Circle B Bar Reserve

Sitting along Lake Hancock between Lakeland and Auburndale, Circle B Bar Reserve is a success story that Aldo Leopold would be proud of.

Formerly a cattle ranch, the reserve encompasses more than 1,200 acres successfully restored to its original wetland habitats feeding the Peace River basin.

Restored marshes are the core of this preserve

An extensive network of trails with an outer circuit of nearly 6 miles is atop the levees through the vibrant wetlands, where you’ll see osprey dive for tilapia, anhingas swallow their catches whole, and alligators slip off the banks.

If you’re squeamish about alligators, stay away from the waterfront trails. Ramble the Shady Oak Trail and the Lost Bridge Trail instead, and enjoy the nature center. But be sure to walk out to Lake Hancock to see how pretty a pristine cypress-lined lake can be.

Alligator sunning along the Marsh Rabbit Trail

We describe a route for looping the preserve. While you can hike or bike up to 6 miles if you do all the trails, you can also walk as little as a half mile along the Lost Bridge Trail.

The easiest walk, Heron Hideout, takes you out to the marsh for great birding. It’s a mile round-trip from the Nature Center parking area. Benches are placed strategically throughout the trail system.

Anhinga trying to swallow a fish

Resources

Orlando & Central Florida: An Explorer's Guide

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Overview

Location: Lakeland
Length: 3.5 mile loop
Trailhead: 27.989618,-81.857654
Address: 4399 Winter Lake Rd, Lakeland FL 33803
Fees: free
Restroom: at the Nature Center
Land manager: Polk County Environmental Lands Program
Phone: 863-668-4673

Pets are not permitted. Open 6 AM – 6:30 PM during standard time, 5:30 AM to 8 PM during daylight savings time.

Be very, very watchful of small children along the causeways through the marsh and do not let them anywhere near the water. They’ll love the Nature Discovery Center, with its treehouse to climb and fox den to burrow into.

Directions

From Interstate 4, take the Polk Parkway (east or west) to SR 540 (Winter Lake Road). Follow it west. It zigzags and makes a turn near the municipal dump before entering a tunnel of forests and swamps. Watch for the park entrance on the left.

The first parking area is a picnic spot directly inside the gate, but if you want to skip that section of the Shady Oak Trail (0.7 mile each way), keep driving and you can park near the Nature Discovery Center, from which the central trail system radiates. That’s your best birding option.

Hike

Start your circuit of the preserve with the Shady Oak Trail just inside the park entrance next to the picnic tables. Walk along a well-mowed path under the oaks, the understory thick with low vegetation.

Under a tightly knit oak canopy, a full symphony of birdsong and chatter of squirrels completes the scene. Streamers of spanish moss glisten in the shafts of light that filter through to the forest floor.

Moss-draped oaks along the Shady Oak Trail

The habitat transitions as more cabbage palms poke through openings in the canopy. The open area beyond the oak hammock is where the wetlands start.

At 0.6 mile, reach the junction with Heron Hideout. If your quest is birding, turn down that path into the open impoundment, where the action is. But if you’re here to hike the 3.5-mile perimeter loop, continue straight ahead on the Shady Oak Trail.

Trail junction at the first marsh access point

The Shady Oak Trail becomes a loose environmentally-friendly concrete path to the Nature Discovery Center complex. If the center is open, pop in for an overview of the habitats and wildlife found at this preserve.

The paved path ends at a kiosk about wetlands. The Lost Bridge Trail veers left at 0.9 mile. Continue straight ahead beneath the oaks, heading into a hammock of very old live oaks.

Some of the many exhibits at the Nature Discovery Center

Passing an outdoor classroom, the trail emerges to a grassy prairie with a view of Lake Hancock. It’s a lake with one of the densest populations of alligators in the state. Decide whether you are ready to deal with that fact.

As you join the lakefront trail, keep alert for alligators as the trail becomes a causeway between lake and marsh. Note the indentations on either side of the causeway caused by alligators regularly crossing the path. Those are known as alligator slides.

Looking out across Lake Hancock

Passing a water monitoring station, the trail offers sneak peeks of the lake through the cypresses along the shoreline. Cypresses line the far shore of this shallow and broad lake, busy with birds.

Wading birds are likely to startle you as they burst out of hiding places at your approach. The marsh on the right is covered with water spangles, providing good camouflage for young alligators.

Many of the alligators here aren’t as obvious as this one

At 1.5 miles, a boardwalk stretches out into Lake Hancock with a sheltered sitting area at the end. The panorama it provides is a beauty. Beyond it, the trail continues as broad as a road. The marsh stretches to the horizon on the right.

This causeway comes out from its tunnel of trees after 2 miles, with a clear sweeping view of lake and marsh in all directions, a prime spot for birding. Passing the next bench, the causeway jogs right.

Older cypress in the marsh

A constant breeze riffles from lake to marsh. Another bench at a culvert provides an open and busy wildlife watching area as birds and alligators wait for fish to flutter through the pipes.

As the causeway narrows and curves, a dense stand of cypress obscures the lake view. This is Alligator Alley, and it’s well named. Alligator slides are everywhere. Keep alert.

Alligator Alley will close if flooded or if alligators are aggressive

The causeway narrows more tightly. A stand of alligator flag marks a flag pond, a deeper spot in the marsh. It’s a comfort to have a few feet of elevation over your surroundings.

The waterway on the left becomes a canal topped with water lettuce. To the right, the wetland is vast and open. Flanked by canals, the causeway broadens as it reaches the main intersection in the marsh.

A tunnel of oaks leads up to the junction

At this 4-way junction, there is a choice of routes. Straight ahead is the Marsh Rabbit Trail. To the left is the Eagle Roost Trail.

This junction area is extremely busy with birds. In the shallow marshes, flocks of moorhens and coots fuss at each other.

The trail junction facing down Heron Hideout

In the open water, anhinga and cormorants gather in large numbers to feed on the many fish in the water. Osprey dive in, too.

If you want to lengthen your hike, follow the Eagle Roost Trail. It sweeps over to the west side of the marsh and connects with a side trail that leaves the preserve to meet Fort Fraser Trail.

The panorama from Eagle Roost at the Fort Fraser Trail connector

The Fort Fraser Trail is a linear bicycle trail between Bartow and Lakeland. After the Eagle Roost Trail meets it, it loops back as a causeway on Wading Bird Way to meet the end of the Marsh Rabbit Trail.

To stay with the 3.5-mile loop, turn right onto the Heron Hideout at this 4-way junction. It goes through the heart of the marsh as a causeway, heading back to the Shady Oak Trail.

Along Wading Bird Way

Returning to the trail junction at 2.9 miles, either turn right to return to the Nature Discovery Center – if you parked there, haven’t visited there, or need the restrooms – or turn left to exit back to the Shady Oak trailhead.