Total distance: 1.8-mile loop selected from a network of interconnected trails.
Hiking time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: $2 per vehicle. Open 8 AM–7 PM, spring and summer; 8 AM–6 PM, fall and winter. Leashed pets and bicycles permitted, but not on boardwalks.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 28.0743, -82.3747
Contact Information: Lettuce Lake Park, 6920 E Fletcher Avenue, Tampa, FL 33637 (813-987-6204, hillsboroughcounty.org/locations/lettuce-lake-park)
Black as midnight, sluggish as molasses, the Hillsborough River laps at the bases of bald cypresses, trapped between the trees in ponds clogged with water lettuce. A series of boardwalks span this backwater, where in times of high water the river cuts itself off at a bend, forming a vast treed swamp: Lettuce Lake. Along the boardwalks through the swamp, canopied and open benches enable you to sit and watch the wildlife. Limpkins plumb the shallows for apple snails, while turtles sun themselves on fallen logs. Canoeists ply the tangle of passageways through the swamp forest.
Located at the north end of Tampa, Lettuce Lake Park protects 240 acres along the Hillsborough River, providing urban residents a quiet place to hike, bike, and picnic. Check at the entrance station about canoe rentals. An open grassy space in the center of the park is ideal for Frisbee or volleyball and has a playground for the kids. Stop in at the Audubon Resource Center, accessed by the paved trail on the opposite side of the parking lot from where you start your hike. Browse through their resource library, examine the natural history exhibits, and take a look in the nature store. Ask about guided hikes and birding workshops, offered regularly for a small fee.
GETTING THERE
From I-75, take exit 266, Temple Terrace, and follow Fletcher Avenue 0.8 mile west to the park’s entrance on the right, Lettuce Lake Park Road. Follow the entry road to a T intersection, make a right, then make the first left into the parking area. Your hike starts with the wheelchair-accessible boardwalk between the picnic tables.
THE HIKE
Follow the boardwalk past the covered picnic pavilions and into the blackwater cypress swamp. Scattered red maples show off crimson and gold leaves in the fall. The tall purple blooms of water hyacinths catch your attention. A white heron intently watches the water for the telltale shimmer of fish. At the T intersection, turn right. The boardwalk slips past massive bald cypresses, where duckweed forms a thick blanket over the swamp. You pass a side trail, a boardwalk leading to a canopied bench with a clear view of the open waters of Lettuce Lake. Pause to take in the scene, watching a great blue heron soar overhead. A cottonmouth moccasin swims past, iridescent black scales rippling against the dark water.
Back on the main trail, notice how cinnamon and marsh ferns take advantage of rotting logs to gain a foothold in the slower waters of the swamp. The boardwalk ends at a platform overlooking the narrows of the Hillsborough River, a fast-flowing channel through the cypresses. As a paddler slips by, a flock of white ibises pick between the cypress knees, searching for insects. Turn around and return to the boardwalk intersection, heading straight. The boardwalk swings out along Lettuce Lake, providing a breezy walk along the open water, then ducks back under the cypresses. Look closely for swamp lilies in the shallows, with their broad grassy leaves and showy star-shaped white blooms.
Lettuce Lake from the observation tower
When you reach a junction where the boardwalk ends, turn right to follow the next boardwalk to return to the river: the left turn leads to the Audubon Resource Center. After 0.8 mile, you reach the observation tower. Climb five stories for a scenic view of the floodplain forest and the Hillsborough River, looking down the length of Lettuce Lake. The boardwalk continues past the junction of Lettuce Lake and the river, sweeping away from the water and into the dense stand of bald cypress. Where the boardwalk ends, two short boardwalks turn right, both leading to picnic pavilions along the river. Follow the sand path through a live oak hammock and up to its junction with the paved, 1.5-mile perimeter loop trail, in front of the restrooms and water fountain. You’ve walked a mile. Turn right on the paved trail and follow it into the oak hammock, past an American beautyberry flaunting its brilliant clusters of purple berries.
Turn right at the NATURE TRAIL sign at the split-rail fence, entering the pine flatwoods. Since the nature trail wanders along the edge of the park, traffic sounds carry into the woods. Slash pines tower overhead, dropping a deep carpet of pine needles onto the footpath. Stay to the main trail as you pass a side trail, walking into a shady oak hammock with a dense understory of saw palmetto. Palm warblers scurry between breaks in the saw palmetto, wagging their tails and displaying their yellow breast feathers.
