North Florida

I came here in search of a garden, and found a park. Having read that a small wildflower garden was tucked within this 22 acre park in northern Gainesville, I figured it was worth visiting for the sake of my botanical research. And the park I found surprised me. For such a small swath of [...]

Many footsteps have pressed into the sands of Anastasia Island, from the most ancient peoples who thrived on its bountiful shores to the Timucua who explored the coastline in their canoes, and the Spanish explorers who claimed this coast for Spain in 1565, establishing what is now the oldest continually occupied European settlement in America, [...]

The St. Johns River runs broad and deep near Green Cove Springs, where Bayard Point Conservation Area preserves an untouched Florida riverfront, bottomland floodplain with dense stands of bald cypress, sweet gum, and red maples. More than 15 miles of trails wander through the John P. Hall Nature Preserve portion of the conservation area – [...]

Nestled in an unexpected corner of Flagler Beach, Betty Steflik Memorial Preserve protects more than 200 acres of mangrove marsh, mud flats, and coastal uplands right on the edge of this downtown beach community. Established in 1995, an extensive network of boardwalks carries you along estuarine creeks and out to the Intracoastal Waterway, offering panoramic [...]

When you think about Florida’s rivers and streams, the image of raging, foaming water never springs to mind. Yet up on the Suwannee River, just a few miles outside the historic town of White Springs, the Suwannee hides a secret that canoeists and kayakers kept to themselves for many years—Big Shoals. Inside Big Shoals State [...]

The southernmost trail on Big Talbot Island is the 0.8-mile Big Pine Trail, a short walk out to a bluff above the estuary. A maritime hammock surrounds a slash pine forest which the trail meanders through, always riffled by a stiff salt breeze. A spur trail leads to the scenic view, and you can clamber [...]

Jones Cut provides a meander into the heart of the maritime forest that carpets Big Talbot Island, but it’s not the easiest trail to find. It lets you explore the heart of a dense maritime forest which was once home to the Timucua. The trail follows a broad old forest road through a mature forest [...]

At Cary State Forest, you have the opportunity for a highly accessible, close-up look at carnivorous pitcher plants in the wild. While the 3,413-acre forest has dozens of miles of multi-use trails and is popular with local equestrians, the 1.4-mile Cary Nature Trail is hiking only, a great short walk for kids and persons of [...]

Follow the signs out through the residential area to this large compound established in 1962 as the first museum to capture Cedar Key’s long history as presented by St. Clair Whitman, a colorful local man who started his own personal museum of artifacts and seashells. Whitman’s house is under restoration on the property; a short [...]

On the northern edge of Gainesville, Devil’s Millhopper Geologic State Park showcases a geologic formation known to generations of visitors to the area. You’d think you were in the Amazon, or Hawaii, when you hear and see the tumbling cascades behind a screen of dense vegetation. But the ephemeral waterfalls that occur at Devil’s Millhopper [...]

Dunns Creek State Park protects sandhills and scrub along a sharp bend in the St. Johns River. It is home to at least eight healthy populations of rare Etonia rosemary (Conradina etonia), the only other occurrence on public land outside Etoniah Creek State Forest, and has a steephead ravine at one end of the park. [...]

If you’re driving along I-10 from Jacksonville to Lake City and want to take a break by taking a hike, this interpretive trail in the Osceola National Forest provides an interesting spot to stretch your legs – the trailhead is at the Sanderson Rest Area westbound. This walk boasts colorful and detailed signage to orient [...]

The hub of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail in downtown White Springs, a stop for hikers along the Florida Trail, and an important draw for this community’s outdoor recreation enthusiasts, the State of Florida’s Nature and Heritage Tourism Center provides visitor information about parks throughout Florida, videos and books to read, restrooms, and a place [...]

Paralleling a segment of the failed Cross Florida Barge Canal, this mostly linear section of the Florida Trail sticks to a high berm created when the canal was dug. Nicely shaded for much of its route, it’s a gentle walk with the occasional scenic view of the waterway and the forests on its north side. [...]

On the Disappearing Creek Loop off the Florida Trail along the Suwannee River, watch Camp Branch burble through rapids and cascade into a giant sinkhole. Rapids between cypress knees? That’s what you’ll see when “surf’s up” along the Suwannee after a good rain. This region has spectacular geology thanks to its karst topography. Karst occurs [...]

One of Florida’s oldest state parks, the Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park opened in the 1930s, its facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is one of the few state parks that the Florida Trail traverses, and a pleasant place to camp thanks to its many camping options. You can rent a [...]

While the Ocala National Forest is best known for having the largest expanse of scrub forest in the world, a lesser known facet of the forest – unless you hike the Florida Trail – are its wide, open prairies fringed with scrub forest. Here, sandhill cranes gather in groups, kingfishers buzz above small ponds, and [...]

In the Osceola National Forest, this short loop adjacent to Olustee Battlefield is one of the easiest places in the state to see red-cockaded woodpeckers. It’s part of the statewide Florida Trail, and provides a prime spot to watch these endangered birds around their nest holes in ancient longleaf pines. It also has is a [...]

