Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Places to paddle in Florida, including rivers and streams, spring runs, freshwater lakes, coastal lakes and lagoons, and coastal paddling trails
Launch your kayak from either Koreshan Historic State Park or Lovers Key State Park for a paddle into Estero Bay to see Mound Key, a significant Calusa archaeological site that is now its own state park.
At Mud Spring, mud isn’t what you’ll see in the gently rounded basin that cradles an underwater garden, but a glassy natural pool.
With hiking in scrubby flatwoods and sandhills above forested slopes draining to Murphy Creek, as well as on Murphy Island in the St. Johns River, this water management preserve provides two places to explore.
With tall waving grasses, saw palmetto, and the sound of birds, Myakka River State Park is Florida’s Big Sky country, blanketing more than 28,000 acres east of Sarasota
Along the southwestern Gulf Coast of Florida, Myakka State Forest offers an extensive trail network along the Myakka River basin, with tent camping under the stars.
Winding across open prairies of palmettos, the North Loop Trail at Myakka State Forest offers views of pine flatwoods and glimpses of the Myakka River.
Neatly accessed via “The Loop,” a scenic drive that extends north from Ormond Beach, North Peninsula State Park has two tantalizing miles of oceanfront along a palm-rimmed line of dunes.
Once a pioneer community along the Old Bellamy Road connecting St. Augustine and Tallahassee in 1826, O’Leno State Park protects one of North Florida’s weirder geologic wonders, a disappearing river.
At Ochlockonee River State Park waters meet, the tidal bore of the estuary pushing upstream to meet two rivers draining the vast swamps of the Apalachicola National Forest.
Where the Kissimmee River pours its waters into Lake Okeechobee, Okee-Tantie Recreation Area offers access to the river and a wild marshy stretch of lakeshore
Camping cabins and mountain biking in Miami? Oleta River State Park is a surprising gem amid the bustle of this dense urban area, providing both beach access and paddlers a place to explore the mangrove islands of the Oleta River and Biscayne Bay.
West of Trenton along the Suwannee River, Otter Springs is a second magnitude spring surrounded by clusters of ancient oaks and towering cypress. It is a Gilchrist County Park.
