Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
With a riverwalk along the shores of Lake Eustis and natural lands along its smaller waterways, Eustis is a great destination for hikers, a gateway to the Ocala National Forest
A quick visit to Trout Lake Nature Center in Eustis opened up a new world of things to do close to home.
On our way to Doe Lake for New Years, I looked at Google Maps and saw the most efficient route was one we’d never taken before, using CR 44. As we rounded a curve, I noticed a trailhead for a trail we’d never heard of. Since it was only a half hour from home, we …
Get acquainted with Big Scrub on this 8.4-mile stretch of the Florida Trail in the Ocala National Forest as it rises through longleaf pine forests to meet the world’s largest sand pine scrub, punctuated by a variety of ponds and prairies. Connecting a first-magnitude spring with one of the more beautiful lakes in the Ocala National Forest, it’s a delightful immersion into the woods.
Winding along and around a mosaic of both dry and wet prairies that make up the Farles Prairie complex, this 8.5 mile segment of the Florida Trail provides a deep immersion into the Big Scrub
72.2 miles. Of all of the sections of the Florida Trail statewide, the Ocala National Forest is both the oldest section of the trail and the most compelling for backpackers.
With trails that lead you deep into a very large sinkhole, Hidden Waters Preserve in Eustis offers a fascinating hike with elevation changes and interesting terrain
Established in 1908 as the first National Forest east of the Mississippi, the Ocala National Forest is a mecca for hikers as the birthplace of the Florida Trail.
At Ocklawaha Prairie, east of Lake Weir and south of Marshall Swamp, trails lead to some of the best birding in the region from levees along the extensive marshes of the river basin.
Mt. Dora’s best site for birding is Palm Island Park, accessed by a long boardwalk out to a peninsula along Lake Dora canopied by ancient live oaks and tall palms.
With more than 12 miles of hiking through the heart of Florida black bear territory, Rock Springs Run State Reserve gets you into the wild outside Orlando.
You have a better-than-average chance of spotting a Florida black bear at Rock Springs Run State Reserve, a vast wilderness area in the Wekiva River basin. This is the one park where we’ve seen the most evidence of our native Florida black bear.
The 0.6-mile nature trail at Sarah Maude Mason Nature Preserve in Howey-in-the-Hills spends most of its time on a boardwalk over a floodplain forest along Little Lake Harris.
