Another beautiful Florida State Park is the Little Manatee River just off of US 301 in Wimauma, FL. The weather is amazing today – perfect to visit and enjoy the day.

The Little Manatee River flows almost 40 miles into Tampa Bay and 4.5 miles are within the park. There are several hiking trails, equestrian trails, a campground, picnic pavilions, and new canoe launches.

We drive past the Ranger Station and no one is manning it yet. After parking near the canoe launch, we take a short hike on the main trail head and on the Oxbow Trail.

The website says this river is “one of the most pristine black water rivers in southwest Florida and designated as an Outstanding Florida Water.” It certainly is clear and quite picturesque. It looks to be a good place be to kayak or canoe.

Along the hike we take our photos of the plants which are different from the other parks we’ve explored. There are sand pine, oak scrub, palm trees and of course, restrooms!

Here are some of the unique plants we discovered on the hike.

There were quite a few flowering Farkleberry aka Sparkleberry trees.

Lots of Burnweed, Sweetgum Trees and ground ferns.

All of our experience was on the southern portion of the park. There is a northern section of the park on the other side of the Little Manatee River that has a 6.5 mile hiking trail. It is considered a wilderness area.

This park is definitely worth a visit for either picnicking, camping, canoe/kayaking, or like us – just because it is a peaceful way to spend a beautiful Florida day.