Paved trails wind through the woods at A.D. Barnes Park, a Miami city park, where a tiny slice of native pine rocklands survives in one corner along with large trees.
Outdoor Recreation in City Parks
Parks managed by Florida's cities and towns tend to be more urban and more focused on outdoor recreation for families with younger children.
Alligator Lake
In the city once called Alligator, first home of the University of Florida and named for a great chief of the Seminoles, Alligator Lake has long been a gathering place. Established as a park in 2002, hiking and bicycling are now its primary focus.
Angus Gholson Nature Park
Above the Apalachicola River, the community of Chattahoochee hides a natural treasure in its deep ravines—a park named for its native son, botanist Angus Gholson.
Apoxee Wilderness Trail
In the wet prairies and tropical hammocks of Apoxee Wilderness, an urban wilderness area, you’ll walk through the water supply of West Palm Beach on a 4.7-mile day hike through the southernmost part of Grassy Waters Preserve
Arlington Park
A breezy walk along the St. Johns River is an easy way to start your day in Jacksonville at the Arlington Lions Club Park, with riverside boardwalks and a mile of trails
Bear Creek Nature Trail
A patch of wild in a sea of suburbia, Bear Creek provides nearly a mile’s worth of exploration atop sandy bluffs in a shady creekside hammock in Winter Springs.
Bear Cut Preserve
On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, Bear Cut Nature Preserve is a precious sliver of natural oceanfront in Miami with both hiking and bike paths
Bill Frederick Park
Inside the city of Orlando, the urban Bill Frederick Park has a wild side, too, with more than 2 miles of trails to meander through scrub forest and along Turkey Lake.
Bill Sadowski Park
At the Bill Sadowski Park and Nature Center, the Old Cutler Hammock Nature Trail offers a glimpse of what Cutler Ridge, south of Miami, looked like before development.
Blazing Star Nature Preserve
Traverse a scrub forest amid remnants of the ancient dunes of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge at Blazing Star Preserve, a Boca Raton natural land with a 1-mile loop trail