Lettuce Lake Regional Park 4.2 (reviews)

It's so much fun to get out into nature!  The fresh air...the wildlife....at the deliciously named Lettuce Lake Regional Park you can spend the day with your family in among the 240 acres which offers a range of activities to keep you busy with!

For those wanting a relaxing day, enjoy the call of the birds and the rays of sun shining down on you, there are wooded picnic areas that you can enjoy your packed lunch in, as well as a fun playground that kids can run off and enjoy as parents sit and talk among the flowers. 

For those slightly more active families, get out in the thick of it and take on the bike path and jogging trail (there is even a fitness course there for you to follow!) - or just take a stroll through the park. 

Anyone interested in learning about the nature that you are in, there is an interpretive center with exhibits that can explain everything you are looking at, which leads to a 3,500 ft boardwalk and an observation tower where you can try and spot the extensive variety of wildlife in the area!

There are canoes and kayaks to be rented, or take up a spot of fishing on the dock. The park is your oyster!

More than half the park lies in the natural floodplain of the Hillsborough River, which means it consists of a hardwood swamp forest.  This very cool feature provides a natural storage reservoir for the floodwater, and in turn means it improves the water quality!

See - you're learning already and you haven't even arrived.  Imagine what cool facts you will learn when you're out and about right in there surrounded by it all! 

To top it all offer, every weekend at 8:30am there are free guided tours where you are taken through the boardwalk and along the river, where you might even see an alligator!  They also hold educational programs for kids on weekends too. 

Don't forget your walking shoes and camera!