Florida Hikes
Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Red mangroves are the easiest of the mangroves to identify due to their "walking legs" root systems. Note the bean-pod-like “roots” at their bases: these are miniature mangroves spawning, fully formed plants waiting to float off with the next high tide.
The tallest of Florida's pines, longleaf pine also has the longest needles, more than a foot long. Favored for lumber, most of the longleaf pine forests of the Southeast have been logged, but you can still immerse in impressive longleaf pine stands on …
Found along the coast and inland waterways, large bushes that burst into blooms of white puffs in fall are sea myrtle (also known as saltbush or groundsel bush), baccharis halimfolia.
Black mangroves have shiny leaves and dark round seed cases. Their most distinguishing feature is their pnuemataphores, finger-like protrusions around the tree like slender, miniature cypress knees.
Swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius) are one of the delights of fall in Florida when they bloom en masse.
A conservationist and a Floridian who truly made a difference for Florida, Ellen Peterson, founded Florida's Sierra Club chapter in the 1970s and fought to keep Fisheating Creek open to paddlers. She leaves behind a sterling legacy for our state.
What makes the Big O Hike stand out from all other hiking events is the friendships that you make - good, deep friendships born out of traveling together at a walking pace for nine days around Lake Okeechobee.
A subspecies of cougar, the Florida panther has been making a slow but steady comeback in their stronghold in Big Cypress and the Everglades, with sightings of individual cats reported by hikers throughout the state
Learn about the Florida black bear and how to handle yourself in bear habitat, whether you're hiking, camping, or a homeowner in an area where bears are common
Have you ever matched a book to an outdoor adventure? Well, now’s the time to try it out. A special focus on the outdoors is part of this year’s summer reading program “Just Read, Families!” from the Florida Department of Education. …
The history of the Cross Florida Greenway's birth and the building the Land Bridge - and the Florida Trail - across this new stretch of public land in Central Florida in 1999.
Breaking away from the everyday for nine days to immerse yourself in the goal of walking around Lake Okeechobee brings on a certain sense of calm, a time out of the normal pace of time, despite time framing each day.
