Exploration

South of Interstate 10, the trails at Sandy creek offers, birding, biking, hiking, botany and history throughout the year. Not too far from the sandy beaches of the Florida coast, you will see another side of what the Sunshine State has to offer. 

Slightly rolling hills covered in longleaf pine trees drop into wet flatwoods and are divided by a blackwater stream named Sandy Creek. Wildflowers provide color on the hillsides for most of the year, and some of the plants have turned from hunted to hunter in the pitcher plant bog found in one of our seepage slope communities. 

The now quiet woodlands once were busy with the sounds of locomotives. Nineteenth- and early 20th-century workers would harvest pine sap for processing into turpentine, while loggers removed the tapped-out trees for the lumber. Signs of these activities can be found in the trees themselves, as some still bear the scars made from the collection process.

Visitors can choose from several different trails that will allow them to walk or bike through this history-filled forest providing them a short quarter-mile path to several miles of outdoor experiences.