Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Historic Putnam County community along the western shore of Crescent Lake.
A stop along the Bartram Trail, the Beecher Run Nature Trail at Welaka National Fish Hatchery provides a walk beneath ancient pines along the edge of the hatchery ponds, which are fed by historic Beecher Spring.
The most prominent and easy-to-find hike at Dunns Creek State Park, the Blue Pond Trail is a relatively flat and sandy multi-use trail leading to a sinkhole pond.
Notable for its habitat diversity, Dunns Creek State Park protects a vast landscape along the south shore of its namesake, a major tributary of the St. Johns River.
Secluded and special, Haw Creek Preserve at Russell Landing nestles up along the shores of Haw Creek facing Haw Creek Preserve State Park.
A low-key state preserve protecting lush swamp forest habitats, Haw Creek Preserve State Park can only be explored by water.
Named for Philadelphia resident and royal botanist to King George III, John Bartram, the John’s Landing Trail leads to his landing site documented in 1765.
One of Florida’s largest mounds, Mount Royal was first documented by William Bartram in 1765, when it was an important central feature of a large village along the St. Johns River.
At Mud Spring, mud isn’t what you’ll see in the gently rounded basin that cradles an underwater garden, but a glassy natural pool.
With hiking in scrubby flatwoods and sandhills above forested slopes draining to Murphy Creek, as well as on Murphy Island in the St. Johns River, this water management preserve provides two places to explore.
Protecting more than four miles of deeply forested waterfront on the St. Johns River, Welaka State Forest provides a glimpse at a Florida that botanists John and William Bartram saw on their 1700s expeditions.
Discover the beauty of Welaka State Forest on a 5 mile footpath that winds along ecotones and hugs the bluffs of the St. Johns River to showcase natural wonders that botanist William Bartram documented in 1774.
