Brooker Creek Preserve – Florida Hikes

Acquired in 1992, Brooker Creek Protect is among the oldest and by far the most important property put aside as pure lands by Pinellas County.

Managed together with Southwest Florida Water Administration District, this sprawling and largely soggy panorama protects 9,800 acres of the Brooker Creek watershed.

Bottomland forest within the watershed

Two separate trailheads present entry to 2 very totally different units of trails. The unique path system, the Pals Path, is a straightforward ramble by pine flatwoods.

Brooker Creek Pals Path Let the sounds of suburbia soften away just some miles east of downtown Tarpon Springs on a 1.9 mile hiking-only loop by pine flatwoods within the Brooker Creek watershed.

The path system accessed through the primary gate of the gated Environmental Training Heart advanced has a gradient of trails from gentle to wild.

Begin the Training Heart Path alongside an accessible boardwalk to succeed in the middle, the place there’s additionally a picnic shelter and restrooms.

Contained in the Environmental Training Heart

Alongside this boardwalk are tags on the bushes giving particulars concerning the financial worth of not chopping them down.

Previous the restrooms, a signboard lists which trails are open immediately. Some shut as a consequence of prescribed burns, wildfires, or as a result of they’re too moist.

Signboard

The 0.9 mile Training Heart Path continues alongside a boardwalk by the swampy and over Brooker Creek, changing into a footpath.

Alongside it, intelligent interpretive panels and stations illustrate the habitats and their inhabitants whereas asking difficult questions.

Interpretive station

The Fowl Blind Path is a 0.2 mile spur off it to a cabin with home windows overlooking a wetland underneath energy transmission traces

A simple 0.4 mile round-trip from the southern trailhead makes it excellent for birders, with a crossing of Brooker Creek itself someplace to identify extra.

Anhinga preening alongside the creek

The Wilderness Path is the place issues get wild. Solely the Flatwoods Path portion is perhaps largely dry on an amble by pine flatwoods for a 1.8 mile loop.

Going deeper on the South Wilderness Path means going even deeper into the floodplain for both a 2.8 or 4.3 mile stroll in bottomland forest.

Rainbow swamp reflections from cypress oils on the water

Regardless of the time of 12 months we’ve tried it, it’s all the time been underneath water. In case you resolve to deal with it, count on soggy footwear and socks and mosquitoes. Convey a climbing stick for steadiness.

All however probably the most hardcore hikers persist with the Training Heart / Flatwoods Path combo, which with including the Fowl Blind Path, works out to 2 miles.

Path junctions are properly marked

Sources

Overview

Location: Tarpon SpringsLength: As much as 6.2 milesTrailhead: 28.1319,-82.6566Address: 3940 Keystone Rd, Tarpon SpringsFees: FreeRestroom: On the environmental training complexLand supervisor: Pinellas CountyPhone: 727-453-6800

No pets or bicycles permitted. Open 7-sunset besides Christmas and the day after Thanksgiving.

Closing time is posted on the trailhead. Insect repellent strongly advisable, in addition to dry footwear and socks for after the hike.

Environmental Training Heart open Thu-Sat 9-4 and Solar 11-4, closed holidays. Fingers-on actions and interpretation of habitats are its essential focus.

Instructions

Hike

Stroll to the shelter that shades the Environmental Training Heart entrance. It has path maps and posts immediately’s closing time for the protect.

This shelter marks the start of the Training Heart Path, which begins as a boardwalk by a swamp

Entry level

Cinnamon ferns cluster alongside the water’s edge. Purple maples showcase crimson leaves in winter.

Interpretive markers are cleverly hidden underneath hinged boards, the higher to guard them from fading within the solar.

Tag on tree

The massive tags noting the greenback worth for sure tree species over the lifetime of a tree are a bit jarring to anybody who loves the woods for what they’re.

Nonetheless, we don’t doubt this instructional characteristic is right here for a function, since Pinellas is Florida’s most built-out county.

Sculptured archway

Clever sculptures mimicking vines arch overhead earlier than the boardwalk leaves the swamp for an island of oak hammock.

Meet a junction at a bench. Buildings are tucked into the forest, signage pointing to numerous options.

Environmental Training Heart

If it’s open, go to the Environmental Training Heart, down the boardwalk straight forward. It comprises reveals and hands-on shows in addition to a present store.

In any other case, flip in direction of the restrooms. Past them is the signal stating which trails are open immediately and one other reminder of the closing time.

Interpretive marker

The broad boardwalk gently winds by the shade of overhanging oaks. Intelligent interpretive indicators name consideration to the change in habitat.

Reaching the floodplain of Brooker Creek, the boardwalk provides railings. The forested swamp extends in all instructions.

A meander by the floodplain

Cypress bushes dominate one part of the swamp, and ferns hold the dry spots on the forest ground well-hidden.

