Sherwood Stokes Preserve – Florida Hikes

Acquired for preservation in 2002 and managed by Polk County, Sherwood Stokes Protect protects over 220 acres within the Lake Marion watershed.

The protect presents a easy linear path main from the doorway to a clearing alongside Lake Marion Creek.

Regardless of being pretty quick, this path immerses guests in a powerful array of landscapes full of intriguing natural world.

Lake Marion Creek

Assets

Overview

Location: Haines CityLength: 1.2 milesTrailhead: 28.117333, -81.541806Address: 8649 Lake Marion Creek Rd.Charges: FreeRestrooms: None.Land supervisor: Polk CountyPhone: 863-534-7377

Open dawn to sundown. Leashed canine welcome.

Instructions

Hike

Beginning on the roadside trailhead, seize a paper map from the wood field and stroll by the fence stile.

Comply with a slim pathway by xeric hammock for a brief distance earlier than the path emerges onto a broad entry highway.

Trailhead entrance

Open pine flatwoods border a contoured sandy rise topped with massive scrub habitat to the west.

Flip left, following a large pathway by the ridge. Scrub oak and hickory border the path alongside colourful partridge peas and blazing stars.

Scrub hickory

Nearing 0.2 miles, a slight dip in elevation radically modifications the encircling panorama.

Dwell oaks rise alongside the path, casting shade onto a shrubby combine dotted with manyflower beardtongue, blueberries, and butterfly milkweed.

Swallowtail on a butterfly milkweed

A dense cover of blended hardwoods and cabbage palms envelop the path because it curves in the direction of the floodplain at 0.3 miles.

Numerous airplants cling to branches overhead as clusters of ferns and wild espresso carpet the plush forest flooring.

Wild espresso within the hammock

Inside one other tenth of a mile, the path passes an oddly small patch of pine forest coated in narrowleaf silkgrass.

Proceed following the trail southward for an additional quarter mile, rounding yet one more bend earlier than opening to a clearing dotted with tall palms.

Clearing close to the creek

Lake Marion Creek comes into view alongside a coated picnic desk. On the water’s edge, a tiny wood dock flanked by cypress timber leads out to the grassy shoreline.

Benefit from the solitude of this quiet spot earlier than heading again alongside the highway, returning to the trailhead on the finish of a 1.2 mile hike.

Lake Marion Creek

Path Map

Discover Extra!

Video

Mountaineering Sherwood Stokes Protect

Close by Adventures

Official Web site

Alongside along with his spouse Chelsey, Chris Stevens shares out of doors adventures on Instagram and Fb as @sunshinestateseekers and is a co-host of a podcast about Florida’s outdoor, The Florida Madcaps. An avid hiker and camper, Chris serves as a Trailmaster and a board member for the Florida Path Affiliation.

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