Nature & Outdoors

Bartow Area Parks & Recreation Facilities

For information on Parks and Recreation facilities, programs, and events, please call 863-534-0120. For a more detailed look at Bartow area parks, click here.

Circle B Bar Reserve

Another area popular with nature lovers is the Circle B Bar Reserve. This 1,275-acre preserve provides the only public access to Lake Hancock, Polk’s fourth-largest lake.

Cycling

The Bartow area is also a favorite for those who enjoy bicycling. Miles of roadways with a variety of terrain make Bartow an ideal place to enjoy the great outdoors.

Fishing & Boating

Polk County is known as Central Florida’s Lakes Country.

Ft. Fraser Trail

Fort Fraser Trail is 12-foot-wide, 7.75-mile long and runs parallel to U.S. Highway 98 from State Highway 60 (Van Fleet Parkway) in Bartow to County Road 540 (Winter Lake Road) just beyond the PCC/USF campus in Lakeland.

Golf

Golf is extremely popular in Florida, which has more courses per capita than any other state. The Bartow Municipal Golf Course at 190 Idlewood is open to the public.

Hiking, Birding, Horseback Riding

Bartow is a perfect place for a leisurely hike. It’s also the right place for serious nature lovers.

Homeland Heritage Park

Homeland Heritage Park will take you back in time to another era. Homeland Heritage Park was founded in 1985 when the School Board deeded five acres and the Homeland School to the Polk County Board of County Commissioners.

Mosaic Peace River Park

Wander along a boardwalk through tall cypress along the Peace River. The site of an open-pit phosphate mine until the early 1980s, this reclamation project borders the Peace River floodplain, where the boardwalk winds through the floodplain forest out to the river.