Photos: Upstateherd / CC BY-SA 4.0 · National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) / U.S. Federal Highway Administration / Public domain · Matthew J Harris / CC BY-SA 4.0
This list has 26 of Florida's 175 or so state parks. Book Blue Spring before you drive: it needs a day-use reservation.
26 places · Florida
Must-seeCreature from the Black Lagoon was filmed here in 1954, and the ranger's riverboat runs the same jungly river past alligators and wading birds. Book ahead: tickets are $8 and reservation only.
Must-seeThe spring run here is made for tubing, clear and cool under cypress and oak, with otters and turtles along the way. Tubing runs year-round from Dampier's Landing, a float of 45 minutes to an hour.
Must-seeThirty-seven thousand acres of prairie and wetland, with fourteen miles of the Myakka River running through. The canopy walkway hangs 25 feet up in the oaks and has a 74-foot tower.
Must-seeNo road reaches it, which is why three miles of white sand stay this quiet. Take the ferry from Honeymoon Island and watch the clock, because if you miss the last boat back you're spending the night.
Must-seeThree beaches share one narrow key, all of them fronting water clear enough to read the bottom from the surface. The park also runs daily snorkel boats to Looe Key, a reef about seven miles out.
Must-seeThe country's first undersea park covers 70 nautical square miles of living reef off Key Largo. Snorkel out to Christ of the Abyss, a 9-foot bronze in 25 feet of water, or stay dry on a glass-bottom boat.
Must-seeFlorida has one cave a ranger will walk you through, and this is it: lit limestone passages hung with stalactites and rippled flowstone. Groups are small and the tour is the only way in, so reserve ahead for a summer visit.
Must-seeKids wade and snorkelers drift the rocks for fish and sea stars in a calm, waist-deep pool the jetties wall off from the Gulf. A shuttle crosses the pass to Shell Island, which has nothing built on it.
Beaches
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Forests
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Lakes & rivers
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Gardens & wildlife
Beaches
Forests
Beaches
Lakes & rivers
Caves
Gardens & wildlife
Springs
Springs
SpringsOther lists that cover the same ground.
24 placesEvery spring on this list stays between 68 and 74 degrees all year, and from mid-November through March the manatees move into Blue Spring and Three Sisters. You watch them from the boardwalk.
20 placesStart here if you haven't picked a coast yet. The wild beaches and the busy ones are mixed together on purpose; the separate Gulf and Atlantic lists split them out once you know which you want.
14 placesFor the days you'd rather carry your own water than hunt for parking. All of it is protected land of one kind or another.
14 placesGo in winter if you can. Manatees crowd the warm springs from mid-November through March, and the wading birds are thickest on the same cool, dry mornings.