Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Colorful springs, rocky shorelines, deep sinkholes, and tall bluffs are just part of the fascinating geologic wonders along Florida’s trails. Here’s where to find them.
Try one of Florida’s toughest day hikes on for size: local legend has it this was the Garden of Eden, and from the lush forests and rare flora along this trek, they might be on to something
With nearly 5 miles of gentle woodland paths and paved trails, playgrounds, picnic area, paddling trail and a dog park, Gemini Springs Park is a popular, well-connected getaway
Cradled in a cocoon of coastal dunes, Western Lake shimmers in the sun. At Grayton Beach State Park, it’s the focus of both passive and active recreation
On a wild sliver of Upper Matecumbe Key, footpaths wind through a rockland tropical hammock where a rocky crevice emits sulfur fumes and you must beware of crocodiles near the mangroves
At Royal Palm Hammock in Everglades National Park, the Gumbo Limbo Trail is a gentle paved path that gets you up close and personal with a tropical hammock and its oolite holes.
Learn about the trees of the Florida Keys with a walk on the 0.6-mile Hammock Trail, a deeply shaded ramble in a tropical forest at Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park.
One of Tampa’s oldest parks, Hillsborough River State Park has a 5.8-mile trail system as its centerpiece, through old-growth forest and along river rapids.
Water in motion: the Hillsborough rapids foam and froth over limestone boulders beneath grand cypress trees in Class II rapids. One of Florida’s oldest state parks, Hillsborough River State Park showcases this masterpiece of nature from an overlook and trail system built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Circling Hinson Conservation and Recreation in Marianna, the Hinson Trail offers rugged hiking, scenic views, and historic sites along its 4 mile circuit.
A swimming hole as a work of natural art, the deep gash in the earth that is Ichetucknee Spring glows an unearthly robin’s-egg blue, cradled in a limestone bowl within a leafy glen
Purchased to protect an uplands recharge area for one of Florida’s largest springs, Indian Lake State Forest centers around a deep sinkhole lake called Indian Lake
Tubing down Rock Springs Run is why most folks show up at Kelly Park, but the Kelly Loop Trail is a nice dry way to see the waterway and wildlife.