The trail emerges into scrubby flatwoods, open and sunny. Winged sumacs display deep red leaves in the fall. At 1.3 miles, you rejoin the paved trail for a stretch. Turn right, crossing the park entrance road. Soon after, leave the paved path and follow the nature trail as it ducks left into a dense forest of pines and saw palmetto. It drops into a low area with a cypress dome. The trail climbs under spreading live oaks and slash pines. Passing a trail to the left, continue straight, making a right at the next fork. You emerge into a parking lot. Cross the parking lot and road to rejoin the paved trail. Make a left, walking along the edge of the cypress swamp to return to where your car is parked near the boardwalk, for a total hike of 1.8 miles.
Following the boardwalk through the Lettuce Lake swamps
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Short Boardwalk Loop. Follow the route as outlined above, but when you get to where the boardwalk ends by the Audubon Resource Center, turn left and walk around the center, following the paved path back around to your car for a 0.75-mile walk.
2. Long Boardwalk Loop. After the boardwalk ends near Pavilion 5, take a left on the paved path to walk back paralleling the boardwalk in the woods. You’ll pass the Audubon Resource Center, making a 1.1-mile loop.
3. Paved Loop to Cypress Dome. Instead of returning to the nature trail once you pass the park entrance, stay on the paved perimeter loop. It extends your overall hike to 2.1 miles, and provides access to a boardwalk into the cypress dome that’s seen from the nature trail.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Hillsborough River State Park, 15402 US 301 N, Thonotosassa, FL 33592 (1-800-326-3521, floridastateparks.reserveamerica.com)
Hampton Inn & Suites Tampa North, 8210 Hidden River Parkway, Tampa, FL 33637 (813-903-6000, hilton.com)
Holiday Inn Express Tampa North, 13294 Telecom Drive, Temple Terrace, FL 33637 (813-972-9800, ihg.com)
Brooker Creek Preserve
Total distance: 2-mile loop selected from a network of interconnected trails.
Hiking time: 1–1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: Free. Hours vary by season but usually run 7 AM to an hour before sunset. No pets or bicycles permitted. Environmental Education Center open Thursday-Saturday, 9 AM–4 PM, Sunday 11 AM–4 PM.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 28.1319, -82.6566
Contact Information: Brooker Creek Preserve, 3940 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, FL 34688 (727-453-6800, brookercreekpreserve.org)
Protecting a mosaic of wet pine flatwoods, uplands, and floodplain forests from which Brooker Creek—an important feeder stream to Lake Tarpon—rises, Brooker Creek Preserve covers nearly 8,700 acres in the northeastern corner of Pinellas County. Once characterized by cattle ranches, vegetable farms, and orange groves, the surrounding area continues a march towards being wall-to-wall subdivisions. This is the county’s largest preserve and most of it is quite wet. This is largely where the region’s water comes from, via surrounding wellfields that feed public utilities in three counties, so the preserve is jointly managed with Southwest Florida Water Management District. While the preserve is made up of several separate tracts, it’s the one that’s home to the Environmental Education Center that provides miles of hiking trails to roam.
GETTING THERE
From US 19 in
Tarpon Springs, exit onto East Tarpon Ave, just north of A. L. Anderson Park. The road becomes Keystone Road as it goes around the north end of Lake Tarpon. Drive 6 miles east along Keystone Road (CR 582). You’ll pass a GREAT FLORIDA BIRDING TRAIL sign at Lora Lane, which points to a separate part of the preserve. Pass that and continue another 0.5 mile to the preserve gates on the right. From the Suncoast Parkway (FL 589), exit onto West Lutz Lake Fern Road. Drive west 2.6 miles to CR 587. Turn left. Continue 0.5 mile and turn right onto Tarpon Springs Road. Drive 5.2 miles. The road becomes Keystone Road at the county line. Turn left at the preserve entrance. From either direction, you’ll follow the entrance road for the preserve south for a mile before it ends at the parking area.
