Florida Hikes
Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Get back to nature with primitive tent camping, either within walking distance of your car or deep in the woods
With hiking in scrubby flatwoods and sandhills above forested slopes draining to Murphy Creek, as well as on Murphy Island in the St. Johns River, this water management preserve provides two places to explore.
For immersion in the vast central prairies of the Florida peninsula, the 39-mile Myakka Hiking Trail is a serious backpacking destination in South Florida near Sarasota.
With tall waving grasses, saw palmetto, and the sound of birds, Myakka River State Park is Florida's Big Sky country, blanketing more than 37,000 acres east of Sarasota.
Along the southwestern Gulf Coast of Florida, Myakka State Forest offers an extensive trail network along the Myakka River basin, with tent camping under the stars.
Winding across open prairies of palmettos, the North Loop Trail at Myakka State Forest offers views of pine flatwoods and glimpses of the Myakka River.
Circling vast prairies amid pine flatwoods and depression marshes, the South Loop in Myakka State Forest provides a sense of perspective along the Myakka River basin.
Along a 2.1 mile loop largely under a lush canopy of live oaks and cabbage palms, circle a deeply eroded basin holding sinuous Myakkahatchee Creek, also known as Big Slough.
Starting where the waters of the Santa Fe River dive underground at O'Leno State Park, this scenic hike roughly follows the river's subterranean flow to its emergence at River Rise Preserve.
At the site of an 1826 pioneer community along the Old Bellamy Road connecting St. Augustine and Tallahassee, O'Leno State Park protects one of North Florida’s weirder geologic wonders, a disappearing river.
A mosaic of cypress swamps, pine flatwoods, and sandhills, the Oak Ridge Tract of Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Preserve offers immersive day hiking with many route options.
Established in 1908 as the first National Forest east of the Mississippi, the Ocala National Forest is a mecca for hikers and campers, and the birthplace of the Florida Trail.
At Ocklawaha Prairie, east of Lake Weir and south of Marshall Swamp, trails lead to some of the best birding in the region from levees along the extensive marshes of the river basin.
