Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Home of the University of Florida, Gainesville has many small urban parks with trails. Surrounded by larger natural lands, it is one of the best bike-friendly cities in Florida.
Featuring a dense slope forest along Hogtown Creek with old-growth trees and rare wildflowers along Appalachian-style ravines, this is a scenic hike in the heart of Gainesville
At San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park, two hiking trail systems offer two different perspectives on karst landscapes and dense deciduous forests.
Circling Levy Prairie at Barr Hammock Preserve provides a glimmer of understanding of the chain of prairies that William Bartram saw during his 1774 traverse of the region
The City of Gainesville’s very first nature park, Bivens Arm surrounds a marshy “arm” of Paynes Prairie, where trees tower above the network of nature trails.
Gainesville’s original city water source, Boulware Springs is home to a historic waterworks where turtles sun and a trailhead providing access to preserves along Paynes Prairie
An excellent example of conservation of natural lands, Buck Bay Flatwoods provides a pair of loop trails through a gradient of habitats including restored pine flatwoods.
With our second adventure in our VW camper, Primrose, behind us, it’s good to be home. Before the trip I had a good friend “freshen up” some of the 30-year-old systems on Primrose. I’ve read too many stories, and have had a close friend lose his camper because of old fuel lines letting go. Seeing …
The largest live oak tree in Florida, the Cellon Oak north of Gainesville is more than 30 feet in diameter and shades a space that puts most other oaks to shame.
For the longest loop hike in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, tackle the Chacala Trail for a 6.2-mile circuit that brings you to a view of Chacala Pond
One of Gainesville’s urban nature parks, Cofrin Nature Park is right near the Oaks Mall on Newberry Rd and features a half-mile trail in a shady forest
Devils Millhopper State Park debuted a new staircase into the sinkhole on June 5. It has 100 fewer steps and yet is less steep and broader than the prior version.
The Devils Millhopper Nature Trail circles the lip of an enormous sinkhole before plunging down into it on a series of staircases and landings with views of natural waterfalls.
