May: Featured Family Hikes
Month of May: Featured Family Hikes
May showers and May flowers mean summer is shaping up to be a beautiful time for early morning hikes! If you're looking to get your family out in nature for any upcoming holidays, look no further. We've compiled a list of our favorite shady hikes for this month:
*Visiting each site's Hillsborough County web page - individually linked below - before your visit is heavily encouraged.
Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve
Hours: Sunrise to Sunset
Cost: Free
10243 Elbow Bend Road, Riverview, FL 33578
This 80-acre nature preserve includes diverse habitats, including hammock, scrub, creeks, ravines, shoreline and tidal marsh. Marked hiking trails include a 0.8-mile loop and a 1.3-mile loop. A scenic overlook on the Alafia River is a half-mile from the trailhead. Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve was purchased by Hillsborough County through the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP) in 1998 with funding assistance from the Florida Communities Trust.
Alderman’s Ford Conservation Park
Hours: Spring/Summer: 8 AM - 7 PM; Fall/Winter: 8 AM - 6 PM
Cost: $2 per vehicle
100 Alderman's Ford Park Dr., Plant City, FL, FL 33567
The park's most popular attraction is a 1.9 mile paved loop that follows the north and south prongs of the Alafia River-- one of the most popular canoe spots in the state. The loop, which is hiker, dog walker, and bicycle friendly, links with a boardwalk and foot bridges, leading into shaded woods of gigantic cypress and oak trees.
Visit Alderman's Ford Conservation Park and enjoy a day of birdwatching, fishing or hiking the lush woods. The park also hosts four remote campsites for anyone seeking a real wilderness experience without going too far from home.
Apollo Beach Nature Preserve
Hours: Sunrise to Sunset
Cost: Free
6760 Surfside Blvd., Apollo Beach, FL 33572
The Apollo Beach Nature Preserve is a 63-acre nature preserve that serves as habitat for a variety of aquatic species.
Seven acres of the preserve are separated from the habitat restoration areas and dedicated to nature-based recreation, which includes a 2-acre sandy beach for picnicking and sunbathing (no swimming allowed), a 37-foot wheelchair accessible observation tower, a short nature trail, and fantastic shoreline fishing.
The preserve provides stunning sunset views of Tampa Bay.
Bell Creek Nature Preserve
Hours: Sunrise to Sunset
Cost: Free
10940 McMullen Road, Riverview, FL 33569
The Bell Creek Nature Preserve is a 477 acre Preserve located east of McMullen Road, south of Boyette Road in Riverview. This preserve was acquired to provide protection for natural plant communities and associated protected species, extend a greenway, preserve a wildlife corridor that was being lost to development, and provide numerous passive recreational opportunities.
The Preserve provides trails through different habitat areas with mature trees and a varied understory, as well as open areas dominated by grasses and herbaceous species. The trails are marked and signage clearly state that the Preserve is only open during daylight hours.
Eureka Springs Conservation Park
Hours: M-F: 9 AM - 5 PM; Sat-Sun: 8 AM - 6 PM
Cost: $2 per vehicle
6400 Eureka Springs Rd., Tampa, FL 33610
The Eureka Springs Conservation Park was first established in 1938 by botanist and traveler Albert Greensburg as a botanical garden of rare and unusual tropical plants. He also created the first Florida tropical fish farm springs that were near his botanical gardens. In 1967, Greensburg donated his prized site to Hillsborough County, making Eureka Springs Park the only botanical garden in the park system.
Lovers of horticulture will savor the 31-acre natural beauty, especially the largest publicly owned collection of ferns in Florida. Nature connoisseurs can gaze at the park’s rose garden and orchid room, as well as stroll along walking trails and the boardwalks that wind through a lush floodplain forest of maples, cypresses, and tupelo.
The park also features a greenhouse, picnic tables and shelters, a reservable Eureka Springs party pavilion, and interpretive trails.
Lake Rogers Conservation Park
Hours: 7 AM - 6 PM
Cost: $2 per vehicle
9010 North Mobley Rd., Odessa, FL 33556
Trails popular with hikers and joggers twist through this park’s forest of oak and pine trees. Anglers and kayakers frequent two freshwater lakes, one of which — Lake Rogers — is among the largest in Hillsborough County.
Lettuce Lake Conservation Park
Hours: Spring/Summer: 8 AM to 7 PM; Fall/Winter: 8 AM to 6 PM
Cost: $2 per vehicle
6920 East Fletcher Avenue, Tampa, FL 33637
Lettuce Lake Conservation Park is one of Hillsborough County's most visited parks. More than half of the park’s property lies in the natural floodplain of the Hillsborough River, consisting of a hardwood swamp forest. The remainder of the park consists of hardwood hammocks and pine flatwoods plant communities.
The park features wooded picnic areas and playgrounds, a 1.25-mile paved exercise trail and 3,500-foot boardwalk with an observation tower provides scenic views of the Hillsborough River. Park ranger and volunteer-led nature education tours are available on weekends. Canoe and kayaks rentals provide up-close encounters with a variety of aquatic birds and wildlife.
Hours: Sunrise to Sunset
Cost: Free
1802 Sinclair Hills Road, Lutz, FL 33549
The Violet Cury Nature Preserve was acquired in 1995 by Hillsborough County through the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP) with assistance from the Florida Communities Trust.
This 160-acre sanctuary contains examples of natural habitats such as pine flatwoods, sandhill, marshes, oak hammock, and Lake Flynn, a freshwater lake, all of which are unique in the community. The 2.25 mile-long hiking trail is an excellent non-strenuous hike.
Happy Hiking!