After 1 / 4 mile, the boardwalk ends. The Training Heart Path continues as a footpath, passing a bench.

Nearing the tip of the boardwalk

Cinnamon fern and noticed palmetto mingle beneath the shade of the oaks. Because it beneficial properties a little bit elevation, the path turns into sandy underfoot.

Move a white-tipped marker amid a dense understory of younger oaks, together with scrub species like myrtle oak. Attain a four-way junction at a half mile.

Junction with the Wilderness Path

Bear proper to hitch the Flatwoods / Wilderness Path, blazed with inexperienced and orange-tipped posts and markers.

Sweeping previous dense stands of noticed palmetto punctuated by fluffy longleaf pines, a shift happens when sweetbay begins poking out of the palmetto.

Pine flatwoods with sweetbay (aka loblolly bay)

It’s a tree that loves water, a touch that the habitat goes to alter for the wetter. Mosses type a carpet throughout the footpath on the drop into moist pine flatwoods.

Puddles pool within the path, the low spot. Some are very giant however could be walked round. A descent into bottomland forest quickly follows.

Facet path alongside a low spot

After 0.8 mile, you come to the junction with the Flatwoods Path, and one other reminder of when the park closes. It’s a warning: Wilderness Path South isn’t for the timid.

It’s going to take quite a bit longer than your regular climbing tempo as a consequence of all of the wading. It’s a swamp stroll that may get knee-deep 1 / 4 mile south of this junction.

What’s forward on Wilderness Path South

Make a left to remain on the Flatwoods Path, following inexperienced blazes. True to its identify, the Flatwoods Path immerses in a wholesome pine flatwoods.

The broad footpath is actually a forest highway lined in pine needles from the slash pines, making for straightforward strolling.

Flatwoods Path

Some pines are younger and thin, others mature and stately. Sweetbay and dahoon holly sign this path can even have puddles and soggy spots sure instances of 12 months.

Slowly gaining elevation, strategy and move the junction with Black Water Cutoff at 1.1 miles, the incoming finish of Wilderness Path South.

Approaching the junction

Because the elevation will increase, clumps of sphagnum strictum, a moss that appears like it could take pleasure in water, seem. It prefers drier habitats.

Oaks dominate the decrease cover. At a T intersection, flip left a a inexperienced arrow to stroll beneath towering pines.

Sphagnum strictum

In fall, the purple paintbrush-shaped blooms of deer’s tongue are eye-catching. Also called wild vanilla, it’s a favourite for butterflies to feed on.

Beneath a cover opening to disclose extra tall pines, the footpath is a hall by the noticed palmetto.

Pine flatwoods

At 1.5 miles, meet a Y junction with the Training Heart Path, marked by a lightning bolt sculpture that holds an interpretive marker.

Close by is the Flatwoods Shelter, a platform for ducking out of the rain. The path straight forward returns to the boardwalk to the middle.

Path junction

To remain on the outer loop, bear proper. Reside oaks present a excessive cover over a broad open space within the forest, the place the Reside Oak Shelter sits.

An interpretive signal close to it speaks to modifications in biodiversity as a consequence of human impacts on the land.

Reside Oak Shelter

Proceed straight forward on the subsequent signposted path junction, a shortcut again to the middle, following the Parking Lot signal.

Previous an interpretive panel on gopher tortoises, we noticed a really giant one sharing the path, nibbling at grasses close to a bench.

Hungry gopher tortoise

Meet a T intersection with the Fowl Path at 1.7 miles. Flip proper and stroll down this brief path by the sting of the oak hammock.

The cabin has home windows overlooking a marsh underneath an influence transmission line so that you can quietly spy on birds feeding.

Fowl Blind marsh

Return previous the path junction and are available to the sting of Brooker Creek. It was very stunning to see a big alligator nestled into an ideal spot for sunning.

Cross a bridge and boardwalk over the creek basin. It ends at a second entry level to the path system from the parking space.

Proceed previous the doorway shelter to finish a 2 mile hike.

Alligator alongside Brooker Creek

Path Map

Discover Extra!

Slideshow

See our pictures from Brooker Creek Protect

Close by Adventures

Brooker Creek Headwaters With almost 4 miles of footpaths adjoining the paved Higher Tampa Bay Path, Brooker Creek Headwaters explores the rise of a waterway that nourishes Lake Tarpon.

John Chesnut Sr. Park Weaving by floodplain forests and cypress swamps, the boardwalks and trails of John Chesnut Sr. Park add a spot to pause for wildlife alongside a wild stretch of shoreline on Lake Tarpon.

Path Map (PDF) Official Web site

Articles collectively researched, written, and photographed by Sandra Good friend & John Keatley, Florida authors and publishers of FloridaHikes.com.

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