Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
A mosaic of open prairies and intimate strand swamps, Big Cypress National Preserve offers landscape on a grand scale
Although John is a native Floridian, our research trip to South Florida became an opportunity for him to see many natural “firsts” in Florida that most people have on their life lists.
With more than 1,400 miles of hiking statewide, the Florida Trail provides a gateway to grand landscapes for botanical beauty. Here are our top suggestions for fascinating botanical destinations along the Florida Trail.
April 21 kicks off a week-long nationwide celebration of America’s National Parks, starting with fee-free admission on Saturday April 21. Get outdoors and explore Florida’s National Parks, your public lands!
It’s Florida’s roughest, wettest, weirdest backpacking trip, best tackled with friends. Along this 30 mile stretch of the Florida Trail in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve, immersing in the swamp is the point of the hike. Sandra tackled it as the final stretch of her multi-year 1,110-mile section hike of the Florida Trail, end-to-end.
On Friday, our group of Florida Trail hikers left our group camp at Trail Lakes Campground and, with Chuck Norris and Tigger providing transportation, headed to the Florida Trail at Oasis Visitor Center in Big Cypress National Preserve. We were there for the FNST Southern terminus monument dedication. Lots of folks from the Loxahatchee Chapter …
The Florida Trail is a subset of the Eastern Continental Trail, a hiking route spanning the entire East Coast. It is 206.3 miles from Key West to the start of the Florida Trail.
There are many opportunities for Boy Scouts to complete hiking and backpacking merit badges and 50-miler awards along the Florida Trail; this list will start you planning your next trip.
Since its debut on a hand cart this January during the thru-hiker season kickoff at Oasis Visitor Center, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the permanent placement of the Florida Trail Southern Terminus marker in Big Cypress National Preserve. The marker was put in place yesterday, December 12. Said Bob DeGross, Chief of Interpretation and Public Affairs …
38.3 miles. Featuring the wettest, wildest wilderness traversed by backpackers in Florida, the Florida Trail in Big Cypress National Preserve is both beautiful and extraordinarily challenging.
8.0 miles. An easy ramble from the I-75 rest area north along Nobles Grade, this wildlife-rich segment of the Florida Trail offers several loop options for day hikers and backpackers.
30.3 miles. Traversing a vast wilderness in the wet wilds of Big Cypress National Preserve, the southernmost segment of the Florida Trail is the toughest backpacking trip in Florida
Heading north through Big Cypress, the Florida Trail immerses hikers through one of the last wild spaces of the region, then connects to Okeechobee via dikes.
