Florida Hikes

Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides

Branford Royal Springs

Springs in Florida

Beyond the showy first and second magnitude springs, these are additional places you can see springs in Florida along our trails and waterways.

Kelly Park

Apopka   2.6 miles

Tubing Rock Springs Run is why most folks visit Kelly Park, but the Kelly Loop Trail provides unique perspectives on many more natural features within the park.

Lafayette Blue Springs State Park

Mayo   1.0 miles

A beauty spot along the western shore of the Suwannee River, Lafayette Blue Spring is both a swimming hole and a lesson in the curious nature of karst.

Lake Jesup Conservation Area

Oviedo, Sanford   7.5 miles

Protecting large swaths of marshy shoreline, the Lake Jesup Conservation Area filters runoff from surrounding suburbia while providing places to hike along Lake Jesup.

Madison Blue Spring State Park

A long-time Old Florida swimming hole along SR 6 between the towns of Lee and Jasper, Madison Blue Spring is a sinkhole pouring out a first-magnitude spring into the Withlacoochee River.

Manatee Springs State Park

Showcasing the lower Suwannee River, Manatee Springs State Park centers around a clear blue spring, one of Florida's largest and most picturesque

Morrison Springs Park

Surrounded by a rim of old growth cypress, Morrison Springs is a beautiful second magnitude spring with swimming and diver access down an interpretive boardwalk.

Otter Springs

Trenton   3.0 miles

At an inviting second magnitude spring, a shaded nature trail traces the spring run as it flows towards picturesque views on the Lower Suwannee River.

Paddling the Bartram Trail in Welaka

  miles

Learning how botanists William and John Bartram traveled along the St. Johns River in the 1700s, I followed an experienced river guide for a look at part of the Bartram National Recreation Trail from the water on our Bartram Adventure Tour in Palatka.

Poe Springs Park

High Springs   1.5 miles

At Poe Springs Park, the Poe Springs Nature Trail carries you across a landscape shaped by water acting on limestone, where surface rock is obvious and studded with fossils.

Princess Place Preserve

Explore wild spaces and cultivated grounds along eight different trails at Princess Place Preserve, an 1880s homestead at Cherokee Grove on Pellicer Creek.

Rainbow Springs Sandhills Trail

Dunnellon   4.5 miles

A stroll through the gardens of Rainbow Springs leads to rolling terrain punctuated with centuries-old ravines created by phosphate mining for a walk into Dunnellon's past.