Hiking in our well-known National Parks, such as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, as well as our lesser-known National Seashores and National Monuments throughout Florida.
Big Cypress National Preserve – Kirby Storter Boardwalk - It took many years and a lot of local effort by the Friends of Big Cypress to get this gentle introduction to the wilds of the Big Cypress Swamp in place, but the Kirby Storter [...]
Big Cypress National Preserve – Tree Snail Hammock Trail - In this hammock, you enter a world inhabited by rare and tiny creatures—the colorful and endangered liguus tree snails of South Florida’s hammocks. You’ll likely enjoy spotting liguus snails on the trees— look for them [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Castle Windy - There’s always a breeze at Castle Windy, a trail that burrows through the coastal hammock on the Mosquito Lagoon side of Canaveral National Seashore, leading you out to a secluded beach along the lagoon. Deeply [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Eldora Hammock Trail - Before Canaveral National Seashore, there was Eldora. Established in 1877, this fishing village prospered along Mosquito Lagoon, with access only by boat. Now, the shoreline is dominated by the Eldora State House, the last remaining [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Seminole Rest Trail - At the site of a former plantation and important archaeological site on the Indian River Lagoon, Seminole Rest provides excellent interpretation of this coastal outpost across the shimmering waters from the former fishing village of [...]
Canaveral National Seashore – Turtle Mound Trail - Along Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the prominent feature of Turtle Mound has been a navigational aid for generations. It is an oyster shell midden rising 35 feet above the Mosquito Lagoon, an archeological site dating back [...]
De Soto National Memorial - Commemorating the landing of Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando De Soto, the De Soto National Memorial is a significant archaeological site where the Manatee River flows into Tampa Bay. The Riverview Point Trail offers perspectives [...]
Everglades National Park – Anhinga Trail - For most visitors, the Anhinga Trail is their first and perhaps only glimpse into Everglades National Park. Its proximity to the park entrance guarantees its popularity, and wildlife here is so common and complacent you’ll [...]
Everglades National Park – Bayshore Loop - Providing a walk through the mangrove-lined edge of Florida Bay and the unique coastal prairie habitat within a short loop, the Bayshore Loop is an excellent sampler of what some of the Flamingo area’s longer [...]
Everglades National Park – Bear Lake Trail - Paralleling the former Homestead Canal, an attempt by early developers to drain the coastal prairies around Cape Sable, the Bear Lake Trail takes you on a journey down an old road built of limestone fill [...]
Everglades National Park – Bobcat Boardwalk - The Bobcat Boardwalk at Shark Valley is a popular destination in winter and spring to see migratory and nesting birds. Most visitors opt to bike or take the tram around the 14-mile paved loop through [...]
Everglades National Park – Christian Point Trail - The Christian Point Trail is one of the more challenging trails in Everglades National Park, This is one of the more challenging trails in Flamingo, especially after the storm surge damage of Hurricanes Katrina and [...]
Everglades National Park – Coastal Prairie Trail - Ready for a hard-core Florida wilderness challenge? The rangers at the Flamingo Visitor Center don’t recommend you hike this trail, but they’ll still issue you a backcountry permit for camping if you insist. Consider it [...]
Everglades National Park – Gumbo Limbo Trail - At Royal Palm Hammock, home of the Anhinga Trail, the Gumbo Limbo Trail is a paved path that gets you up close and personal with a tropical hammock. This was once called Paradise Key, owned [...]
Everglades National Park – Guy Bradley Trail - In the early 1900s, naturalists were well aware of the vast bird life in the Everglades, and so were plume hunters, looking to cash in on the use of heron plumage as a New York [...]
Everglades National Park – Mahogany Hammock Trail - Tree islands are tropical oases in the Everglades “river of grass,” punctuating the sawgrass prairie where there is a slight bit of elevation, enough to make an enormous difference in the flora. I’ve always loved [...]
Everglades National Park – Old Ingraham Highway - Opened in 1922 as the first motorway to Flamingo, the Old Ingraham Highway saw its share of Model Ts and other roadsters as intrepid motorists made their way down to the small fishing village on [...]
Everglades National Park – Otter Cave Hammock Trail - Complementing Shark Valley’s popular bike and tram trail and Bobcat Boardwalk, the Otter Cave Trail gets you out into the Everglades at a walking pace, where you’ll see much more wildlife. Although the park considers [...]
Everglades National Park – Pa-Hay-Okee Boardwalk - Pa-Hay-Okee is the Seminole word for “River of Grass,” the name Marjorie Stoneman Douglas bestowed on the Everglades while advocating to have the region protected as a National Park. This trail is a short boardwalk [...]
Everglades National Park – Pine Land - One of my favorite Everglades nature trails, Pine Land is a showcase for South Florida’s weird and wonderful karst, a limestone bedrock that’s full of Swiss-cheese like holes, crevices, pits, and tiny caves. Pine rocklands [...]
Everglades National Park – Pinelands Ecotone - Unnamed, un-blazed, and wild, following an old jeep road, the Pinelands Ecotone is an extraordinary hike along the ecotone between two rare habitats – pine rocklands and sawgrass prairies. It immerses you in one of [...]
Everglades National Park – Snake Bight / Rowdy Bend - It’s a wild corner of Florida, where tropical forests meet the mangrove shorelines of Florida Bay, where crocodiles cruise the saline shallows and mosquitoes thicken the air. It’s getting even wilder these days, with the [...]
Everglades National Park – West Lake - At West Lake, the Mangrove Trail loops through a forest that has seen its share of hurricane-related damage, from salty mud flats deposited by Hurricane Donna to the storm surges of 2005 from Hurricanes Katrina [...]
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 [...]
Fort Caroline – Hammock Nature Trail - Three years before the Spanish colony at St. Augustine took root, French Huguenots landed on the St. Johns Bluff and claimed Florida for France, naming the river “The River of May,” as they landed on [...]
Fort Matanzas Nature Trail - If there is a place in Florida where ghosts walk the dunes, this would be it. In the early 1560s, France established a foothold in Florida, with Jean Ribault claiming the land for France. 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, [...]
