Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park — the biggest state park in Florida — is a vast, wild place near Everglades City. Year after year, we drove right past, but there are three great reasons to spend time here. We’re glad we did.
Birding
The clear waters flowing out of Alexander Springs are the start of a great paddling trail inside Ocala National Forest. It’s an easy stream to paddle with lots of wildlife, especially birds and fish.
There are a lot of things I love about winter in Florida, but high on the list is spotting the wonderful variety of wildlife here. You might not get lucky and view all these animals, but you’ll visit wild and beautiful sites on your quest.
Peaceful Waters Sanctuary is an outstanding birding site and a particularly good destination for nature-starved folks from Broward and Palm Beach counties. It’s also close to two good places for 3-mile-long walks in natural settings.
It’s rare in Florida to find a loop trail for kayaks and this one, with three lakes, two creeks and a canal, is a challenge. The 11-mile trail circles the state park.
Central Florida’s Lake Wales Ridge is made for exploration. It offers rolling hills, forests, streams, quaint small towns with lots of places for hiking, kayaking and camping.
The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail is a guide to 500+ places. It’s a great tool for discovery. I used it to find a colony of burrowing owls in an unlikely spot — a city park in the middle of overbuilt Broward County.
2018 is an exceptional one for nesting birds in Everglades National Park. Two super colonies– more than 25,000 birds clustered together– are nesting in the park for the first time since the 1940s. We couldn’t resist a visit. And while you can’t reach the super colonies, there is much to see on a spring visit.
Grayton Beach is consistently ranked among the Top 10 beaches in America, making it a prime candidate for your bucket list. It was on mine, and we camped there this fall.
If you’re visiting the western entrance to Everglades National Park and the Ten Thousand Islands, there is a lodge that caters specifically to kayakers, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts – the Ivey House in Everglades City.
The Okeechobee KOA is the largest KOA campground in U.S. with 750 campsites on Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s fishing mecca.
A flock of flamingoes, a bird rarely spotted in Florida, has returned to western Palm Beach County for nine years, and scientists think the flamingo may be back in Florida for good. Flamingoes migrate to the site in spring, when the Audubon Society manages trips to see them.
Myakka River State Park is one of Florida’s oldest and largest state parks with three main campgrounds, backcountry campsites, endless hiking and biking trails, kayaking and canoeing, and, oh, the wildlife.