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Submission
A free camping reservation is required and must be displayed.
Visited this park with the 2020 Hillsborough county Hiking Spree. This particular park has a separate parking area and then a walk of about 100 yards before you actually enter the park. It's an easy stroll among Cypress trees and medium sized oaks. The shade canopy cover is about 40% to 50% of the hikeing trails.
Make sure you bring water and bug repellent. There are no restrooms or bench seating areas in this park.
Park your car. And walk to the south on the right hand side the opening will be upon you. It's up the street, and keep and eye out on the right/ There is an unofficial opening, but sometimes it's flooded out; keep going and you'll see the official opening to the trails. Many miles of beautiful trails. There is no camping, restrooms, use of bikes or fires. Not at this location.
Update 6/5/22: Wear old shoes if it has rained, trails pretty wet and can't avoid some of the bigger puddles. I thought it was fun. Did the red trail today which was fine, but the yellow trail and blue spur are prettier and a better walk if your time is limited. I noticed some directional arrows today which were helpful.
Hiked the yellow trail and blue spur trail on a Saturday afternoon, 3/19/22. Trails were marked and well maintained and not crowded at all. I could see spots that would be wet during the rainy season but were dry at this time. Lots of attractive areas and varied scenery. Pine flatland, oak hammock and even palm forest. Loved it. Just knocked off a star because there are several side "trails" which are not trails but instead access points for maintenance but are not marked so can be confusing. Also, there should be a sign after the boardwalk when walking back to the exit indicating which direction the exit is.
A very nice set of trails tucked away in between the 75 and 275 highways. Pet friendly, but not for Biking.
You enter the parking off of New Tampa Blvd onto Lizards Trail Rd and then you need to walk the sidewalk to the preserve hiking entrance. The parking lot is small but probably adequate for most of the daily traffic. There are some covered picnic tables, a bike rack, and trash cans as well as the park info kiosk. The walk to the entrance is about a quarter mile but unfortunately part of it does not have a good sidewalk and requires you to walk on Lizards Trail Rd road. Once you get to the entrance off of the New Tampa Blvd sidewalk you are able to connect to a boardwalk which leads to 3 trails (red, yellow, and blue). These trails are all large enough for a service vehicle (most of them you can see the tire tracks from the vehicles) and they don’t have any obstructions other than mud/water here and there. Definitely not recommended to visit this preserve immediately after a rainstorm as it would be a muddy mess.
The three trails in total (including the walk from the parking lot) is listed as being 3.22 miles but you will easily make it about 4 miles roundtrip if you do all the loops. While there are some color markers on the trails, there are multiple confusing areas where the trails meet with other service roads that look the same, so be on the lookout for more color markers each time you pass these intersections. Also the trails are shady is some areas but open in others, so sun protection (and bug spray) are recommended.
