Grassy Waters Preserve
Grassy Waters Preserve is a 23 square-mile area of preserved Everglades ecology in the middle of crowded suburbia – terrible Northlake traffic, strip-malls as far as the eyes can see, and dense neighborhoods. So when you turn off of the 4 and 6 lane highways into the different entrances of this park, you soon forget that you are still so close to urban living. There are some very nice trails, a nature center, and lots of opportunity to catch sight of a big gator or an eagle. Read a little park history here.
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Apoxee Trail
First, as I started writing this blog post, I posted the picture of the sign above and realized I missed something! All around South Florida, people are painting and leaving rocks in places for other people to find them – like a fun scavenger hunt. I totally missed the one here!!
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I was lucky enough to get out of work a little early before my yin yoga class. I decided to go down to Grassy Waters since it has some nice dirt trails for a walrun. I stopped at the Northlake entrances (blue and green trails on the map) first, but the park was about to close at 4:30! Then I went down to the Jog Road entrance (yellow and orange trails) since I could stay in until 6p. The weather was a perfect 68 degrees and I nearly had the trails to myself. I ran into a few people who were pretty noisy and I was kind of irritated at first. Then I thought, “I am writing a blog to make people more aware of the local treasures that are our parks – why am I annoyed that people are out enjoying it??” Everyone was pleasant and friendly without leaving a mess, so ultimately I am really happy to see so many people on a Thursday afternoon enjoying the preserve.
The trails are a mixture of dirt foot tracks, dirt and gravel roads, and boardwalk. Although my yard is super sad about the lack of rain, the drought is helping to make my run a lot easier today. This park gets submerged pretty easily in the wet season and will have some of the entrances closed off to limit access. Jeff and I did a big 6 mile walk from this entrance when we first moved here. We went to try again a few months later and couldn’t get more than a half mile in without finding mud up to our ankles and water everywhere.
Despite the drought, I still found a low area on the trail that was underwater and impassible without dipping your sneakers underwater. I turned around here and ran along a couple other arms of the trail. I am so glad I didn’t do the long loop in the other direction to find this – it would have been a 10 mile run instead of a 5 mile run today (or I would have had wet sneakers)!
Many of the shadier, wooded sections also have the dirt and mud turned up along the sides of the trails. I am pretty sure this is from wild hogs rooting through the dirt (we saw them deeper in the park on the longer walk a couple of years ago) – I always have my eyes peeled for big hogs and gators when I am out by myself on these trails. I don’t want to be that news story of “Pieces of Local Vet Found in Gator Stomach”.
In the end, I got back to the car just before the park was closing. Fortunately the gate automatically opens to exit if there are there a little past closing – thanks for not trapping us in!
If I haven’t mentioned it, this park is 100% free with no access pass needed. So amazing to have such beautiful areas free to the public.