Florida Hikes

Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides

Mangroves Big Cypress

Everglades City

A launch point for adventures into the Ten Thousand Islands and the Big Cypress Swamp, Everglades City began as a trading post and sportsmen’s getaway

INTERACTIVE MAP

Leslie M. Duncan Memorial Trail

Immokalee   0.4 miles

Try a tiny sample of the vast mosaic of habitats within the 26,000-acre Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge on this short accessible-with-assistance loop.

Panther Prowls & Gator Growls

Will you see a panther when hiking at Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge? I was fortunate to hike with a panther biologist and go on a tracking expedition, but we still came up empty-handed when it came to finding a big cat.

Panther Trail

Immokalee   1.3 miles

Tunnel through verdant tropical forests and wade across open prairies on the Panther Trail, a 1.3 mile natural surface circuit through Florida panther territory at Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

Roberts Lake Trail

Eastern Continental Trail   8.2 miles

8.2 miles. Now the Roberts Lake Trail, the former Loop Road to Oasis section of the Florida Trail is now blazed blue. It is where sawgrass and cypress meet, where the Everglades and Big Cypress blend.

Summer in Big Cypress

Vibrant, green, and blooming - there's no better time to visit Big Cypress National Preserve than in the summer months, when the gentle flow of collected raindrops across the landscape nourishes the sawgrass prairies and cypress strands

Ten Thousand Islands

Where the waters of Big Cypress and the Everglades meet the Gulf Coast, the Ten Thousand Islands are a maze of mangrove forest: the second largest mangrove forest in the world, bested only by Bangladesh

The Ghost Orchid

On a guided swamp walk into the Fakahatchee Strand, I discover how difficult it is to spot a ghost orchid on your own, let alone keep your bearings in this tangled tropical wilderness