Activities: Hiking

Info:
State: Florida
Location: Everglades National Park
Length: Round Trip: 0.5 miles
Trail type: Out and Back
Minimum Elevation: 0 feet
Maximum Elevation: 5 feet
Elevation Change: 5 feet
Best Season: Spring, Fall, Winter
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Heavy

Description: The Mahogany Hammock Trail is a self-guided boardwalk trail meandering through a dense, jungle-like hardwood hammock. This trail is less than 0.5 miles round trip. The lush vegetation along this trail includes gumbo-limbo trees, air plants, moss, ferns, lichens and the largest living mahogany tree in the United States. Mahogany trees were once plentiful throughout this area but harvesting by early settlers has thinned their numbers. This trail is handicapped accessible.

Activities: Hiking

Info:
State: Florida
Location: Everglades National Park
Length: Round Trip: 0.3 miles
Trail type: Out and Back
Minimum Elevation: 0 feet
Maximum Elevation: 5 feet
Elevation Change: 5 feet
Best Season: Spring, Fall, Winter
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Heavy

Description: Located half mile down the popular tram road from the Shark Valley Visitor Center, the Otter Cave Trail carries you into a Caribbean hardwood hammock with sights of gumbo-limbo and stranger fig. The Otter Cave Trail is a short Hiking path offering glimpses of wildlife which are more prevalent early in the morning before the bulk of the visitors enter the region. The name Otter Cave is a little misleading since there is not a cave along this trail but you may see otters. Markings along this rough limestone trail are poor so watch your direction. This trail tends to be flooded during summer. This trail is a good complement to the loop road leading to the wildlife observation tower.

Activities: Hiking

Info:
State: Florida
Location: Everglades National Park
Length: Round Trip: 2 miles
Trail type: Loop
Minimum Elevation: 0 feet
Maximum Elevation: 5 feet
Elevation Change: 5 feet
Best Season: Spring, Fall, Winter
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Heavy

Description: The Bayshore Loop meanders along the shore of Florida Bay. From this trail, you can see remnants of a former outpost fishing village. Begin this hike at the Coastal Prairie Trailhead at the back of loop “C” in the Flamingo Campground. Veer left at the trail junction to access the bay. Many types of wading birds can be spotted fishing near the water’s edge.

Activities: Hiking

Info:
State: Florida
Location: Everglades National Park
Length: One-Way: 1.6 miles
Trail type: Out and Back
Minimum Elevation: 0 feet
Maximum Elevation: 5 feet
Elevation Change: 5 feet
Best Season: Spring, Fall, Winter
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Heavy

Description: The Snake Bight Trail heads south from the trailhead for 1.6 miles reaching the shore of Florida Bay. It is an easy walk through a tropical hardwood hammock. This is a good hike for bird watching, especially on the boardwalk at the end of the trail. Bicycles are permitted all the way to the boardwalk. About half way down the trail, you’ll see where Rowdy Bend Trail enters on the right. The Rowdy Bend Trail is a 2.6-mile route along an old roadbed through a thick buttonwood forest. It leads back to Main Park Road. This is a challenging bike loop by traveling Main Park Road back to Snake Bight Trail parking area.

Activities: Mountain Biking, Road Cycling

Info:
State: Florida
Location: Apalachicola National Forest
Length: Round Trip: Mountain/Dune Trail:7.5 Miles Biking Portion: 4.5 Miles
Trail Surface: Paved
Best Season: All Seasons
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Heavy

Description: Munson Hills offers two loops amidst sand dunes stemming from a shoreline that has long since vanished. Munson Hills are sand dunes associated with a shoreline located here a million years ago. The sandhills form a foundation for a towering longleaf pine forest intermixed with ponds and wetlands. Frequent burning of the longleaf pine-wiregrass community creates this unique ecosystem. Before roads became part of the area, the fires naturally spread after summer lightning storms. Plants and animals, such as wiregrass and gopher tortoises, have adapted and evolved with fire. Wiregrass is so closely tied to the natural fire cycle that it will only produce seed after a late spring or summer fire. For a spectacular display of new plant growth and flowers, visit a longleaf wiregrass area a few months after a fire. Keep an eye out for the purple blazing star, yellow colic root or perhaps a rare orchid. Most ponds are dry at some time during the year so they do not support fish, but you can find many salamanders, frogs and snakes! Watch for deer and fox squirrels throughout the forest. Notice the many gopher tortoise burrows in the sand near the bike trail. These tortoises are protected by the State because their burrows provide homes to as many as 40 other animals, including the endangered eastern indigo snake. The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker may be seen foraging on the pine trees above the trail.