PARKS & OUTDOORS
Weekiwachee Preserve
Hernando County · Gulf Coast
Eleven thousand acres of old limestone quarry, where the flooded pits have turned a hard blue and black bears still use the ground.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Weekiwachee Preserve covers 11,000 acres near Hernando Beach, at 2345 Osowaw Boulevard in Spring Hill, and takes its name from the river along its northern edge. It was a limestone mine. The worked-out pits filled with water and became a chain of lakes that run a hard blue, because limestone particles stay suspended in them; under a gray sky they go green instead. Around the lakes are meadows, rock mounds and white sand. The rest of the preserve is salt marsh, pine flatwoods, floodplain forest and scrub, and taken with the public land next to it this is the largest piece of Florida black bear habitat left anywhere on the peninsular Gulf coast. The main walk is a 5.5-mile interpretive loop, with spur trails that add up to more than fourteen miles if you want them. Cycling is allowed on marked routes, and paddling and fishing in the places set aside for it. There are two ways in, the main entrance in Spring Hill and a walk-in entrance on Shoal Line Road near Hernando Beach. It opens sunrise to sunset and costs nothing. There is a portable toilet and no drinking water. No pets, no swimming, and the trails do not reach the river
Keep comparing