Florida

Bahia Honda State Park — Florida Keys

The Sandspur and Calusa beaches offer some of the only natural sand in the Keys — gin-clear turquoise shallows ideal for swimming, with the rusted arches of the old Flagler railway bridge framing the view across the channel.

St. George Island State Park — Forgotten Coast

Nine unbroken miles of undeveloped sugar-white Gulf beach, warm shallow water perfect for swimming, exceptional shelling at the tide line, and no high-rise development anywhere on the horizon.

Anastasia State Park — St. Augustine

Four miles of Atlantic beach for ocean swimming plus the calm, protected waters of the Salt Run tidal lagoon — a second, gentler swim option just steps from the same campground.

Fort Pickens — Gulf Islands National Seashore

Quartz-white sand and shallow emerald Gulf water front the campground directly, with swimming right off the beach among a barrier-island shoreline undeveloped for miles in either direction.

Juniper Springs — Ocala National Forest

The Juniper Run — seven miles of narrow jungle creek threading cabbage palms, overhanging ferns, and lazy gators — is the finest spring paddling trip in Florida, ending at a takeout miles downstream.

Salt Springs — Ocala National Forest

The wide saline spring boil empties into a navigable run that connects to broad Lake George and the St. Johns River — the best multi-day paddling launch in the Ocala National Forest.

Myakka River State Park — Sarasota

Paddle the Myakka River through its Upper and Lower lakes, threading slow-moving channels dense with alligators and wading birds — one of Florida's premier freshwater paddling landscapes.

Garden Key — Dry Tortugas National Park

Kayak the coral-studded shallows and snorkel the reef around Fort Jefferson in some of the clearest water in Florida — 70 miles offshore, reached daily by the Yankee Freedom ferry or seaplane from Key West.

Flamingo — Everglades National Park

The only place in the United States where alligators and crocodiles share habitat — American crocodiles bask at the marina, manatees drift through the basin, and roseate spoonbills work Florida Bay's shallows. Florida's richest camp for a naturalist.

Midway — Big Cypress National Preserve

Alligators sun on the central pond bank steps from the loops, and the surrounding cypress swamp is active Florida panther territory — some of the densest large-wildlife habitat in the lower Southeast.

Myakka River State Park — Sarasota

The canopy walkway and Upper Lake bird walk put you at eye level with wood storks, roseate spoonbills, and dozens of wading-bird species working the shallows — one of Florida's great birding spectacles.

Salt Springs — Ocala National Forest

Winter manatees gather in the warm spring run each year — a rare freshwater manatee aggregation — while black bears, deer, and wild turkey move through the surrounding scrub and sand-pine forest.

Flamingo — Everglades National Park

The Coastal Prairie Trail leaves from camp through sawgrass and buttonwood to Clubhouse Beach on Florida Bay; the Snake Bight Trail ends at a boardwalk over mudflats famous for wading birds and occasional flamingos.

Midway — Big Cypress National Preserve

The Florida National Scenic Trail runs directly through camp, crossing the dwarf-cypress prairies and cypress-strand hammocks of Big Cypress on its long traverse of South Florida.

Fort Pickens — Gulf Islands National Seashore

The western terminus of the Florida Trail anchors this island camp — walk the fort's brick batteries and shifting dunes with the Gulf on the south and Pensacola Bay on the north.

Anastasia State Park — St. Augustine

Maritime-hammock trails wind through ancient dunes and past the coquina quarry that supplied the stone for the Castillo de San Marcos — a short, historically layered walk beside the oldest city in the United States.