Matheson Hammock is one of my favorite places to hike. From the Coral Gables Youth Center, it’s about an 11-mile roundtrip walk and will take around 4 hours if you spend some time hanging out at the waterfront. The one problem is that if you go after heavy rain or even just during the rainy season, be prepared to get your feet wet if you use the path from Old Cutler to the Matheson waterfront. My advice would be to walk along the road at that point. The path is close enough to see the road in case you get to an area that is flooded. Most of the walk is along the Old Cutler Road bike path, so be prepared to watch for bikers especially early in the morning and on weekends. There is plenty of shade along the path and a lot of beautiful homes. Although there is typically a lot of traffic on Old Cutler, the path is offset from the road and it is mostly safe. As with any urban hiking, pay attention and don’t assume cars will see you or prepare to stop. Inside the park, there are some restrooms, and you could also take a pit stop at the Starbucks on US1 near Le Jeune Road.
Matheson Hammock Park itself is worth the walk. Established in the 1930s as one of Miami-Dade’s original county parks, it’s best known for its atoll pool: a man-made saltwater lagoon separated from Biscayne Bay by a curved rock breakwater, so the water stays calm and shallow even when the bay itself is choppy. The park also has a working marina, a mangrove-lined shoreline, and picnic areas shaded by royal palms and gumbo-limbo trees. It’s a popular spot for families, and on weekends the atoll pool in particular can get crowded, so an early start makes for a much quieter visit.
There’s a small per-vehicle entry fee at the park gate if you’re driving in, though arriving on foot from the Coral Gables Youth Center sidesteps that entirely. Tide matters more than you’d expect: at low tide, some of the shallower mangrove-adjacent stretches can get muddy, so it’s worth checking a tide chart before you go if you want to keep your shoes clean. The park connects easily to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden just to the north, which makes for a good add-on if you’ve still got legs left after the round trip.
The Old Cutler path that connects the two ends is itself historic. Old Cutler Road was laid down in the early 1900s as one of the region’s first rock roads, linking Coconut Grove to the farmland further south, and much of the tree canopy along the way, especially the banyans, dates back nearly as long. It’s one of the shadiest stretches of urban trail in Miami-Dade, which matters a lot in summer, and it threads past some of Coral Gables’ and Pinecrest’s grander waterfront homes before opening up onto the bay near the park.
Very rarely will you find hills or any significant elevation to worry about when hiking in Miami, so the trail is not difficult, but it is long. Bring some water, a couple of snacks, and maybe a small umbrella or poncho.
If you’d rather not do the full round trip on foot, Miami-Dade’s Metrobus system runs along South Dixie Highway not far from the Coral Gables Youth Center and can shorten the return leg considerably, or you can always arrange a ride back once you’ve had your fill of the atoll pool and the mangroves along the shoreline.
Related hikes: the Biltmore Hotel and Cape Florida.
