Defending 66 acres in an in any other case residential nook of Coral Springs, Tall Cypress Pure Space is a hidden gem the place botanical range abounds.
Carved out of the encircling improvement whereas it was nonetheless within the planning levels, it was preserved because of the urging of Coral Springs Excessive College college students within the Nineteen Eighties to “Save What’s Left.”
Basin swampThe nation bought 30 acres from the developer to hitch with 36 acres the town of Coral Springs already owned.
The town and Broward County collectively handle this protect. It’s one of many final vital cypress basin swamps and pine flatwoods within the county.
Pine flatwoodsWhereas its half mile boardwalk circles just one small nook of the protect, it steps by way of a gradient of showy habitats.
Tropical hammock yields to pond apple swamp, willow marsh, and cypress basin swamp en path to the pine flatwoods on a counterclockwise circuit.
Willow marshAssets
Overview
Location: Coral SpringsLength: 0.6 milesTrailhead: 26.276145, -80.213682Address: 3700 Turtle Run Blvd, Coral SpringsFees: FreeRestroom: On the trailheadLand Supervisor: Broward CountyPhone: 954-357-8109
Open 8 AM to six PM. No pets or bicycles. A water fountain and trash can / recycle station adjoin the boardwalk entrance.
This is a great spot for birding. Look ahead to woodpeckers within the pines and herons within the melancholy marsh. Name to inquire about naturalist night time hikes.
Instructions
Hike
Observe the sidewalk fronting the parking space alongside a pure wall of untamed espresso, getting into the tropical hammock to emerge close to the restrooms.
An indication gives background on the protect and an outline map. Begin the boardwalk adjoining a tangled trunk of an immense strangler fig.
Overview map by boardwalk beginA tenth of a mile from the parking space, the boardwalk splits. Bear proper for a counterclockwise loop.
Satan’s walking-stick rises by way of mounds of untamed espresso rising excessive from the forest ground. Cabbage palms, oaks, and pond apples supply puddles of shade.
Huge wild espresso cropsThe boardwalk turns a pointy nook, revealing taller bushes within the distance. Gravevines spill throughout each palm fronds and the shiny espresso leaves, an uncommon sight.
It’s really a dense thicket beneath the boardwalk. Proceed by way of a zigzag beneath pond apple bushes.
Pond cypresses rising above tropical hammockAn interpretive signal speaks to the number of crops hidden within the lush understory, from beautyberry to myrsine and swamp fern.
A pond cypress towers overhead, its branches thick with spiky balls of bromeliads. Large leather-based fern pokes out of the muddle of vegetation beneath.
Waterway throughout the marshStrolling underneath an archway of pond apple branches, flip a nook to cross a waterway edged by cocoplum.
Clusters of bladderwort float slightly below the floor. An aquatic carnivorous plant, it absorbs mosquito larvae interested in it.
Pond apples alongside the boardwalkGliding above the plush melancholy marsh and beneath mature pond apples, extra jogs within the boardwalk reveal various textures and depths to the marsh.
Ferns swarm by way of a thicket of pop ash, one of many host crops for orchid species that favor this humid habitat.
Marsh texturesFlip a nook by way of a dense willow marsh to greet the tall cypress that give this protect its title.
Stroll by way of a stand of crimson maple bushes, the boardwalk curving above a puzzle of ferns.
Within the shade of a line of Virginia willows, go an interpretive signal on useful resource administration.
Willow straightawayA protracted straightaway parallels a transparent waterway by way of a pond apple and pop ash swamp.
At a junction, take the spur straight forward to a roofed overlook on a willow pond. It’s a deep spot within the melancholy marsh at 1 / 4 mile.
The views are greatest down reasonably than out as a result of dense vegetation.
Melancholy marsh overlookResume the boardwalk loop by way of a stand of thin pond cypresses. One helps a skeletal strangler fig.
Extra sturdy variations of those figs envelop different bushes. To the correct, younger slash pines bristle.
Flip a nook to face a panorama of pine flatwoods, its understory enveloped by Southern woods ferns and grapevines mounded atop noticed palmetto.
Pine flatwoodsA facet spur results in a roofed commentary deck overlooking this habitat at 0.4 miles. The ocean of ferns beneath glisten within the daylight.
Return to the principle boardwalk and switch proper, passing an interpretive signal in regards to the pine flatwoods earlier than a pointy curve into the shade.
Pine flatwoods overlookA straightaway pivots proper at an open commentary deck with benches. Proceed underneath a mixture of taller bushes, slash pines and oaks and strangler figs amongst them.
A number of bends jog by way of this combined forest, the place firebush blazes with crimson blossoms. The thick tropical understory resumes close by of the shut of the loop.
Bear proper to exit, returning by way of the sidewalk to the parking space to complete a 0.6 mile hike.
Blended forestPath Map
Discover Extra!
Video
Mountain climbing Tall Cypress Pure Space
Slideshow
See our photographs from Tall Cypress Pure Space
Close by Adventures
Official Web site
Writer of 45 books, Sandra Buddy established FloridaHikes.com in 2006 to develop on the sphere analysis she’d accomplished for her first six mountaineering guides. She has been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Florida Path Affiliation and the Florida Out of doors Writers Affiliation.
