Hiking South Florida

South Florida offers hiking experiences unlike any found elsewhere in the United States. It is here that the temperate forests of North America and the tropical hammocks of the West Indies meet. Where development hasn’t otherwise swallowed the coasts, there are mangrove forests. Vast prairies stretch to the northern shores of Lake Okeechobee. South of the artificially restrained lake, you find the world’s only Everglades, a complex environment of sawgrass prairies, cypress strands, and tree islands topped with tropical hammocks and pine rocklands. And hikes in the Florida Keys feel like a walk in the Caribbean.