Scenic Walking Trail Near Me: Simpson Park's Old-Growth Hammock in Brickell

Simpson Park is a forest, not a lawn. The City of Miami preserve at 55 SW 17 Road keeps a little over eight acres of tropical hardwood hammock a few blocks from the Brickell towers, open Monday to Sunday from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. One timing note before you go: the city has closed the park and trail from October 10 to October 26, 2026 to set up its free Halloween event, so plan a scenic walking trail near me outing in Brickell for October 27 or later.

Before Brickell was a skyline, it was Brickell Hammock, a dense coastal forest growing on a ridge of limestone along the bay. In 1913 a group of residents asked the city to buy 5.5 acres of that native hammock from Mary Brickell, whose family name the whole district still carries. The tract opened as Jungle Park and kept that name until 1931, and it is one of the few pieces of the original forest still standing in the neighborhood.

The park takes its current name from Charles Torrey Simpson, a naturalist and author who lived from 1846 to 1932 and settled in South Florida in 1902. The city credits him with persuading officials to protect part of Brickell Hammock, and the park was renamed and dedicated to him in 1931. Three adjacent acres were added in 1940, and the Memorial Garden Center went up in 1941, bringing the preserve close to its present size.

The trail is short on paper. The city brochure map breaks it into three legs of 0.14, 0.12 and 0.24 miles, so the full circuit is about half a mile. What makes it worth the trip is density: the city counts more than 162 plant species in the preserve, at least 96 of them native, and lists 15 endangered and nine threatened species among them. Few half-miles in Miami pack in that much living material per step.

Underfoot is the reason the forest survived. This is a rockland hammock, a forest rooted in jagged oolitic limestone rather than deep soil, and you will see the grey rock break through the leaf litter along the edges of the path. Look for gumbo-limbo trunks with peeling red bark, strangler figs wrapping their hosts, and wild coffee in the understory. The city notes that the preserve is designated an Old Growth Forest Community, which explains why the canopy feels so closed overhead.

The best way to see the hammock on a first visit is with someone who knows the plants. The city has resumed free Nature Walk Tours every Saturday and Sunday, at 10:30 to 11:30 am and again at 1:30 to 2:30 pm. Each tour takes a maximum of 20 people on a first come, first served basis, so arrive a little early rather than right on the half hour, since late arrivals can be turned away once the group is full.

Go with the guide if you have never walked a hammock before, and skip the guided walk if you already know your gumbo-limbo from your poisonwood and just want quiet. On your own, the trail takes 20 to 30 minutes at a slow pace, which leaves time for a second slow lap to notice how quickly the canopy muffles the traffic outside.

The preserve is managed for the plants first and visitors second, and the rules follow from that. Dogs are not allowed in the park, including on a leash, which catches out Brickell residents who walk everywhere with their dogs. Stay on the marked path, because the limestone pinnacles are sharp and the understory is easily trampled. Leave plants, seeds and fruit where they are, including the red wild coffee berries that are so tempting to pocket.

The hours are also shorter than most city parks. The current city listing gives 8:00 am to 3:00 pm every day, which rules out a sunset walk. That makes Simpson Park a morning or early-afternoon outing, ideally paired with lunch in Brickell. When the park reopens after the Halloween closure on October 27, weekday mornings will be the quietest time to have the trail nearly to yourself.

The October closure has a purpose. The city shuts the trail from October 10 to October 26, 2026 to prepare its annual Halloween event, which runs on October 22 and October 23 from 6:00 to 10:00 pm and is free for the community. If you are in Brickell on those two nights, the event is the only way inside the hammock during the closure, and the forest after dark is a very different place from the daytime trail.

Outside that window, the trail is open on its normal schedule. Families with small children will find the half-mile loop manageable, while anyone with mobility limits should know the surface is natural limestone and leaf litter rather than pavement, uneven in places and slick after rain.

Simpson Park sits at the south edge of Brickell, which makes it an easy pairing with two of the oldest sites in Miami. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the 1916 bayfront estate of industrialist James Deering, is at 3251 South Miami Avenue, a short drive or ride south. Its formal gardens make a striking contrast with the wild hammock, and together they show two very different ideas of what a Miami landscape should look like.

Heading north instead, the Miami Circle at 465 Brickell Avenue marks a ring of holes cut into the limestone at the mouth of the Miami River, believed to be almost 2,000 years old. It is a quick stop on a walk along the river, and it uses the same rock you just walked over in the hammock. Between the two, the circle and the preserve make a compact half-day on how much of old Miami still sits under the new one.

Name: Simpson Rockland Hammock Preserve Park, known as Simpson Park. Address: 55 SW 17 Road, Miami, FL 33129. Hours: Monday to Sunday, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. Temporary closure: October 10 to October 26, 2026. Trail: about half a mile in three legs, natural limestone surface. Tours: free nature walks Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm, 20 people maximum. Dogs: not allowed. Size: a little over eight acres of tropical hardwood hammock.