Fern Forest Nature Center

Established in 1979, Fern Forest protects a Florida that has mostly vanished along this coast.

This urban wilderness area takes you back in time before 1905, when the destruction of natural habitats began with dredging canals to drain the Everglades.

Here, you enter the original floodplain of Cypress Creek before its waters were diverted into ditches for agriculture, changing the hydrology of the landscape forever.

Rich textures of ferns at Fern Forest

Thirty-four species of ferns, including the endangered and very primitive whisk fern, thrive in this deeply shaded forest.

To understand just how radically different the Broward County of today is from the past, stop in the nature center to see the interactive exhibits before you roam the trails.

Ferns leaning over the Cypress Creek floodplain

Resources

South Florida Explorers Guide book cover

Hikers Guide to the Sunshine State book cover

Disclosure: As authors and affiliates, we receive earnings when you buy these through our links. This helps us provide public information on this website.

Overview

Location: Coconut Creek
Length: 2.2 miles in four trails
Trailhead: 26.229667, -80.186817
Address: 201 Lyons Rd South, Coconut Creek
Fees: Free
Restroom: at the nature center
Land manager: Broward County
Phone: 954-357-5198

Open 9 AM to 5 PM. Pets are not permitted. While the Cypress Creek Boardwalk and the nature center are accessible, the rest of the trails are not.

The picnic shelter may be reserved for a fee. Other picnic tables and grills are available near the parking area.

Maps and interpretive guides are available at the nature center, which also has wifi.

Trails close before the park closes, so mind your time. The Red Maple Walk can be a swamp slog at times. Expect mosquitoes and use repellent.

Directions

From Atlantic Blvd (SR 814), drive west from Florida’s Turnpike or Interstate 95 to Lyons Rd. Turn right just beyond the traffic light, at the “Fern Forest Nature Center Ramp” sign. The loop turns you southbound on Lyons Rd. After 0.3 mile, the park entrance is on the right.

Hike

Start from the parking lot. A boardwalk leads up to shaded benches next to a kiosk with a map of the park.

The boardwalk crosses a wetlands canal, where giant leather fern reaches skyward from the banks.

Following the boardwalk towards Fern Forest Nature Center

Rising upward, the boardwalk passes through a thicket of sea myrtle, wild tamarind, and pond apple. Laurel oaks provide the high canopy, while wild coffee rises over your head.

As you approach the nature center, a cypress stump is a reminder of the incredible size of the trees that once lined Cypress Creek.

Continue behind the nature center to an intersection of trails. Turn left to start the Cypress Creek Boardwalk.

Ferns growing profusely in the wetlands

Cypress Creek Boardwalk

If you only have time for one trail at Fern Forest, this is the one to follow. This boardwalk loop parallels the old channel of Cypress Creek, now hidden under a dense layer of ferns.

Look closely into the forest as you walk, and you’ll see the deeply eroded rocky banks of the creek, undercut with small caves.

Strap ferns growing where a tree leans out of the former bank of the creek

Surrounded by a tropical understory of marlberry, gum bumelia, and wild coffee, the trail drops down into the woods. Keep alert for the unusual ferns on the forest floor.

In between the usual standbys like giant sword fern, swamp fern, and netted chain, you’ll spy several spleenwort and southern woods fern.

Jogging around a strangler fig, the trail continues through the tangled tropical thicket. Look for giant brake fern poking out from the limestone ledges.

Strap fern cascades from the bases of tree trunks and the dark wood of rotting logs.

Bromeliads fill the trees in the understory

At 0.3 mile, you reach a trail junction that marks the beginning of the Cypress Creek Loop.

Keep left, passing the bench. The trail drops lower, where giant leather ferns rise from marshy spots, and woods ferns hide the rugged limestone creek bottom.

As you round a corner to the left, there is an umbrella tree in the understory and a garden of ferns clustered above and below a limestone ledge.

Several benches sit under the shade of a gumbo limbo where the trail turns right and crosses high over a cypress-shaded pond.

On the still dark water, water spangles and mosquito fern float.

Cypress Creek Fern Forest — Fern Forest straddles the original Cypress Creek floodplain

Rising back up into the tropical hammock from the swamp, the trail turns to the right.

Reaching a vantage point on the far side of the pond, the trail follows the other shore of Cypress Creek upstream past an observation platform with benches.

Where the trail makes a sharp right at a strangler fig, look up into the crook of its trunk for whisk ferns.

A whisk fern in the strangler fig

After 0.6 mile, you return to the beginning of the loop. Turn left and return to the nature center.

Continue past it to cross a canal to a trail junction with a trail map. To start your walk around this trail system, follow the “Prairie Overlook Trail” sign to the right.

Returning to the trail junction behind the Nature Center

Wetlands Wander & Prairie Overlook

The broad path parallels the canal, passing a butterfly garden. The footpath of rough surface limestone leads to the beginning of the Prairie Overlook Trail at 0.8 mile.

Turn right, following the limestone and root-studded narrow path into the cool shade of the hammock, where tall slash pines rise from the shallow soil.

Trail junction with Wetlands Wander

This is a tiny remnant of Florida’s pine rocklands, now one of our state’s our rarest habitats. Keep left at the fork to start the loop section of the Prairie Overlook Trail.

At one mile, a steeply sloped boardwalk rises up to an observation tower. After a visit for the view, follow the trail to the left.

It’s a a short walk out to the edge of a prairie, where Broward County’s largest concentration of gopher tortoises live.

When you emerge from the forest, turn right on the sand road to follow the edge of the prairie.

Turn right at the “Prairie Overlook Trail” sign to re-enter the forest. The trail rises up into a denser forest of older pines, cabbage palms, and laurel oaks.

Tropical hammock near the observation deck

After you pass under a towering paradise tree, the footpath narrows. When you reach the end of the loop, continue straight, emerging under the power line.

Turn left and parallel the canal to follow the Wetlands Wander along this thin ribbon of wetlands.

Where this trail ends at a locked gate, turn around and return to the trail junction.