Collier-Seminole State Park, State park south of Naples, Florida, US

Collier-Seminole State Park covers 6,430 acres on US 41, 17 miles south of Naples. Its mangrove swamps, cypress swamps, salt marshes, mangrove river estuaries and pine flatwoods shelter alligators, ospreys, wood storks and Florida black bears. Trails include a 13.6-mile canoe trail on the Blackwater River, a 6.5-mile hiking trail and a 0.9-mile boardwalk nature trail with an observation platform over the salt marsh.

During the Seminole Wars of the 1800s, indigenous people found refuge in the dense swamps of this area, which were nearly impossible for outside forces to penetrate. Decades later, the construction of the Tamiami Trail in the 1920s cut through this territory, opening the region to traffic between Tampa and Miami for the first time.

The park's name pairs Barron Gift Collier, the advertising magnate whose Collier County was created in 1923, with the Seminole people who lived in these swamps. The Bay City Walking Dredge, a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, stands in the park; it built the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades. Visitors can also follow a 13.6-mile canoe trail down the Blackwater River through mangrove forest.

The cooler months, roughly from November to March, are the most comfortable time to visit, as heat and insects are less of a factor for hiking, paddling, and cycling. Those exploring the waterways should be aware that the tidal channels near Ten Thousand Islands can be disorienting without a map or local knowledge.

A dredge used during the construction of the Tamiami Trail in the 1920s still sits in the park and can be seen up close. It is one of the few physical remnants of the massive effort it took to push a road through what was then considered impenetrable swampland.