Florida Hikes

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

Lyons Bay, Venice FL

Venice

Named after the city in Italy when the post office was established in 1888, Venice is one of Florida’s first planned cities, designed by noted architect John Nolan in the 1920s as an Italian renaissance village

INTERACTIVE MAP

Big Slough Preserve

North Port   1.0 miles

Adjoining Carlton Reserve, Myakka River State Park, and Walton Reserve, Big Slough Preserve provides a vast space for wildlife to roam north of North Port.

Carlton Reserve

Venice   35.2 miles

Less than a dozen miles from downtown Venice, the vast expanse of T. Mabry Carlton Reserve provides regional drinking water and a massive refuge for wildlife.

Carlton Reserve Hiking Trails

Venice   2.0 miles

Explore open prairies, wetlands, and pine flatwoods on a series of nested loop trails within the vast expanse of Carlton Reserve north of Venice.

Caspersen Beach Park

Venice   3.6 miles

The southernmost beach in Venice, Caspersen Beach is best known for its bounty of fossil shark's teeth, which people scoop and stoop to dig out of the sand.

Cedar Point Environmental Park

Englewood   2.5 miles

Where Oyster Creek flows into Lemon Bay, Cedar Point Environmental Park protects a spectrum of coastal habitats along a wildlife-rich peninsula ready for exploration on foot.

Curry Creek Preserve East

Venice   1.6 miles

Amid expanding suburbia in Venice, this 71-acre island of botanical delights circled by a 1.6 mile loop buffers wildflower-rich longleaf pine flatwoods along a mangrove-lined stream.

Deer Creek Prairie Preserve

North Port   5.3 miles

Part of a complex of public lands protecting the Myakka River and its tributaries, Deer Creek Prairie Preserve blankets over 7,300 acres between Venice and North Port.

Duisberg Nature Trail

Englewood   0.3 miles

On Manasota Key at Blind Pass, south of Venice, the Fred Duisberg Nature Trail is a gentle meander on boardwalks through a mangrove forest along Lemon Bay to a scenic overlook.

Gordon Smith Memorial Trail

Englewood   1.5 miles

A short and scenic loop trail on easy terrain, the Gordon Smith Memorial Trail showcases mesic flatwoods, a predominant ecosystem in Myakka State Forest.

Historic Spanish Point

Osprey   1.2 miles

A prominent peninsula in Little Sarasota Bay at Osprey, Historic Spanish Point fascinates with its layer cake of Florida’s past, both human and floral.

Jelks Preserve

Venice   3.7 miles

Offering scenic views of wild shores along the Myakka River, this hike at Jelks Preserve makes a big loop along the trail system to immerse you in a variety of habitats.