Along one of Florida’s most beautiful hiking trails, you’ll be able to go down the checklist.
Scenery? Try the river bluffs and creek bottoms. Rugged? Try climbing in and out of these water-carved landscapes.
Descent to Cypress CreekDiversity? Within 6.5 miles, habitats range from scrub and scrubby flatwoods to bluff forest, palm hammocks, sandhill, and bayheads.
Developed and maintained by the Suncoast Chapter of the Florida Trail Association, the Little Manatee River Trail remains one of their masterworks.
Entry boardwalk built by the chapterThe main part of the park, with its picnic areas and nature trails and campground, is south of the river.
This side of the park is wild, with a ribbon of hiking trail through it. But if you arrive on a weekend, you’ll find it quite busy.
One of many small beaches on the riverResources
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Overview
Location: Wimauma
Length: 6.5 or 3 mile loop
Trailhead: 27.6754, -82.3487
Fees: $4-5 per vehicle
Land Manager: Florida State Parks
Phone: 813-671-5005
Open 8 AM until sunset daily. Bicycles are not permitted. Pay your entrance fee at the iron ranger at the parking area.
Dogs are welcome on the hiking trail but not as overnight visitors. Please do not bring dogs to the campsite.
Reserve the backpacking campsite in advance. There is a per-person, per-night fee. Backpackers should haul in water.
Directions
From Interstate 75 exit 240A, Sun City, drive east on SR 674 for 3 miles to US 301. Head south on US 301 for 4.5 miles. Look for the turnoff on the right before the bridge over the Little Manatee River. The expanded trailhead is quite obvious. An iron ranger sits at the access point.
Hike
Follow the beaten path along the fence line to where it makes a sharp left into the forest.
Signs welcome you to Little Manatee River State Park, which stretches along both sides of its namesake river for several miles.
Entry pointPassing an “FT” sign and acknowledgement of volunteers who maintain this trail, join a boardwalk snaking through the lush fern-lined base of a bayhead swamp.
Loblolly bay trees tower overhead, and ferns poke through the gaps between the boards. When the boardwalk ends at a quarter mile, the trail comes to a T.
Bayhead boardwalkTurn right to start a counterclockwise loop. Enter a dense upland forest. In a grassy area, cross a forest road. In April, watch for plump blackberries.
Just before a half mile, a broad bridge crosses a steep-sided creek, where netted chain fern thrives on the slopes.
BridgeAscending into an oak hammock, follow bog boardwalks through a thicket of wax myrtle. Signifying seasonal marshy conditions, red maples surround it.
Keep alert for poison ivy. There’s a lot of it in the shady oak hammocks, some growing on the ground, some in the trees.
Bog boardwalksPass Marker 12. We didn’t see an interpretive brochure and these aren’t mileage markers, so we’re not sure what they are for.
The landscape opens up into pine flatwoods with a dense understory. As the footpath becomes sand, the habitat transitions through scrubby flatwoods to scrub.
Sand pine scrubWalk through thickets of scrub live oak, Champman oaks, and myrtle oaks in a sand pine scrub.
Reach the “Cross Trail” sign at a bench, a decision point at 1.1 miles. This blue-blazed shortcut enables a 3 mile loop back to the trailhead.
Bench at trail junctionOr continue past the bench on the main loop through the sand pine forest for the full loop, passing Marker 11 while walking through the scrub.
At 1.5 miles, the trail drops down a steep slope into the floodplain for Cypress Creek. Stop and enjoy the view from the bridge.
This is a beautiful and serene creek, where clear tea-colored water flows gently over rippled sand.
Cypress CreekClimb the steep slope on the other side. Habitats shift from sand pine scrub into open palmetto scrub.
Reach the turnoff for the primitive campsite at 2.4 miles. Add an extra 0.4 mile to your hike to take a break at the picnic bench surrounded by oaks and longleaf pines.
Beyond this turnoff, continue into a dense oak scrub with sand pines, passing briefly under a stand of spreading live oaks.
Oak scrubAs the trail curves towards the river, the habitat changes to a moister flatwoods, where damp indentations fill with swamp lilies.
Cross a long boardwalk over a slow-flowing tannic creek at 3.3 miles. Looping eastward, enter a bluff forest.
Bromeliads thrive in this humid areaEmerging on a sand bluff at 3.7 miles, take in a sweeping view of a horseshoe bend in the Little Manatee River.
The trail trace the river’s path for most of the return journey. In a couple spots, activity on the far shore inside the state park is visible.
Watch for kayakers on the water. Admire the beaches but approach any with caution. Alligators bask there.
Glimpses of the river are commonA series of bridges span a floodplain channel next to the river. Lilies grow densely in the thick mud.
Cross a bridge over a deep tributary flowing into the river. Zigzag through palm trees before making a sharp left.
Edge of the palm hammockClimbing a steep bluff, parallel Cypress Creek upstream. Look to the right to see where the creek enters the Little Manatee River.
Descend the bluff to cross Cypress Creek a second time, this footbridge reaching a bench on the other side.
Trail junction on east side of bridgeThe bench marks a T intersection with the Cross Trail at 4.6 miles. Turn right, following the creek’s flow downstream.
Enter a floodplain depression. One palm curves low along the forest floor. Low depressions cradle swamps. Small bridges span the outflows.
In the lush floodplainClimbing to a higher elevation, enjoy a scenic stretch on the river bluffs at 5.5 miles, with nice views upstream.
Clamber up and down little slopes, skirting around floodplain forests in old side channels of the river.
Atop the river bluffsNuts cover the footpath as pignut hickories dominate the forest. The river parallels to the right, beyond the trees.
A tall bridge crosses a deep channel that feeds the river, when the water is flowing at all. Marker 2 is just past it.
Approaching the bridgeEmerge into a meadow broken up by smaller live oaks and slash pine. Growing in heaping mounds, smilax provides the ground cover.
The wide mowed trail continues through the meadow, with a final glimpse of the river at 6 miles.
The meadowLeaving the river, turn left past an old structure before walking a corridor shaded by slash pines.
As ferns and sweetbay magnolia appear, you’re drawing close to the bayhead.
Among the large pinesReach the sign at the start of the loop. Turn right to cross the boardwalk through the bayhead swamp.
Wander back through the oak hammock and down the fenceline, reaching the parking area at 6.5 miles.
Loop trail signTrail Map
Explore More!
Learn more about Little Manatee River State Park
Little Manatee River State Park With sandy shores around every bend and a canopy of trees overhead, Little Manatee River State Park provides a beautiful destination for a family getaway.Slideshow
See our photos of the Little Manatee River Hiking Trail
Nearby Adventures
Little Manatee River Corridor Nature Preserve In the Little Manatee River watershed, the 579 Trailhead offers access to a pair of loop trails across palmetto prairies and shady oak hammocks.
Little Manatee River Leonard Lee Trails Two connected trails along the south side of the Little Manatee River explore a variety of habitats on former ranches now protected by Hillsborough County as Little Manatee River Corridor Nature Preserve. 
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Triple Creek Nature Preserve Tying together adjacent Triple Creek and Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve, this nearly 5-mile hike loops through restored upland habitats.
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