Beneath a dense canopy of cabbage palms and live oaks, the remains of a 19th century plantation rise from the forest floor at Addison Blockhouse State Park.
Bulow Creek Loop
Stretching 5.2 miles through an primordial forest of sluggish, fern-lined waterways, ancient live oaks, magnolias, and cabbage palms, the Bulow Creek Loop is one of North Florida’s most scenic hikes.
Bulow Creek State Park
It’s the trees that catch your attention at Bulow Creek, from the canopied road leading to the park to the imposing Fairchild Oak standing guard over the main entrance to the ancient Bulow Hammock itself, which the park’s network of trails winds through.
Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park
Burned to the ground by a Seminole war party in 1836, the Bulow Plantation fell into ruins, and the remaining towering ruins of a sugar mill are the focus of Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park.
Bulow Woods Trail
A linear connector between Bulow Creek State Park and Bulow Plantation Ruins, the Bulow Woods Trail parallels the flow of this freshwater creek near the sea.
Florida Trail, Ocala National Forest
72.2 miles. Of all of the sections of the Florida Trail statewide, the Ocala National Forest is both the oldest section of the trail and the most compelling for backpackers.
Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Formerly Flagler Beach State Park, Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area stretches from the orange sand beaches of the Atlantic Ocean to the windswept oak hammocks along the Intracoastal Waterway.
North Peninsula State Park
Neatly accessed via “The Loop,” a scenic drive that extends north from Ormond Beach, North Peninsula State Park has two tantalizing miles of oceanfront along a palm-rimmed line of dunes.
Ocala National Forest
Established in 1908 as the first National Forest east of the Mississippi, the Ocala National Forest is a mecca for hikers as the birthplace of the Florida Trail.
Ormond Memorial Gardens
In the 1940s, Ormond Memorial Art Museum members hired noted landscape architect Henry Stockman to design the Ormond Memorial Gardens on relict sand dunes, landscaping to accent the art museum on site. It was dedicated as a memorial to the fallen soldiers of World War II.