Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Halfway between Fort Myers and Naples, Estero grew up around the Estero River, which flows into Estero Bay.
In a hidden corner of Collier County, Barefoot Beach Preserve provides immersion in nature at a beauty spot along two miles of natural shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico just north of Wiggins Pass.
At Lovers Key State Park, head to the north end of the island to explore the Black Island Trail, a series of loops on “created” land.
On this 4.4 mile loop, experience an impressive array of habitats in Florida panther habitat – from sandy flatwoods to flooded cypress swamps – in the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed.
Just four miles east of Interstate 75, get your feet wet in one corner of the vast the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed on the trails of Flint Pen Strand.
Providing a buffer between the heavily developed Gulf Coast between Fort Myers and Estero and the delicate estuaries that serve as nurseries for the aquatic life of the region, Estero Bay Preserve State Park encompasses ten miles of shoreline along Estero Bay.
A tough hike when it’s wet, Estero Scrub Preserve State Park has several loops through wet flatwoods and tidal marshes along the rim of Estero Bay
At the Koreshan Unity in Estero, Florida, a group of believers gathered in 1894 to build their paradise. It is now a National Historic Site and a Florida State Park. Walk the trails and streets of “New Jerusalem” to learn its story.
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.
When Dr. Cyrus Teed founded a commune along the banks of the Estero River in 1894, he envisioned a utopia in the tropics. Koreshan State Park preserves that slice of history.
With a name straight out of tourist fantasies of 1950s Florida, Lovers Key State Park is a series of slim barrier islands between Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Fort Myers Beach.
Launch your kayak from either Koreshan Historic State Park or Lovers Key State Park for a paddle into Estero Bay to see Mound Key, a significant Calusa archaeological site that is now its own state park.
