On Thanksgiving day this year my family was camping in the Tampa area. We decided to check out Alafia River State Park. My husband and son wanted to hit the mountain biking trails there, so my daughter and I figured we would do some hiking at the same time. The park was pretty busy, even though it was a holiday, but that didn't stop us from having a great time.

Alafia River State Park is a great place to go if you want to do some mountain biking in the state of Florida. My husband and son really enjoyed the riding there, logging eight miles or so. There are some places that have rails for bikers (see the picture below). There are a lot of people there biking. You cannot hike on the mountain biking trails, but there are places you can hike at this park.

We hit the hiking trail that ended up being a loop that was around .6 miles long. We did it twice in a row because it was so short. It was a really nice trail though, offering views of the river, bikers, and woods. We enjoyed the trail both times around! 

Alafia River State Park has picnic tables, pavilions, and restrooms. Once we were done hiking, we took a seat at one of the pavilions and people watched and read, while we waited for the guys to finish their biking. 

My son loved this place so much he wanted to back there again on this trip, but we didn't have the time. We'll have to hit that up another time we are in the area.

Alafia River State Park is the place you want to go if you like non-paved biking. There's not much offered in the way of hiking trails, but we still enjoyed our time there.