Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
With 50 years of experience roaming Florida’s outdoors, we have favorite hikes dating all the way back to childhood. Use our favorites as your launch point for your next adventure!
6.9 miles. At the westernmost tip of Santa Rosa Island, the Florida Trail comes to its Northern Terminus in the shadow of the most important historic sites in Northwest Florida, Fort Pickens.
Following the high ground above Devil’s Washbasin and Gold Head Ravine, the Florida Trail works its way across Gold Head Branch State Park on a scenic 3.5 mile route
7.3 miles. Also known as the Juniper Creek Trail, the Florida Trail at Juniper Creek is a gorgeous place to explore, with its panorama at Red Rocks and botanical delights along and above the creek basin.
6.7 miles. Experience a sense of perspective on a piece of the Florida Trail traversing rolling hills topped with a majestic forest of longleaf pines
One of the most beautiful hikes near Orlando is rugged, too: the Florida Trail atop bluffs above the Econlockhatchee River through Little-Big Econ State Forest.
In the Osceola National Forest, this short loop along the Florida Trail adjacent to Olustee Battlefield is one of the easiest places in the state to see red-cockaded woodpeckers.
6.5 miles. With hilly terrain to traverse past fern-covered boulders and large sinkholes beneath the pines, this is a rugged and interesting segment of the Florida Trail on the Cross Florida Greenway.
At Seminole Ranch Conservation Area in Christmas, the Florida Trail follows a linear 4.9 mile route through a string of hydric hammocks in the St. Johns River floodplain
7.5 miles. Walk through vast, open spaces that you’d never imagine existed so close to Orlando.
5.3 miles. Plunging into coastal swamps at the Cathedral of Palms, this popular hike along the Florida Trail centers on Shepherd Spring, a natural treasure within St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
4.1 miles. Following the gentle curves of the Sopchoppy River in the Apalachicola National Forest, this section of the Florida Trail is one of the most scenic hikes on the trail.
3.6 miles. Bookended by soft sand pines and ancient oaks, this particularly fascinating hike along the Cross Florida Greenway includes a massive dune-like slope and the Land Bridge over Interstate 75.
