The “Real Florida”

We had a great stay at Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL and learned about “The Real Florida”. Like most people, we thought of Florida as mostly beaches and theme parks. Now that we are official residents of this beautiful state, we were anxious to hear more about its history and culture. We were fortunate to take a tram ride through the park with Ranger Kevin. Highland Hammock is one of the original Florida parks, before state parks were established. This park has a rich history and several different ecosystems: cypress swamp, hammock, and pine flatwoods. Several of the hiking paths have elevated boardwalks that meander through the swamp with cabbage palmettos, ferns, orchids and many other beautiful plants and flowers. Some of the trees are over a thousand years old! Wildlife is also abundant in the park. We saw a water moccasin, eagles, pileated woodpeckers, red-shouldered hawks, barred owls, deer, egrets, alligators, and tons of turtles and lizards. We did NOT see any bears, panthers, or bobcats thankfully. One of our favorite things in this park were the cypress “knees” in the swamp. The featured picture for this blog has some of of what Mike calls “Knee Gnomes”. Can you see their faces? The park also had several excellent running and biking paths that we definitely took advantage of, in addition to the nine hiking trails.

Our next destination is the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. A very different environment, but will definitely have a ton of fun city activities for a change of pace.