Conklin's Gully — Attraction in Town of Naples

These hiking trails have multiple levels. I would have given it more stars, but we found the north entrance...then spent a good extra 1/2 hour trying to find the south entrance or the entrance to the lighter trail. Then the map at the bulkhead though marked, was unclear as to where the waterfalls were located. There are two paths at the beginning of the trail. One leads through the creek, the other up and to the right. We tried the creek and it would definitely had been the right path had it not been summer and so many bugs. (We forgot bug spray) So, we then tried the right path. If you are athletic and like trails with trees, this is for you! It is an 18-20 mile hike from what we could tell, with at least the first 1/3 mostly uphill taking you to the top of the gorge. There are a few spots, one with a creek crossing, the other with a view of the gorge. If you go across the creek and follow the creek to the left you can see one of the falls from the top. We wanted to be in the gorge, down by the falls so were disappointed. I would say, the trails on the map and at the entrance to the bulkhead need to be marked with a sign saying "falls this way" or have a picture of falls, so those who are not from around there can easily find them and have a memorable experience instead. The other trails would be great to have the length marked on the tree as your walking it with an arrow and the length you have to go. That would help you know if you took the correct trail and how far you have left to know if you want to continue. Hope this helps someone else who is not from around the area and wants to experience what all the amazing pictures from...

This is a fantastic park. You have two choices of trails: if there is no water, you can walk along the river and go upstream to the grand waterfall. You'll have to jump between rocks, balance on logs, and shimmy up small cliffs. It's like a jungle gym. Very fun, but you'll need good balance and flexibility. Prepare to get a bit wet. Warning: once you get to the waterfall, you'll have to climb up the cliff on the right of the waterfall in order to get on the trail back. It's very high and very steep. Going back downstream is not recommended at all.

Your other options is to go up on some gravel and dirt trails. It's less interesting, but more easier, a nice woodland forest (great when the color change occurs), and gives you amazing vistas of the bowl like cliffs. But in my opinion, being inside the "bowl" is so much more fun. You get get to the first one pretty easily, and then you can turn back. However, if you want a bigger challenge, you can go upstream the second on and even get to the...

This is an amazing and rugged gorge where you can creek walk the entire length or hike up the hill to the rim trail and follow along the gorge from above. The first time we did this hike we walked from the parking area up the steep path to the top of the gorge which afforded amazing views down the sheer drop below. As we were up there we saw many people enjoying the creek below so we walked a bit further and found a spot where we could get back down into the gorge and we continued up in the creek to the final waterfall. On the way back we walked the entire gorge back down in the creek bed.

There are a few spots where you need to use a rope to climb up next to the large waterfalls and a couple more spots where you have to hold onto the ledge and rock faces to make sure you don't slip into the water below - but nothing extremely dangerous as long as you're slow and careful.

Wear shoes you don't mind getting wet. There's no bathrooms at the main parking...