Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Wednesday, January 12, 1977, page 17 (of 24)
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times/guide
Wednesday, January 12, 1977 TIMES/GUIDE 25 entertainment
Trail tours in South Dade It's back to nature and it's free
By DOROTHY STEIN Staff Writer Nature lovers, put on your sensible walking shoes and take advantage of the free nature trail tours offered by the Parks and Recreation Department. These are available at several parks in the South Dade area and are intended to help acquaint the public with our local flora and fauna. Regularly scheduled tours take place October through May at Castellow Hammock Park, 22301 SW 162nd Ave. The walk, which takes about an hour, has a different emphasis each month, involving some aspect of this hammock area of tropical hardwood and overgrown pineland. The emphasis is on tree identification, geology, or the origin of plants and animals. During January and February these nature walks will be Saturdays at 2:30 p.m., but may be switched to another day thereafter. Therefore it's best to call first (245-4321). At Redland Fruit and Spice Park, 248 Street and Redland Road in Homestead, three nature and trail walks are given weekly, Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Sundays at 1 and 3:30 p.m. On these walks, guides point out the various tropical fruits, explaining how and when they're grown, and answer questions. Special interest groups may schedule private tours by calling 247-5727. Matheson Hammock Park, 9610 Old Cutler Rd., has trail walks once a month. Here they will learn about the formation of the hammock, tree and shrub identification and how these were probably utilized by the early settlers and Indians. Other topics include poisonous plants, geological formations and the animals found in the hammock area. Another park offering nature trail walks is Chekika State Recreation Area (formerly called Grossman Hammock Park), 24200 SW 160 St. This park, however, is intended specifically for overnight camping, and is presently undergoing a major facelifting to make it more enjoyable for campers. Two nature trails are found here, one of which is temporarily under water, due to recent heavy rains. When dry, it runs approximately three miles through the sawgrass, and is similar to those found in the Everglades. A 20-minute self-guided tour takes campers along the other trail, by means of descriptive pamphlets which are numbered to correspond to the 20 nature stations found along the way. These tours are generally scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays, but may be arranged whenever enough interested people get together. Two nights a week, campers may also attend campfire talks and/or slide shows given by volunteer rangers, involving the historical background of the hammock area. For more information about Chekika, named for a Spanish Seminole chieftain, call 253-0950. Camp Owaissa Bauer, in Homestead, offers tours for groups only. People interested in scheduling these tours may call 247-6016. One of nature's creatures that you may see while walking the trails, is an Indigo snake such as the one that naturalist Mary Anne Ogden is showing these children visiting Castellow Hammock (the Indigo is a protected species and quite harmless), and nestled among the trees at Castelow Hammock is the environmental education center.
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