Hiking near Tampa, Florida

Little Manatee River State Park is very diverse and wild. When you hike the trail the type of scenery is constantly changing.  There are parts that are like a jungle, some are like airy pine cover clearings, patches of palmetto and scrub oak, and hilly oak hammocks on the banks of the river and its flood plain. The park does not allow swimming in the river because of alligators.  The park also has facilities for horse riding, full...

Hillsborough River State Park is very beautiful and wild. It is very jungle like once you get onto the trails on the north side of the river. Visibility is quite limited because of the vegetation, which is very diverse including palmetto, pine, oak, sable palms and a variety of shrubbery and vines. The park does not allow swimming in the river because of alligators, but a public swimming pool is provided (an additional admission fee is charged for...

We entered Honeymoon Island State park via the causeway in our vehicle, and then boarded the Ferry from Honeymoon to Caladesi Island. We arrived and hiked south to the head of the Hammock Loop Trail and started tracking from there. The trip was broken into two parts due to gps lockup. This is part 1 of 2. The goal was to locate the historic homestead site and photograph that area, as...

The river was named in the late 1700s for Wills Hills, the British Colonial Secretary and Lord Earl of Hillsborough. After Florida became a U.S. Territory, settlers migrating in created conflict with the resident Seminole tribes. The U.S. government's plan to transport the Seminoles sparked the Second Seminole War. In 1835, Fort Alabama was built to protect the bridge over the Hillsborough River from Fort King (Ocala) to Fort Brooke (Tampa). The...

This popular single-track woods trail has a natural surface and shady canopy. The 20-mile main trail and 15 miles of side trails traverse the Trout Creek, Morris Bridge and Flatwoods areas. Habitats along the trail vary from cypress swamp, hardwood floodplain forest, upland hardwood hammocks, pine flatwoods, oak scrub, dry prairie, wet prairie and lakes.

Troop 363 from Orlando, FL went on a hike at Fort De Soto Park. The hike included observing cannons and the bunkers at an old fort, some basic orienteering and finding a geocache at the end of the hike.