THE HIKE
Walk up to the shelter that shades the Environmental Education Center entrance. You’ll find trail maps and a notice as to the day’s closing time for the preserve. This is the beginning of the Education Center Trail, which starts as a boardwalk through a swamp. Cinnamon ferns cluster along the water’s edge and red maples show off crimson leaves in winter. Interpretive markers are cleverly hidden under hinged boards, the better to protect them from fading in the sun. In one of the more unusual twists to interpretation, large tags hang off some of the trees, marked as the TRAVELING TREE WALK. Each puts a price tag on a particular species of tree. While we hate to think about having to prove the economic value of forests, we know there are people for whom this is a good teaching tool.
As the boardwalk rises into the uplands, artful sculptures mimicking vines arch overhead. You reach a junction at a bench where buildings are tucked into the forest, and signage points in various directions. The Environmental Education Center is straight ahead. If it’s open, explore the exhibits about this wild place and its inhabitants, try the hands-on displays, and visit the gift shop. The trail you are following turns at the bench, passing another turnoff to the restrooms and screened picnic area, before it reaches a sign that lists the trails currently open and reminds you of closing time. Trails may close due to prescribed burns or abnormally wet conditions.
Interpretive station on the Education Center Trail
The broad boardwalk gently winds through the shade. When it reaches the floodplain forest surrounding Brooker Creek, it adds railings. Along the way, a series of interpretive signs call your attention to the change in habitat. Some look like open books and provide many details about your surroundings, including sketches that identify wildlife and flora you may see. Cypress trees dominate one section of the swamp, and ferns keep the dry spots on the forest floor well-hidden.
After 0.25 mile, the boardwalk ends. The Education Center Trail continues as a footpath, passing a bench as it curves into the woods. As it gains a little elevation, the trail becomes sandy underfoot, passing a white-tipped marker amid a dense understory of young oaks. Myrtle oaks and rusty lyonia appear, signaling a transition to scrub habitat as the trail reaches a four-way junction at 0.5 mile. Turn right to join the Wilderness Trail, blazed with orange-tipped posts and markers. The footpath remains bright white sand as it sweeps around dense stands of saw palmetto punctuated by the fluffy longleaf pines that Pinellas County is known for. When you start seeing loblolly bay trees along the sides of the trail, it’s a hint that the habitat is going to change for the wetter. Mosses form a carpet across the footpath as you drop into a wet pine flatwoods. The trail is the low spot through this often-damp habitat, so you may see puddles form in places. Some are large, but as evidenced by the well-worn path, can be walked around.
Flatwoods Trail
After 0.8 mile, you come to the junction with the Flatwoods Trail, and another reminder of when the park closes. Here’s why: if you choose to follow the perimeter loop straight ahead past the WILDERNESS TRAIL SOUTH sign, the hike will take a lot longer than you expect. Wilderness Trail South is not for the timid, as it’s a swamp walk most of the year, more wading than walking. We’re not sending you that way because we’ve tried it twice ourselves, and both times had to turn back because of slow going while wading in deep water. Make a left on the Flatwoods Trail to stay with the loop that most visitors to Brooker Creek Preserve follow.
True to its name, the Flatwoods Trail immerses you in a healthy pine flatwoods, the broad footpath essentially a forest road covered in pine needles from the slash pines, making for easy walking. Blaze posts are tipped green along this route. Some pines are young and skinny, others more mature and stately. Loblolly bay and dahoon holly both appear in this forest, signaling that it can also get soggy underfoot at certain times of year. The trail slowly gains elevation as it approaches the junction with Blackwater Cutoff at 1.1 miles. This is the east side of the Wilderness Trail Loop. Continue past it, following the signs pointing past Signpost 7. As elevation increases, you see clumps of sphagnum strictum, a moss that looks like it would enjoy water but which actually prefers drier habitats. Oaks dominate the lower canopy under the pines. At a T intersection, a green arrow points left. Walk beneath the towering pines. In fall, you may notice a cluster of the purple, paintbrush-shaped blooms of deer’s tongue (Carphephorus odoratissimus), also known as wild vanilla. It’s a favorite for butterflies to hover around.
Gopher tortoise along the footpath
As the forest canopy opens to reveal more tall pines, the trail stretches ahead like a hallway between the saw palmetto. At 1.5 miles, you reach a trail junction with a sculpture that looks like a bolt of lightning. It holds an interpretive marker within sight of the Flatwoods Shelter, a platform for ducking out of the rain. The trail straight ahead returns to the boardwalk near the Education Center. Turn right instead for a ramble through an oak hammock. Live oaks provide a high canopy over a broad open area in the forest, where the Live Oak Shelter sits. An interpretive sign speaks to changes in biodiversity due to human impacts on the land.
