Each January, Florida’s largest and longest-running birding festival, the Space Coast Wildlife & Birding Festival, introduces visitors to vast preserves along the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Johns River. It’s here you’ll find excellent hiking, including segments of the Florida Trail that are well worth a backpacking trip.
Dicerandra Scrub Sanctuary
One of a string of scrub preserves that sprinkle the Space Coast between Titusville and Fellsmere, Dicerandra Scrub protects a sliver of scrub – only 44 acres – atop the Atlantic Coastal Ridge in an area otherwise fully surrounded by subdivisions. It is home to the rare Dicerandra Thinicola, also known as Titusville balm, a [...]
Econlockhatchee Sandhills Conservation Area
Nestled up against the floodplain of the Econlockhatchee River, the Econlockhatchee Sandhills Conservation Area is a 706-acre showcase of upland habitat diversity jointly managed by Orange County and the St. Johns Water Management District to the east of Orlando. The high and dry loop trail weaves through sand pine scrub, well-established oak hammocks, pine flatwoods, [...]
Enchanted Forest Sanctuary
Its not rocket science: the first and finest of the Brevard County EEL (Environmental Endangered Lands), Enchanted Forest Sanctuary in Titusville is a fabulous destination for family hiking. From the moment you step out of your car at the trailhead, you realize this is a magical place. It has a little bit of everything, including [...]
Florida Trail, Bronson State Forest
Part of the new corridor that the Florida Trail follows in its arc around the east side of the Orlando metro area. Bronson State Forest – a new addition to the Division of Forestry – now includes a segment of the Florida Trail that replaces the old roadwalk down Fort Christmas Road. Spanning from Orlando [...]
Florida Trail, Mills Creek
As the Florida Trail follows the curve of the basin in which Mills Creek drains from Lake Mills into a bowl of marshlands to the east of Chuluota, it leads you through a colorful array of habitats. There are oak hammocks where ancient oaks seem to bend under the weight of streamers of Spanish moss, [...]
Florida Trail, Seminole Ranch
At Seminole Ranch, the Florida Trail follows a string of hydric hammocks in the St. Johns River floodplain, spanning bridges over slow-moving tannic streams with steep sand bluffs. Ferns sprout from the tops and trunks of the cabbage palms. This is a lush, humid environment displaying the full spectrum of green across palm fronds and [...]
Florida Trail, Wheeler Road to Joshua Creek
Dancing along the rim of the St. Johns River floodplain, the Florida Trail through Seminole Ranch and the southern section of Bronson State Forest provides an unexpected array of botanical delights. Ancient oaks knit their limbs together to form grandly shaded hammocks. Towering cabbage palms rise like columns as far as the eye can see. [...]
Hal Scott Preserve
Vast prairies and seepage bogs, a historic crossing of the Econlockhatchee River, and a campsite set under a live oak canopy—it’s all within minutes of the Orlando International Airport. I fell in love with these broad, open prairies on my first visit, and have sent many friends here since. The preserve’s grasslands host a stunning [...]
Orlando Wetlands Park
The granddaddy of wetlands parks, Orlando Wetlands Park is a City of Orlando wastewater reclamation project that’s become a world-class haven for waterfowl. The project began in the mid-1980s with the acquisition of a dairy farm. Converted to a series of wetland “cells” of varying depths, open pastureland became marsh in which treated wastewater would [...]
Pine Lily Preserve
A showcase for the colorful pine lily (Lilium catesbaei Walter), a threatened species that thrives in wet flatwoods, Pine Lily Preserve protects 409 acres in the Econlockhatchee River basin. Connecting directly to Hal Scott Preserve and Long Branch Preserve, it’s part of a much larger corridor for wildlife to roam north from the prairies of [...]
White Loop, Tosohatchee WMA
Protecting more than 30,000 acres of wild space along the St. Johns River between Orlando and Titusville, Tosohatchee WMA is a grand expanse for hikers to play in. The Florida Trail runs through the preserve, as it has for many decades, beneath bowers of ancient live oaks, through mazes of cabbage palms, and among towering [...]
