February is Florida Hiking Trails Month which celebrates all the wonderful hiking trails that we have here in Florida. Today I am going to be talking about the Florida Trail specifically which is a 1,500 mile long congressionally designed National Scenic Trail. The Florida Trail is one of 11 National Scenic Trails in the country and one of only 3 National Scenic Trails to be contained within an entire state. National Scenic Trails intend to showcase the locales natural resources and beauty throughout the entirety of the trail while connecting communities, public lands, and significant landmarks. The Florida Trail exhibits many of these sites with both historical and environmental areas included within the trail.
The Florida Trail throughout its entirety shows off much of the biodiversity, history, and culture that Florida has to offer. The trail itself is broken down into four different sections (Panhandle Region, Northern Region, Central Region, and the Southern Region) with each section of the trail featuring the wide diversity in the state. The length of the trail traverses through the state, providing the user with the opportunity to explore a wide variety of ecological regions from the sandy coastal beaches to the inland wetland areas. The designated trail has trailheads within the Gulf Islands National Seashore to the north and the Big Cypress National Park to the south while traversing through various other parks, private land and greenways throughout the state.
The Panhandle Region allows for the users to hike through different areas along the Gulf of Mexico in addition to providing hikers with steep ravines through estuaries and boggy areas that host lots of different wildflowers. The Northern Region offers the opportunity to explore flatwood forests and hilly terrain along rivers while traveling past 18th century plantations and civil war battlefields. The Central Region traverses around the greater Orlando area through palmetto and pine flatwoods, Creekside hammocks, rolling sandhills and floodplain forests. The Southern Region of the trail traverses through the Big Cypress National Preserve- trekking through swamps and exploring native American museums and attractions.
Sources Used:
National Scenic Trails – National Trails System (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)