To learn about the long and storied past of the forestry industry in Florida – one that certainly has shaped the habitats you see today – stop in at this museum surrounded by 13 acres of longleaf pines, dogwood, and wild azalea. In addition to the museum, the park has an 1863 Cracker homestead, picnic [...]

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 settlement of Fort Caroline took hold along the St. Johns River. A few years later, Pedro Menendez de Aviles established [...]

Circling a peninsula of land between the Guana River and the Tolomato River, the extenstive trail system at GTM Reserve is open to biking and hiking. Enjoy a walk through maritime forests riffled by a salt breeze. The trail traverses a broad variety of habitats, including open freshwater savannas, scrub, live oak hammocks, salt marshes, [...]

Experience crystalline waters emerging from the midst of the world’s largest scrub forest—hike an easy nature trail and boardwalk in the Ocala National Forest. Surrounded by the dryness of the Big Scrub, the world’s largest scrub forest, Juniper Springs is a playground of hydrological wonders, the center of a jungle-like oasis of riotous growth. At [...]

The nature trail at Ladell Brothers Outdoor Environmental Center, North Florida Community College in Madison is a place for students and visitors to get away from it all in the midst of the college campus. Starting off on a boardwalk across a cypress swamp, the trail enters the deep shade of a thick hardwood hammock. [...]

Two trails, one trailhead. The Lake Eaton Trail is in the heart of the Big Scrub, part of the “Lake Eaton Trails” on the northeast side of Lake Eaton in the Ocala National Forest, halfway between Salt Springs and Nuby’s Corner along CR 314. From the air (or satellite photo) you can see Lake Eaton [...]

A barrier island on the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the St. Johns River, Little Talbot Island attracts a steady stream of beachgoers from nearby Jacksonville. But if your idea of a day at the beach isn’t just to lie around, the park has two trails – one long, one short – to introduce [...]

North of Gainesville, the northern forests make their southern stand. Mill Creek Preserve, north of Alachua and part of the Alachua County Forever registry, encompasses nearly 1,200 acres of unexpected delights in an area well-known for its sinkholes and disappearing streams. By taking a hike, you pass through the curtain of pine plantation you see [...]

Wind through the pines and step back in time to trace the unfolding of the Battle of Olustee near Lake City. The hike through Olustee Battlefield is short, but its historical significance is great. More than 2,000 men died in this forest on February 20, 1864, when Confederate and Union forces met and fought the [...]

[set_id=72157623538587832 ] With a nature trail showcasing Florida’s weird karst geology and a cypress swamp along the Santa Fe River near High Springs, Poe Springs Park provides a glimpse into Florida’s fossilized past. A second-magnitude spring, Poe pours out a very short spring run into the cypress-lined Santa Fe River. Poe Springs has been a [...]

Within the city limits of Jacksonville yet certifiably wild, this Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve is a high dry wilderness on bluffs above the Nassau River. Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve State Park protects more than 4,000 acres along the Nassau River, encompassing tall bluffs, scrub, and salt marshes. I’ve hiked out to the bluffs (where you’ll [...]

Hike the trails at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, a botanical garden with a touch of Civilian Conservation Corps history and some very rugged hiking trails. Built in 1934 by CCC workers with 250,000 ornamental plants and 95,000 azaleas, Ravine Gardens was named the “Nation’s Outstanding Citizen Works Administration Project” when it opened. In [...]

Resources Overview Location: Salt Springs Length: 1.9 miles Lat-Long: 29.340072, -81.728832 Type: Loop with spur to boardwalk Fees / Permits: None Difficulty: easy to moderate Bug factor: low to moderate Restroom: None Directions From Ocala, take I-75 exit 352 and drive east on SR 40 through downtown Ocala and Silver Springs en route to the [...]

Sitting right on the state line southeast of Folkston, Georgia, the Ralph E. Simmons Memorial State Forest is certainly a place to get away from it all. The sluggish tannic waters of the St. Marys River form the state boundary, snaking around bends marked by sandy beaches. The dips and slopes where upland and riverine [...]

Two different faces, two different spaces: the 125-acre Sweetwater Branch Preserve, acquired in 2006, is a unique natural land in the city of Gainesville. It provides a buffer and wildlife corridor on the northern rim of Paynes Prairie along a historically important waterway, part of a 50,000 acre conservation buffer between Gainesville and Hawthorne. While [...]

Around 1875, barely a decade after the Union defeat at the hands of the Confederate Army at Olustee, retired Union Soldier Tom Russell and his business partner Isaac Eppinger bought up the land around Ocean Pond. The forest boomed with the sounds of centuries-old longleaf pine and ancient bald cypress being felled from the dense [...]

Along a cove on a tidal creek that flows out to the Intracoastal Waterway, Wadsworth Park near Flagler Beach provides a gentle introduction to the marshes. While it’s a 45-acre county park with the usual amentities – ballfields, tennis courts, and a “Paw Park” – it’s also a fabulous spot for birding on the edge [...]

Walk the landscape and discover the history that inspired Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling in 1938, on Pat’s Island in the Ocala National Forest. In the fall of 1876, Reuben and Sara Jane Long established a homestead on Pat’s Island, a high spot in the Big Scrub. Shaded by longleaf pine and [...]