Your guide to Florida's outdoors, by Sandra Friend, Florida's hiking expert, and her co-author John Keatley, covering the Florida Trail and other trails throughout Florida.
Rare species abound on the Florida peninsula’s highest ridge—the Lake Wales Ridge, a backbone of ancient islands running nearly 150 miles from Lake County to Highlands County.
The Bobcat Trail at Lake June-in-Winter State Park leads to a 3.3 mile trail system atop snow-white ancient dunes on the Lake Wales Ridge, where rare and unusual plants thrive
Atop one of the highest hills in the Florida Peninsula, Bok Tower Gardens is one of Florida’s most spectacular landscaped gardens, “something to appeal to both man and animal, a meditative place,” as envisioned by Edward William Bok in the 1920s.
The 6.9-mile Buster Island Loop at Lake Kissimmee State Park is a favorite for both day hikers and backpackers, as it shows off a variety of habitats along the open prairies
Atop the Lake Wales Ridge, the Caloosa Nature Trail at the Audubon Center at Babson Park interprets the unique plants and animals that call this island of biodiversity home.
On the ridges at Catfish Creek Preserve State Park, some steep as a ski slope, these elevated slivers of blinding white sand are some of Florida’s most ancient hills.
At the northernmost extent of the Lake Wales Ridge, the rolling hills of Clermont touch the edge of the Green Swamp. It’s at this intersection you’ll find interesting places to hike and cycle in state parks and other natural lands.
With an interlinking network of loop trails, Crooked Lake Prairie is a refreshing excursion into habitats found on the high hills of the Lake Wales Ridge
On a 1.7-mile loop, Crooked River Preserve showcases a wide variety of habitats in a short hike on the northernmost extent of the Lake Wales Ridge in Clermont
Nestled along the eastern shore of Hickory Lake, Hickory Lake Scrub is a 57-acre preserve showcasing some of the unusual plants you can only find on the Lake Wales Ridge
Protecting 845 acres of the whitest, brightest sand on the Lake Wales Ridge, Lake June-in-Winter Scrub State Park has one of the highest concentrations of rare plants in North America.
