The 2024 CREW Trails Challenge
In collaboration with the Blue Zones Project of Southwest Florida, the CREW Land & Water Trust is pleased to introduce the first annual CREW Trails Challenge.
The CREW Trails Challenge promotes outdoor recreation and exercise while encouraging individuals, families, and other groups to explore CREW’s various nature trails across Collier and Lee counties.
Decades of research has shown that even relatively short recreational outdoor walks benefit not only our physical health, but our emotional wellbeing as well.
Time spent in natural spaces can also make us feel more grateful and compassionate throughout our day, and promote enhanced feelings of generosity, well-being, and humility, while reducing stress and improving social connectedness.
The 2024 CREW Trails Challenge begins on
Monday, January 1st and continues through Friday, May 31st.
The Challenge Card highlights ten different local trails, ranging in length from 1.1 mile to 3.25 miles long.
To complete the CREW Trails Challenge, participants must complete all ten listed trail challenges. There are two ways to complete each trail challenge:
You can either locate and record the unique trail symbol that can be found on CREW Trails Challenge signs posted along each challenge trail....
You can also collect a signature from the CREW Trust trail guide after participating in a guided walk. Participation in CREW Trust’s guided hikes is not a requirement to be eligible for recognition or to be entered into the prize drawing.
To find out more about CREW Trust’s regularly scheduled guided hikes, head on over to http://crewtrust.eventbrite.com.
Free trail maps can be found at the kiosks at every CREW trailhead parking area for those who prefer to complete the trails on their own!
Submit your completed CREW Trails Challenge Card via mail or by e-mail to crewchallenge@crewtrust.org no later than by Friday, June 7, to be recognized for your accomplishment and be entered to win a prize. Twenty winners will be selected at random.
Please take pictures or videos while out on the trails, and post them on social media using the hashtag #CREWTrailsChallenge or tag @crewtrust
The CREW Land & Water Trust was founded in 1989 as a private, non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the water resources and natural communities in and around the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW).
For more than thirty years, CREW Trust has led our community's efforts to protect and preserve CREW – a 70,000+ acre watershed that sustains our drinking water, protects our bays and beaches, safeguards our communities from flooding, powers our local economy, and provides critical habitats for dozens of threatened and endangered species.
Besides being a trusted voice for CREW, CREW Trust also offers a wide variety of recreational and educational outdoor programs for visitors of all ages, interests, and abilities. Most of our programs are free or very low-cost to ensure ability to pay is never a barrier to joining in our adventures.
CREW Trust helps manage four different trail systems across Collier and Lee counties, each offering a diverse array of ecosystems and flora and fauna that will keep you in awe whether its your first visit or your fiftieth.
CREW Trails
- All four CREW Trail systems are open 1-hour before sunrise to 1-hour after sunset, 365 days a year. There are no admission fees.
- There is ample free parking at each trail system, as well as picnic and public toilet facilities.
- Be sure to stop by the trailhead kiosk for trail maps and additional trail and program information.
- Check out www.crewtrust.org for current trail conditions or to download digital trail maps.
Scroll down to learn more about each of CREW’s four trail systems!
CREW Marsh Trails
4600 CR 850 (Corkscrew Road), Immokalee, FL 34142
With six miles of well-marked loop trails, 800' of boardwalk, a primitive campsite, picnic pavilion, an observation deck, and a 20' observation tower, CREW Marsh Trails offers endless opportunities to explore Florida's diverse ecosystems, including a 5,000-acre marsh - the headwaters of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW). CREW Marsh Trails’ system of three marked trails wind around seasonal marshes and through pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, and a popash slough.
Along the way, you’ll likely observe Red-shouldered Hawks, many woodpecker species, Snail Kites, Black-necked Stilts, Wood Storks, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and Swallow-tailed Kites. If you explore the Popash slough, you’ll experience a kaleidoscope of multi-colored lichens and diverse species of epiphytes.
CREW Cypress Dome Trails
3980 CR 850 (Corkscrew Road), Immokalee, FL 34142
With six miles of well-marked loop trails, a primitive campsite and a picnic pavilion, CREW Cypress Dome Trails offers opportunities for hiking and biking and equestrian adventures through pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, wet prairie, a popash slough, and two beautiful cypress domes. CREW Cypress Dome Trails is known for its abundant variety of Fall and Spring wildflowers, as well as deer, bobcats, Florida Panther, and Florida Black bear.
CREW Cypress Dome Trails is also beloved for a rich diversity of bird species, including Crested Caracaras, Turkey Vultures, Carolina Wrens, Roseate Spoonbills, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Swallow-tailed Kites, and dozens more. As a bonus, located right next door is Collier County’s Caracara Prairie Preserve, which can only be accessed via CREW Cypress Dome Trails’ green & white trails.
CREW Bird Rookery Swamp
1295 Shady Hollow Boulevard, Naples, FL 34120
CREW Bird Rookery Swamp’s 12 miles of hiking and biking trails, including a 1400-ft. boardwalk with wheelchair accessibility, will take you along a hiking trail originally constructed in the mid-20th century as a logging railroad tram for the logging of old growth Bald Cypress. Regardless of how much of this trail you explore, you’ll discover something new with every visit.
CREW Bird Rookery Swamp’s cypress, maple and popash dominated strand swamps are teeming with life, including a large variety of wading birds, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, and Little Blue herons, and raptors like Barred Owls, Red-shouldered Hawks, Short-tailed Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, and Swallow-tailed Kites. Undoubtedly, you’ll see otters, an abundance of different kinds of turtles, and of course, alligators. Lucky visitors have even been known to spot elusive Florida panthers, Florida black bears, and bobcats.
CREW Flint Pen Strand
5970 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34135
CREW Flint Pen Strand offers over 10 miles of mixed-use trails through pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, wet prairies and stands of dwarf cypress. It's the perfect destination for hiking, biking, horseback riding, nature study, photography, bird watching, trail running and more. The diversity of CREW Flint Pen Strand’s ecosystems makes it a lively place if you’re looking for wildlife.
With the abundance of snags here, you’ll probably spot Red-bellied, Downy, Pileated and Sapsucker Woodpeckers. You’ll likely also see a diverse assortment of wading birds, Great Horned owls, Red-shouldered Hawks, as well as White-tailed Deer, coyotes, bobcats, otters, Big Cypress Fox Squirrels, and alligators out by the lakes. You might even spot an eagle or two. As a bonus, the six-mile Purple Trail provides a connection between CREW Flint Pen Strand and CREW Bird Rookery Swamp!
ADDRESS:
23998 Corkscrew Road
Estero, FL 33928
E-mail:
crewchallenge@crewtrust.org
Phone:
(239) 657-2253
CREW Land & Water Trust
Instagram: @crewtrust
CREWTrust.eventbrite.com
To Learn More about CREW Trust’s Guided Walks & Educational Programs, visit crewtrust.eventbrite.com or
