Elliott Key Trail

Elliott Key Trail is one of the most unusual hikes in the entire national park system — you have to take a boat just to reach the trailhead. Once on Elliott Key, the largest island in Biscayne, you'll walk a flat, shaded path through a dense tangle of tropical hardwood hammock: gumbo-limbo trees with their peeling red bark, poisonwood (don't touch), and thickets of wild coffee. The trail follows the old roadbed of a never-completed subdivision from the 1960s, so the footing is surprisingly smooth. There's no dramatic summit or overlook here — the payoff is the sheer strangeness of hiking through a Caribbean-feeling jungle seven miles off the Miami coast. This one's perfect for curious explorers who want a trail experience they literally cannot get anywhere else in the Lower 48.