Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Along the sweep of Charlotte Harbor near Punta Gorda, natural lands provide places to trek and paddle through a variety of sometimes soggy habitats.
Punta Gorda
At Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Alligator Creek Preserve offers two gentle loop trails where freshwater and saltwater habitats meet
At Amberjack Environmental Park in Rotunda, a surprising collision of scrub and mangrove habitats means great birding along the high ground of the Cape Haze Peninsula
At Babcock Wilderness Adventures – a popular ecotourism attraction east of Punta Gorda – the Ecotour Trail is a no-cost option to getting your feet wet on an exploration of wet flatwoods habitats along a well-maintained trail through the palmetto prairie.
Following old forest roads, the purple-blazed loop of the Footprints Trail through the heart of Babcock Ranch, a vast prairie punctuated by cypress strands, provides a simple introduction to this often-squishy ecosystem.
Offshore from Boca Grande and Pine Island, Cayo Costa State Park is tough to get to but the 6.5 miles of trails and many more miles of beaches will be yours to roam
To spend a day or a weekend on your own deserted island? Heaven. This is one of the tougher and costlier state parks to get to, but well worth it.
Where Oyster Creek meets Lemon Bay in Englewood, Cedar Point Environmental Park provides easy interpretive hikes through coastal habitats on a wildlife-rich peninsula
Where the Peace and Myakka Rivers meet, Charlotte Harbor covers more than five square miles, with the Charlotte County Blueway Trails providing paddlers access.
Stretched long and thin to follow the convoluted shoreline of Charlotte Harbor, Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park protects more than 100 miles of coastline along the Gulf Coast
Imagine your own private island: a sweep of bright white sand along the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico. While a public park, open to all, Don Pedro Island State Park is a rare retreat for bathers, swimmers, and sun worshipers.
A string of five beaches along the Gulf shore of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island, this far-flung outpost of Lee County is home to one of Florida’s most delightful lighthouse museums.
At Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda, the rows and rows of sleek, high-powered driving machines fill the interior of a former Wal-Mart. Now that’s a car collection!
