Visit Glades County, Florida
   
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Places to Be

In Glades County, wilderness is in abundance. Vast tracts of land set aside for the protection of natural resources are open for outdoor recreation, providing birders, hikers, paddlers, and hunters space to roam.  Named for the Everglades, Glades County includes 774 square miles of land and 213 square miles of open water, including 42 miles of shoreline along Lake Okeechobee, 52 miles of pristine canoeing trails at Fisheating Creek, and more than 60 miles of riverfront on the Caloosahatchee and Kissimmee Rivers.

Communities: Moore Haven | Brighton | Buckhead Ridge | Lakeport | Muse | Ortona | Palmdale

Florida Trail

The Florida Trail, our National Scenic Trail in Florida, runs 1,400 miles from Big Cypress National Preserve to Pensacola Beach. As it circles Lake Okeechobee atop the Herbert Hoover Dike, it passes through Glades County for nearly 41 miles.

Read more: Florida Trail

   

Fisheating Creek

If you can do only one paddling trip in Florida, a trip down Fisheating Creek should be your goal. Surrounded by haunting cypress forests, this is primordial Florida, a primeval landscape of water and foliage. "Fisheating Creek opened our eyes to the beauty of Florida," said Niki Butcher, who along with her husband Clyde Butcher, discovered this Florida gem in the early 1980s. "It was the beginning of Clyde's love affair with Florida," she said.

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Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area

The most pristine waterway left in the state of Florida and the the only free-flowing tributary to Lake Okeechobee, lined with haunting bald cypress swamps and dense hardwood hammocks,  the scenic quality of Fisheating Creek remains unmarred by houses and other human intrusions.

Read more: Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area

   

Lake Okeechobee

As the second largest lake entirely within the United States, Lake Okeechobee is a vast freshwater inland sea, fed by marshlands that stretch up both sides of the Lake Wales Ridge all the way to the outskirts of Orlando. Its surface covers 730 square miles, most of which is only navigable by airboat or jonboat due to its marshy shallows. Navigational channels are clearly marked.

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Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail

G.E.T. L.O.S.T.! Go explore the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail through Glades County with assistance from our new brochure on what to see and do along the trail. Ideal for hiking and bicycling, the trail is part of the Florida Trail, our National Scenic Trail in Florida, and provides a mix of paved and unpaved surfaces atop the Herbert Hoover Dike, with a 3-mile paved bicycle trail segment paralleling SR 78 through the Fisheating Creek floodplain.

Read more: Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail

   

Platt Branch Wildlife and Environmental Area

Established to protect wildlife habitats along the southern tip of the Lake Wales Ridge, Platt Branch Wildlife and Environmental Area is a 1,972 acre mosaic of old-growth longleaf pine forests favored by red-cockaded woodpeckers, broad open prairies, scrub plants on ancient sands, rare cutthroat grass seeps, and cypress forests along the edge of Fisheating Creek.

Read more: Platt Branch Wildlife and Environmental Area