Telegraph Creek Preserve

"Telegraph Creek is one of my favorite wild places I enjoy visiting for a hike. The small gate is open during daylight hours and the trails are well marked with poles and maps. The Green trail still had standing water the Saturday before Christmas. My son and I will come back when it is drier. Historically this was a part of the northern Everglades. Depending on the time of year determines what is in bloom or edible. You may find persimmons, blueberries, and wild grapes. Please leave them for the wildlife. St. John’s Wort was in bloom, the four petal variety. Slash pines offered fresh food for the squirrels in form of pine cones. The sounds of traffic and civilization fall away and are replaced with sounds of occasional birds, wind whispering through the pines, and the cattle who wonder if you are bringing them something to eat. Be aware of your surroundings! Evidence of wild pigs what evident, including an encounter with a mama and babies. Fortunately they ran away from us. The beautiful doe we startled was beautiful and healthy. We saw many paw prints along the trails."

"Wonderful Nature Trail! When we first pulled up, we thought it was locked up but no! That's just to keep vehicles from driving in, and animals getting out. You can walk up to the gates, unhook the chain and walk right in. Make sure you read the rules signs! We saw so many animals on this nature trail because of how far it is from the busy highway roads and loud city. I've been here a few times and I actually saw deer! I was impressed. The place is so beautiful, you can sit down and sleep somewhere if you wanted to. Obviously that's not very safe to do so, make sure you have a battle buddy with you just in case for ANYTHING. Bring water, snacks, and a full charged phone. This is not a short walk, it took me about 3 hours to get through this trail if you take your time! It is stroller friendly and wheelchair friendly, but please be sure to have someone with you."

"Gate looks locked, it is NOT! Part of the trail is shaded. The loop took me about one hour. No access to the creek. Saw deer. The entrance to Bob Janes Preserve is in the back of this preserve. No restrooms."

"Quiet preserve with a couple of deer spotted on the trail in the afternoon. The western trail is fairly well shaded and runs along the creek with is visible in a few spots. Signage is good at each trail branch with a map showing where you are and the trails ahead. Wide trails and at least in the winter no water on trails but some are sandy and a bit more difficult to walk."

"Ventured out on a cloudy cool morning to tackle this trail. We did the telegraph creek trail and continued to the Bob Janes trail that connects to it to add an additional mile or so. The total for both trails was 4.1 miles. Trails are well marked but the Bob Janes trail did need some trail maintenance and mow, but still manageable. It did look like there were other trails deeper in that I would like to try and get to another time. Some areas of the trail were muddy and had some standing water, but easy to get around. I could see this being hot to hike in the summer since some areas are open, but very nice hike overall. Some pretty areas of huge oak trees with the hanging spanish moss. Quiet hike in nature is the way to go, recommend if up for a nice hike. Thank you Lee Co for preserving this 20/20 land. There is a small chain that you unwrap to open the front side gate as well as gate to enter Bob Janes. From afar it does look locked, but you just need to slide the chain out of the groove and open the gate, just make sure you close gate and wrap the chain around pole and put back into groove to keep gate closed."