the highest natural hill south of Lake Okeechobee, a vantage point that lets you survey a broad swath of landscape from the Atlantic Ocean to the wet flatwoods that march off to the west of the Loxahatchee River. This short boardwalk trail is one of the [...]
Jonathan Dickinson State Park – Kitching Creek Loop
Brilliant pink orchids. The clatter of sandhill cranes. Ferns rising from depression marshes. Cabbage palms shading your campsite. These are reasons to head into the woods on the second of two stacked loops for long distance roaming within Jonathan Dickinson State Park, the Kitching Creek Loop. It’s connected to the East Loop via a short [...]
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 ancient dunes. Juno Beach is a small seaside community north of West Palm Beach, and this preserve encompasses a nice [...]
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 the eastern corridor of the Northeast Everglades Natural Area. A paved wheelchair accessible trail winds through the woods to an [...]
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 destination for hikers who want a taste of the wilds of Southwest Florida without getting their feet wet. More than [...]
Seabranch Preserve State Park
Seabranch Preserve State Park encompasses nearly 1,000 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway south of Stuart, and protects several critical habitats in an area overrun with coastal development. In addition to supporting populations of Florida scrub-jays and gopher tortoises across its many acres of diminutive scrub forest, Seabranch Preserve contains one of South Florida’s rare bayhead [...]
