Florida Hikes

Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides

Dingy-star orchid in Big Cypress

South Florida

In the tip of the Florida peninsula, the prairies meet the tropics, with Florida’s largest lake, agriculture, and wilderness on a grand scale between the densely populated coasts.

INTERACTIVE MAP

Lake Okeechobee

Covering 730 square miles, Lake Okeechobee is the liquid heart of South Florida.

Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail

Lake Okeechobee   109 miles

An overlay on the Florida Trail around Lake Okeechobee, the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail provides a mostly paved cycling and walking route around the second largest lake entirely within the borders of the United States.

Lake Placid

Lake Placid is a quiet town among the rolling hills of the Lake Wales Ridge, now known for its public art projects, murals large and small.

Lake Placid Scrub

Lake Placid   3.5 miles

Home to Florida scrub-jays, this 3.5 mile loop in the Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife & Environmental Area provides views of the lake and a walk through ancient scrub.

Lake Wales Ridge

South of Lake Apopka, the Lake Wales Ridge is a significant landform down the middle of the Florida peninsula, with its highest hills and oldest biological communities.

Layton Trail

Florida Keys   0.2 miles

At Long Key State Park, the Layton Trail leads you on a quarter-mile exploration of mangrove forest and tropical hammock on the shores of Florida Bay.

Leslie M. Duncan Memorial Trail

Immokalee   0.4 miles

Try a tiny sample of the vast mosaic of habitats within the 26,000-acre Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge on this short accessible-with-assistance loop.

Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park

Wrapped in a dense blanket of mosquitoes, Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park is one of the United States' most significant botanical treasures, a virgin tropical forest home to more than a thousand lignum vitae trees.

Limestone Creek Natural Area

Jupiter   1.1 miles

Centered on pine flatwoods along a historic creek basin lined with mangroves, Limestone Creek Natural Area is a green gem in a busy corner of Jupiter.

Lovers Key State Park

Estero   5.5 miles

With a name straight out of tourist fantasies of 1950s Florida, Lovers Key State Park is a series of slim barrier islands between Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico south of Fort Myers Beach.

Mahogany Hammock Trail

Long Pine Key   0.4 miles

Mahogany Hammock is a tree island, a tropical oasis in the Everglades “river of grass,” where the short boardwalk trail immerses you in the jungle-like hammock.

Matheson Hammock Trails

Miami   1.4 miles

One of the wilder places showcasing a remaining piece of the ancient Miami Hammock, the Hammock Trails at Matheson Hammock Park immerses you in a tropical forest.