Continue straight ahead at the next signposted trail junction, following the PARKING LOT sign. This corridor through the oaks passes an interpretive panel on gopher tortoises, and sure enough, just up the trail, we saw a very large one ambling along, nibbling at grasses near a bench where the TRAVELING TREE WALK tags begin again. You reach a T intersection with the Bird Path. Turn right and walk down this short trail through the edge of the oak hammock. It ends up at a little blind under a power line, with windows looking out over a marsh. Return along the same path, passing the trail junction to reach a bridge over Brooker Creek. We were startled to see a large alligator nestled into the bases of the saw palmetto on the far shore. Beyond the bridge, you reach the back side of signage that greets hikers when they walk this loop clockwise. Continue up to the parking area to wrap up your 2-mile hike.
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Accessible Adventure. For the wheelchair-bound and slow walkers, the boardwalk section of the Education Center Trail is a superb immersion into the spirit of this preserve. It’s a 0.5-mile round-trip to the end of the boardwalk and back.
2. Education Center Trail. At 0.7 mile, this is the shortest of the loops, focused on the boardwalk and interpretive trails closest to the parking area. Shorten it to 0.5 mile by taking the first left at the junction with the Wilderness Trail.
3. Wilderness Wander. The deeper you go into the preserve, the more likely you are to find yourself wading down its trails. Water means very slow going, even if you like to wade. If you can make it to the connector across to Blackwater Cutoff, that extends our route to a 3.5-mile hike. Going all the way around the Wilderness Trail loop makes for a 4.5-mile hike.
4. The Friends Trail (28.1294, -82.6706). The first trail built by supporters of Brooker Creek Preserve, The Friends Trail has a separate entrance off Lora Lane, which is pointed out by the GREAT FLORIDA BIRDING TRAIL sign as you head westbound on Keystone Road from the preserve’s main entrance. The 1.1-mile loop through the pine flatwoods is more upland than wetland, but there are some soggy spots. For birders, a shorter spur trail leads to a boardwalk overlooking a wet prairie.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Clear
water Lake Tarpon KOA, 37061 US 19 N, Palm Harbor, FL 34684 (727-937-8412, koa.com)
Innisbrook Resort, 36750 US 19 N, Palm Harbor, FL 34684 (1-888-794-8627, innisbrookgolfresort.com)
Vista Hotel on Lake Tarpon, 37611 US 19 N, Palm Harbor, FL 34684 (727-942-0358, vistainnlaketarpon.com)
John Chesnut Sr. Park
Total distance: 3.3 miles in two distinct loops of 1.8 and 1.5 miles each.
Hiking time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Usage: Free. Open 7 AM to sunset. Leashed pets and bicycles welcome, but neither are allowed on the boardwalks.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 28.0848, -82.7023
Contact Information: John Chesnut Sr. Park, 2200 E Lake Road S, Palm Harbor, FL 34685 (727-582-2100, pinellascounty.org)
When you’re walking in the breeze beneath a canopy of towering bald cypresses along the shore of a 2,500-acre lake, it’s hard to believe this is an urban hike. Protecting the longest natural shoreline of Lake Tarpon, the largest lake in Pinellas County, John Chesnut Sr. Park has a little something for everyone. There are softball fields and horseshoe pits, and lots of picnic pavilions and playgrounds. You’ll even find a dog park near one of the loops. But this 255-acre park is also home to a network of boardwalks and trails that showcase the natural habitats along the lakeshore, with many paths connecting wheelchair-accessible boardwalks.
GETTING THERE
From the junction of FL 60 (Gulf to Bay) and McMullen Booth Road (CR 611) in Clearwater, drive north on McMullen Booth Road. Four miles north of Safety Harbor, it crosses CR 752 (Tampa Road) in Oldsmar on an overpass. Continue north on CR 611, which now changes its name to East Lake Road. Continue another 2 miles. The park entrance is on the left just after you cross Brooker Creek. Once you’re inside the park, follow the road to the South Parking Loop to find the trailhead for the Peggy Park Nature Trail.
50 Hikes in Central Florida Page 24
