Collier-Seminole State Park is a Florida State Park located on US 41, 17 miles (27 km) south of Naples, Florida. The park is the home of a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, the Bay City Walking Dredge used to build the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades. The park includes of 6,430 acres (26 km2) of mangrove swamp, cypress swamps, salt marshes, mangrove river estuaries, and pine flatwoods. Among the wildlife of the park are alligators, raccoons, ospreys, and white ibis. Brown Pelicans, Wood storks, bald eagles, red-cockaded woodpeckers, crocodiles, Florida black bears and big cypress fox squirrels also inhabit the park. Activities include picnicking, hiking, bicycling, and canoeing, camping, wildlife viewing, fishing and boating. Amenities include an RV park, four pavilion picnic shelters, a boat ramp, and a full-facility campground with youth, group and primitive campsites. The park has a number of trails. A 13.6-mile (21.9 km) canoe trail that flows down the Blackwater River through a mangrove forest. A 6.5-mile (10.5 km) hiking trail runs through the park. A .9 mile nature trail features a boardwalk system and observation platform that overlooks the salt marsh. The park is open from 8:00AM until sundown year round.
Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park – Approximately twenty miles long and five miles wide, the Fakahatchee Strand is a swamp forest that hosts a number of rare and endangered tropical plant species. It is the only place in the world where bald cypress trees and royal palms share the forest canopy. Wildlife such as the Florida panther, American alligator, White-tailed deer and Black bear may be spotted.
Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located in southwestern Florida, twenty miles east of Naples, in the upper segment of the Fakahatchee Strand of the Big Cypress Swamp. It is north of I-75 and west of SR 29. The 26,400 acre (107 km²) refuge was established in 1989 under the Endangered Species Act, to protect the endangered Florida Panther, as well as other threatened plant and animal species. Besides the panthers, the refuge is home to Big Cypress fox squirrels, bobcats, black bears, alligators, swallow-tailed kites and several wood stork rookeries. It is part of a network of private land and government protected areas. To protect the panther and other endangered inhabitants, general public use is only available at the southeast corner of the refuge, on designated hiking trails. All other areas are can only be seen by way of limited tours.
Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 20 miles southeast of Naples, and south of SR 41 near Goodland. A chain of mangrove islets off the coast, one of the largest expanses of mangrove estuary in North America. About 30% of the refuge (8,000 acres) is mangrove forest, 16,000 acres marine water, and 11,000 acres is freshwater marshland and other habitat.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Collier County
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Collier County - updated May 2024
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Collier County Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
