January-February 2025

For my earlier articles on fishing Collier-Seminole State Park, see:

https://hooknfly.com/2023/04/12/the-bountiful-blackwater-river-collier-seminole-state-park/ and https://hooknfly.com/2019/04/26/collier-seminole-state-park-surprise-serendipitous-snook/

Overview

The Flatwoods Trail in Collier-Seminole State Park near Naples in southwest Florida is an excellent hike for families with kids as well as a good easy trip for bicyclists.  It utilizes a wide, mowed park service road for 3/4ths of its 2.5-mile length and a short well-marked and maintained segment of the Florida Trail for the rest that is easy to navigate by foot. 

Despite its proximity to urban conglomeration of Naples, the trail is lightly used because visitors must register at the park headquarters and obtain a combination to the gated trailhead.  It is a great trip after a rain or early in the winter dry season when many other trails in the area are soaked, requiring  wading and slip sliding through the muck.  And even if the service road has some puddles after a rain, they are easy to skirt without getting wet.  As a bonus, just a few miles from the city it offers quiet, true wilderness on the edge of the Everglades that is a great way to get to know a range of Glades environments from prairie to slash pine forests that transition into bald cypress strands and mangroves.  There’s a chance to see deer, bear, and even Florida Panthers but also a host of other interesting smaller critters like shrews and tree snails as well as beautiful birds such as large pileated woodpeckers. 

There are also splendid wildflowers starting to pop out in early spring that attract colorful, exotic looking butterflies.  On top of all that, there’s a small pond that offers anglers a chance to fish for bass and colorful cichlids.

Getting There And Getting Started

The trail can be accessed from either east or west along the well-maintained US Highway 41, the Tamiami Trail.  The gated entry to the trail is located just east of the main gate to Collier-Seminole State Park and about 30 minutes from downtown Naples.  From Everglades City to the east, the drive is about 23 miles  and 30 minutes. 

Because the trailhead is gated—which is one reason the trail is only lightly used—visitors must first check-in at the ranger shed just inside the well-marked entrance to the state park off US 41.  There visitors pay a park entrance fee or show a state parks pass and will receive the combination to the trailhead gate lock.  Then it’s on to the Flatwoods trailhead (also known as the Adventure Trail) which is located at a turnout to the north off of US 41 about ¾ mile east of  the main park entrance.

The Hike

Once inside the gate off US 41, which should be closed and relocked after passing through, it is a short drive to the trailhead where there is ample parking at the service road gate along the small scenic pond.  I recommend hiking along the park service road from here although there is an option to use a narrower trail as depicted on the trailhead sign.  That path will intersect with the service road to the north in about ¼ mile.

This first segment is through a slash pine forest that provides good habit for deer, bear, and panthers. 

Slash pine are a native evergreen conifer with bark that looks like it has been slashed with an ax.  But my local friends tell me the word “slash” also means “swamp” in the south, hence pine trees that can grow and thrive in wet conditions.  They grow rapidly and live for about 200 years.  Slash pine forests tend to have an open canopy that allows light to penetrate to the forest floor which encourages growth of vegetation for denizens of the forest to dine upon and seek shelter.  Pine flatwoods typically grow in low, flat land with sandy soils.

You can see scorched trees here and there, this being a fire-dependent ecosystem where regular burning, both natural and prescribed, is required to maintain an open plant community. 

I find the key to really enjoying this environment is to not only look up and into the trees to spot birds and large wildlife but also to keep an eye focused on the ground close by looking for little things—flowers, tree snail shells, interesting small critters like shrews and lizards.  Kids are often better at that than adults. Right on cue, I soon I see some lovely wildflowers like the bright yellow tickseeds and dainty blue-eyed grass that the colorful and intricately marked Buckeye and White Peacock butterflies can’t resist. 

In about 15 minutes and a half mile in, you will come to a fork in the road—stay right and continue hiking through the slash pine woods.

