Florida Hikes
Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
On Monday, a new 2,709-acre environmentally protected land in northern Lee County opened to outdoor recreation enthusiasts: Prairie Pines Preserve, a vast wilderness protected under the Conservation 20/20 program. Equestrian and hiking trails enable access …
Walking the wilds of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park means hours spent in blazing sun and a landscape that makes you feel inconsequential on this earth.
Florida is dry. Downright crispy. And these conditions make it easy for fires to spark and spread. Have you noticed smoke in your neighborhood lately? I’ve seen it for weeks here in Ocala – first from the big fires in the Okeefenokee Swamp, and …
Furniture against the walls of the apartment continues to vanish as the piles of gear, from winter jackets and gloves to bottles of Dr. Bronner’s Soap, loose stuff sacks, and technical t-shirts, grow. A stack of maps – reviewed, folded, and set …
Sometimes, life gives you pause. That happened a month ago for us, when a planned two weeks in the Panhandle morphed into a need to be with family.
Florida's most beautiful waterbird is the purple gallinule, found year-round in fresh water marshes in the Florida peninsula.
A stroll through the gardens of Rainbow Springs leads to rolling terrain punctuated with centuries-old ravines created by phosphate mining for a walk into Dunnellon's past.
A steeply sloped ravine. Tunnels of azaleas. Bubbling springs. Two swaying suspension bridges. That's what makes the loop at Ravine Gardens State Park so much fun.
Living on Florida’s Space Coast, you’re either wowed by rocket launches or take them as a matter of course. Here's where to see a launch and why it matters to us.
Walk beneath a mature live oak canopy along the rim of a protected waterway within the heart of residential Sarasota.
Red mangroves are the easiest of the mangroves to identify due to their "walking legs" root systems. Note the bean-pod-like “roots” at their bases: these are miniature mangroves spawning, fully formed plants waiting to float off with the next high tide.
Also known as the swamp maple, the red maple is one of the more common large trees found in Florida's floodplain forests. It's by far the most colorful, too, sporting bright crimson leaves in late fall and early winter.
