Lake Dan Nature Preserve — Attraction in Trinity

This is my favorite place to hike in the Tampa Bay Area. It takes me about 4 hours to hike every trail at a moderate pace. Along the trail, I usually see armadillos, deer, sandhill cranes, rabbits, alligators, anoles, raccoons, and the rare bobcat paw prints. There’s dragonflies, cicadas, butterflies, grasshoppers, and many pollinators abound.

Upsides: ⁃ Birding: I love birding here. Within 5 minutes of being on the trails, I see Northern Parulas, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Grackles, Pileated Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers Mourning Doves, Red-Shouldered Hawks, and Sandhill Cranes. ⁃ Serene landscape: It’s a big, wide open prairie that looks like pre-human colonization Florida. It’s rural, so there’s not much noise pollution. I almost never see other hikers, so it’s very easy to disconnect from modern life and enjoy nature. ⁃ Few stinging bugs: I don’t have to wear bug spray to avoid getting bit ‘round here. Outside of the random paper wasp, I don’t see many bugs folks usually dislike. (This is decidedly not true to the adjoined Lake Frances Preserve, which has many horseflies, mosquitoes, and hornets.)

Downsides: ⁃ Poor park maintenance: The trails are not clearly marked, either on foot or on maps. The marked trails are sometimes calf-high grass that blend into the prairies. There are many trails not included on any maps, so it’s very, very easy to get lost. Some unmarked, staff-only trails are much better maintained than the actual trail hikers should go on. Trails are marked by a blob of spray paint on tree trunks, often awkwardly high in one’s field of vision. Park boundaries are also not clearly defined, which has led to me wandering into 1. the connected Lake Frances Preserve, 2. Pinellas Trail, or 3. neighboring suburbs. Literally cannot overstate how poor the trail marking is for such a nice park. ⁃ No amenities: There are no public restrooms or water fountains. There’s a small playground at the entrance, a trash can, and a picnic table. Along the boardwalk, there are two benches. Past that, there’s no garbage cans, benches, or maps. There’s not ⁃ Little shade: There’s not much tree coverage, so nearly all of the trail is uncovered. The UV is pretty high, so it’s essential to wear (and reapply!) sunscreen or wear UV-protective clothing. ⁃ Horses: Despite many trails being clearly designated hikers only, many trails have ample excrement. It’s manageable during the dry season, but it smells awful during summer.

If you visit, bring lots of water, a physical map, wear sunscreen, and share your location and path with a friend. I like having the Hillsborough trail map and Google Maps satellite map to cross-reference paths because it is so easy...

We visited as part of the 2021 Hillsborough Hiking Spree and hiked the West Spur Trail. This experience was a bit of a mixed bag from a casual visitor's perspective. Straight from the trailhead you pretty quickly enter a lush oak hammock followed by a beautiful and well-maintained boardwalk. From here we could spot egret, ducks, anhinga, and a glossy Ibis (a rare find for me personally). All was looking wonderful. Then you soon reach a point where the trail branches out in two directions. One way, you walk through loose sand then a long stretch of mowed grass fields to a pier on a small lake. Here we observed a hunting pelican, which was very neat to see. There is also a well-defined cypress dome in this area that would serve as a good reference of this natural occurrence. As you return to the fork and head out the other direction, the trail loops around on a somewhat marshy road around palmetto scrub. We did not see much additional wildlife, though we visited during full daylight and didn't expect to. Overall the trails would be well suited to a jog on a cool dry day, but would likely be problematic for motion impaired, and uncomfortable in full sun or...

Had a good time walking around and fishing with the kids. Lots of wildlife and we caught a few bowfin. I wish that there was a bathroom or at least a portable bathroom somewhere onsite and a water fountain. I had seen online that it was a .8 mile hike to get to the 2nd lake, Lake Dan, but it ended up being 1.25 miles so keep that in mind if needed. We were there for 6 hours and only saw one other couple so it was nice and secluded. The playground is small, but the kids still enjoyed it. There is one covered picnic table.

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