It encompasses 632,890 acres (988.89 sq mi; 2,561.2 km2)[1] and is the only national forest located in the Florida Panhandle.

The National Forest provides water and land-based outdoors activities such as off-road biking, hiking, swimming, boating, hunting, fishing, horse-back riding, and off-road ATV usage.

In descending order of forest land area it is located in parts of Liberty, Wakulla, Leon, and Franklin counties.

Modern gun season for large game starts Thanksgiving weekend and ends in January.

[7] Near the floodplains of spring-fed rivers grow southern coastal plain hydric hammocks, dense forests of evergreen and deciduous hardwood trees.