A ramble along the newly opened Hinson Trail, a loop trail system on the southern edge of Marianna along the Chipola River Greenway – scenic, rugged, unusual, and historic.
A ramble through Robinson Preserve
Several years ago, while researching Exploring Florida’s Botanical Wonders, I stumbled across the newly opened Robinson Preserve in Palma Sola. Managed by Manatee County and directly across the road from Palma Sola Botanical Gardens, this preserve of mud flats and mangrove-lined shores has one of the best observation tower views in Florida, as well as …
A Tale of Two Ravines
Yesterday I needed some time to play in the woods, so off we went to Ravine Gardens State Park and Gold Head Branch State Park. To visit both in one day highlights how human intervention changes the natural landscape. Ravine Gardens was a WPA project in the 1930s to keep people employed, and became one …
A visit to Flint Creek Outfitters
When I was driving out to the Ocala National Forest the other day, I heard a radio commercial for a new outfitter in town. Now I was saddened to see Brasington’s pull out of town some time ago, since they focused on gear for hiking and kayaking, so there has been a void in the …
A visit to Trout Lake Nature Center
A quick visit to Trout Lake Nature Center in Eustis opened up a new world of things to do close to home.
A Walk at Wekiwa
A walk in the park at Wekiwa Springs State Park doesn’t have to be a long one. Here’s a way to sample the park’s highlights and habitats along its trails.
A Walk with Angus Gholson
While researching Exploring Florida’s Botanical Wonders, I had the honor of a visit to Angus Gholson’s herbarium in Chattahoochee, as well as a guided hike through the new Gholson Nature Park, a wonderland of rare wildflowers.
A.D. Barnes Park
Paved trails wind through the woods at A.D. Barnes Park, a Miami city park, where a tiny slice of native pine rocklands survives.
A.L. Anderson Park
Along busy US 19 in Tarpon Springs, hugs the western shore of Lake Tarpon, offering plenty of picnic pavilions along a boardwalk following the cypress-lined shore.
Above the Clouds
After arriving cold and wet at Icewater Springs Shelter to watch it rain, rain, rain the rest of the day, we awoke to this amazing vista from the shelter: looking down on the clouds with mountaintops rising through them.
Addison Blockhouse Historic State Park
Beneath a dense canopy of cabbage palms and live oaks, the remains of a 19th century plantation rise from the forest floor at Addison Blockhouse State Park.
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki
Set in a 60-acre cypress dome on the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki museum of Seminole culture provides an introduction to the tropical outdoors of natural South Florida’s swamps in which the Seminole Tribe has lived for more than a century.
