On one of my recent trips heading home from visiting family, I came to the entrance to Trout Lake Nature Center in Eustis and decided to stop. Every backroads journey to Ocala I make leads right past … [Read more...]
Scrub Jay Pond: a study in private ecosystem management
On Thursday January 17, enjoy a rare opportunity to learn how to manage your own scrub habitat to attract Florida scrub-jays. On this Forestry Stewardship Tour in Lake County, explore the Hunter … [Read more...]
Yearling Trail
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 turkey oak, they grew sugar cane and corn, peas, … [Read more...]
Ocala National Forest – Timucuan Trail
In less than a mile, you experience all of the major habitats of the Ocala National Forest—and can cool off with a swim. Noted for its clarity, Alexander Springs gushes out of a subterranean crevice … [Read more...]
Sunnyhill Restoration Area – Levee Trail
A 4,405-acre swath of public land in the Ocklawaha River floodplain, Sunnyhill Conservation Area offers five different trailheads for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians to roam its vast network of … [Read more...]
St. Francis Trail
It's hard to believe, as you walk under bowers of live oaks and cabbage palms, that a town once crowded the wharf where the St. Johns River turns away from the St. Francis Dead River, where growers … [Read more...]
Sarah Maude Mason Nature Preserve
A short but deeply-shaded and scenic walk, the nature trail at Sarah Maude Mason Nature Preserve in Howey-in-the-Hills spends most of its time on a boardwalk over a floodplain forest along Little Lake … [Read more...]
Palm Island Park
A stay at the Lakeside Inn jogged my memory of when I first discovered Palm Island Park. I was in the thick of researching a travel guide, and had walked down to the Dora Lighthouse to take some … [Read more...]
Ocklawaha Prairie Restoration Area
Winding northward from Lake Griffin, the Ocklawaha River was once a meandering river through vast marshes, cypress swamps, and floodplain forests as it worked its way towards the St. Johns River near … [Read more...]
Hidden Waters Preserve
From an aerial view, it’s obvious the region around Eustis and Mount Dora is pockmarked with sinkholes. Hidden Waters Preserve is managed by the Lake County Water Authority to protect and utilize a … [Read more...]