Soon you will start to see some bald cypress to the east, marking the transition to a wetter environment. They are one of the few conifers that drop their needles every fall and put out new ones in the spring.  During the rainy summer season, the cypress trees to the east will be standing in ankle-deep water and maybe more, one of the few trees that can grow and actually thrive in the wet environment.  Hiking is a real adventure then!

Continue on for another 15 minutes and quarter mile–about a mile from the trailhead—where the suggested route veers left off the service road and continues on to the northwest on a well-marked and maintained stretch of the Florida Trail. 

While it is a tad more challenging for kids, it’s still an easy hike and provides a great opportunity to ramble through a prairie environment that is a surprise to many who associate the Everglades with swamps, tall saw grass, and alligators. 

Here you will see winsome wildflowers and birds like the small white-eyed vireo and the raucous gray catbird.  Later in the spring the flashy Eastern Lubber Grasshopper makes its appearance. 

Before starting up the Florida Trail, you can take a little side trip as I did and continue up the service road where it dead ends at the park boundary in another quarter of a mile.  It’s always surprising to see what you find on these peregrinations.  This time I came across a little shrew that had apparently breathed its last not long ago and a blue crab claw. I puzzled over the fate of that little critter that is still soft to the touch or how that claw got way back here away from any water.

 (As an aside, I caution against taking the turnoff to the Florida Trail that heads southeast to the right and circles back to the trailhead.  This section will be much wetter most of the year, and the time I hiked it in February of 2025 a portion had been bisected and obliterated in part by a vehicle access road for fire fighters.  I ended up losing the trail and wandering into a marshy area further south.  If you choose to take this route, be sure to check with the state park rangers about its condition.)

The Florida Trail section of the hike that I recommend weaves in and out of the prairie and the slash pine woods for about a third of a mile.  I enjoy the wildflowers and changing vegetation like the saw palmetto stand fringed by delicate looking yellow flowers poking through the prairie grass then into a mixed slash pine/bald cypress stand. 

Soon the trail emerges into an opening and where it intersects with the west fork of the park service road that will take me back to the trailhead. 

I stop to take a drink and get my bearings, then turn left to the southeast off the Florida Trail.  Now the fun begins.  Around the bend is a small puddle of water on the road ahead of me, and I see a large bird swoop down for a drink.  First I think vulture, but then see a patch of red its head—what a surprise, a  pileated woodpecker on the ground, very unusual. I creep up slowly for a photo, but of course the big shy bird—the biggest of the woodpecker clan in North America that measures up to twenty inches with a wingspan of 30 inches– flees to a tree back in the woods. 

There he hides while chastising me with his loud staccato call.  I sneak behind a nearby stand of saw palmetto, and soon the curious bird peers around the tree for a look.  I manage to get a good telephoto profile shot before he spots me and flies off. 

I am still chuckling at his antics as I continue down the road where I see another big bird ahead.  This one really is a vulture, and he is feasting on something.  I snap a few long-distance photos then move up to inspect.  It looks like some animal has made a meal of a small wading bird, maybe a green heron or a cattle egret—or could even be a woodpecker—and the vulture is getting leftovers. 

I see some racoon tracks, but the pesky coons aren’t likely big enough to take down a bird that size.  Maybe a bear or a panther?  The circle of life.

Next some big, odd-looking fungi catch my eye.  One that resembles a mushroom a bit and has a striking geometric design. It is attached firmly to a stump.  It’s called Polyporaceae and is reportedly poisonous.  Another nearby with the moniker mouthful of Sparassidaceae is also known as cauliflower fungus! Aptly named!

Continuing on the short jaunt back to the fork in the road, I spy spring flowers starting to emerge.  Dainty Ontario lobelia, salt marsh aster, puffy narrowleaf silkgrass, and milkweed, a butterfly favorite.

From the fork on the short distance back south to the trailhead, I enjoy a gentle breeze beneath a warm sunny sky.  I haven’t seen a sole on the trail except for the friendly squadron of park fire fighters in their pickups.  It’s been delightful to be immersed in nature with all its surprises and savor the quiet of the wilderness so close to a sprawling urban area.  Next time I will remember to bring my fishing rod!!