Holiday Weekend at Highlands Hammock State Park

As I have mentioned in my two previous posts, we went on our first camping trip of the season over the New Year's weekend at Highlands Hammock State Park.  Located in Sebring, Florida, Highlands Hammock is one of Florida's oldest parks; it opened to the public in 1931.

The Park was established when local citizens came together to promote the hammock - a hardwood stand of trees surrounded by wetlands - as a candidate for national park status.  Just prior to World War II, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed some of the park facilities and the beginnings of a botanical garden.  As of today, the Park has hiking, biking and equestrian trails as well as full facility and primitive campgrounds and a museum showcasing the history of the CCC.

After we set up our campsite, we ventured out on bikes to get familiar with the park.  Ma brought my Solvit Products HoundAbout II Trailer which was perfect for both the paved and off-road bike paths.  The paved path takes you through the different areas of the hammock where you can stop to pick up the hiking trails.  The off-road path lead us alongside the hammock and into the Florida prairie where the primitive campgrounds are located.

We hiked several of the trails including the Young Hammock Trail and the Virgin Hammock Trail.  It was a bit overcast so when we came upon hidden swamps and Cypress stands the reflections in the water were just perfect.

Hint for hiking in Florida: most hikers look down or at least straight ahead, to see what is coming up next but here in Florida, it pays to look up every once in a while.  If you do, you may find you're in a little, wild orange or grapefruit grove.  We found many orange trees and a few grapefruit trees and we shook each one to see if it would give up its ripe fruit.  We ended up taking a delicious grapefruit and an orange back to camp with us.

And though the hammock and Park are home to many species of wildlife including Gopher Tortoises, Scrub Jays, Bald Eagles, Wild Turkeys, Bobcats, Red Shouldered Hawks, owls, alligators and bears, we didn't see any of them the whole time we were there.  We assumed it was because the Park was packed and all that commotion made the wildlife hide away until the park quieted down.  We did see a few Great Blue Herons, several armadillos (that visited our campsite at night) and one very brave raccoon who tried to steal our Prime Rib dinner.

We had such a great time!  Highlands Hammock State Park is a beautiful park to visit.  Our days were filled with exploring the Park on the biking and hiking trails and our evenings were filled with eating yummy food and relaxing by the campfire.  I would definitely visit Highlands Hammock State Park again.

Would you enjoy an adventure like I had at Highlands Hammock State Park?