Moonshine Creek Trails
Gainesville 2.5 milesDelicate Appalachian wildflowers bloom in the deep shade of a slope forest surrounding Moonshine Creek, a stream that vanishes into an enormous marshy sinkhole.

Public lands with Champion trees, virgin forests, landmark trees, and trees of notable size

Delicate Appalachian wildflowers bloom in the deep shade of a slope forest surrounding Moonshine Creek, a stream that vanishes into an enormous marshy sinkhole.

While the gentle loop boardwalk at Morris Bridge Park is a major reason to stop and savor the Hillsborough River, the park also provides cyclists a trailhead to off-road adventure

Surrounded by a rim of old growth cypress, Morrison Springs is a beautiful second magnitude spring with swimming and diver access down an interpretive boardwalk.

On the site of a former phosphate mine, worn footpaths top a windswept hilltop above the cypress swamps of the Peace River where a once-fabulous boardwalk to the river is in disrepair.


The short, easily accessed Mount Carrie Wayside in Osceola National Forest showcases an old growth longleaf pine forest with a population of red-cockaded woodpeckers.

With five acres of waterfront and boater access to Black Creek in Middleburg, Msgt. John E Hayes Memorial Park honors a hometown hero and protects old-growth cypress.

Set along a remote sweep of vast marshes along the St. Johns River, Mullet Lake Park is home to a stunning array of swamp sunflowers each fall.

For immersion in the vast central prairies of the Florida peninsula, the 39-mile Myakka Hiking Trail is a serious backpacking destination in South Florida near Sarasota.

At Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, the Canopy Walk provides a sky-high view of the Myakka River basin as well as an intimate immersion in the live oak canopy in a beautiful hammock of oaks and palms.

With tall waving grasses, saw palmetto, and the sound of birds, Myakka River State Park is Florida's Big Sky country, blanketing more than 37,000 acres east of Sarasota.

Established in 1919 by botanist Henry Nehrling, what is now the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens has improved over a century's worth of expansion into an accredited zoological park.
