In late winter, azaleas create ribbons of bright color beneath the live oak canopy across the grounds of Maclay Gardens, a series of formal gardens along the hillsides sweeping down to Lake Hall.
Tram Tours
These public lands offer tram tours that enable you to see part or all of a trail system by being driven around, ideal for those with limited mobility. Please check ahead, as some trams are seasonal and others are dependent on volunteer availability.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Established in 1938 as one of the world’s largest collections of tropical plants, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is an integral part of the history of Florida botany and of Coral Gables.
Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
It’s the Amazon of North America, home of the ghost orchid. Protecting more than 85,000 acres, Fakahatchee Strand is Florida’s largest state preserve and most certainly our wildest.
Flamingo Gardens
From its roots in a citrus grove, a nonprofit botanical garden sprouted through the efforts of Floyd and Lula Wray. In 1927, they purchased 320 acres to grow citrus and a year later, Floyd hired Frank Stirling to create a botanical garden for test planting of tropical fruit and flowering trees.
Fruit and Spice Park
From its humble beginnings in 1944, Fruit and Spice Park has blossomed into a showcase of tropical fruits, flowers, and spices grown commercially in the Redland
Ichetucknee Springs State Park
A swimming hole as a work of natural art, the deep gash in the earth that is Ichetucknee Spring glows an unearthly robin’s-egg blue, cradled in a limestone bowl within a leafy glen.
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park
Opened in 1989 on Singer Island, John D. MacArthur Beach State Park is extraordinarily popular due to its coastal lagoons, well-preserved tropical forests, and beautiful beach with nearshore rocky reefs.
Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park
Wrapped in a dense blanket of mosquitoes, Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park is one of the United States’ most significant botanical treasures, a virgin tropical forest home to more than a thousand lignum vitae trees.
Lovers Key State Park
With a name straight out of tourist fantasies of 1950s Florida, Lovers Key State Park is a series of slim barrier islands between Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Fort Myers Beach.
Myakka River State Park
With tall waving grasses, saw palmetto, and the sound of birds, Myakka River State Park immerses you in Florida’s Big Sky country amid wide open prairies and riverside marshes.