Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Explore the best places to tent camp in Florida without being far from your car
As longleaf pine reaches for the sky, the rolling hills of Lake Louisa State Park near Clermont return to their forested roots. This undulating landscape – part of the Lake Wales Ridge – was once managed as a ranch, with citrus trees and cattle replacing natural habitats.
Stretching for three miles along the south shore of one of South Florida’s larger lakes, Lake Manatee State Park is a great place to cast for largemouth bass.
One of Seminole County’s prettiest county parks with boardwalks through a cypress swamp, Lake Mills Park makes an excellent family destination.
With sandy shores around every bend and a canopy of trees overhead, Little Manatee River State Park provides a place for a pretty paddling trip for families.
With one of the closest wild beaches to Jacksonville, Little Talbot Island State Park is a heavily visited park, and not just for its beaches. Paddling in the estuaries and camping amid the dunes are popular pastimes, too.
Showcasing the topography of the lower Suwannee River, Manatee Springs State Park has trails leading around deep sinkholes, walks through ancient forests, and a spring run so clear you can see schools of fish racing down it to the river.
One of Florida’s oldest state parks and notable for its Civilian Conservation Corps architecture, Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park offers a lesson in Florida topography.
With tall waving grasses, saw palmetto, and the sound of birds, Myakka River State Park immerses you in Florida’s Big Sky country amid wide open prairies and riverside marshes.
Myron B. Hodge City Park offers a nature trail where you can linger along the Sopchoppy River amid the sweet spring scent of Florida azalea.
Once a pioneer community along the Old Bellamy Road connecting St. Augustine and Tallahassee in 1826, O’Leno State Park protects one of North Florida’s weirder geologic wonders, a disappearing river.
Established in 1908 as the first National Forest east of the Mississippi, the Ocala National Forest is a mecca for hikers and campers, and the birthplace of the Florida Trail
At Ochlockonee River State Park waters meet, the tidal bore of the estuary pushing upstream to meet two rivers draining the vast swamps of the Apalachicola National Forest.
