Highland Hammock

Highland Hammock State Park is just outside of Sebring in central Florida. Hammock is a Native American word for forest, in case you were wondering. Our campsite was in a forest under a big oak tree with plenty of acorns and resident squirrels. Our site was large, although relatively open.

The park has a great car/bike route through the forest with many trails going through different parts of the forest.

Our first stop was this magnificent, 1000 year old oak tree. Its circumference is 36 feet. What tales it could tell!

Next we walked along a boardwalk through a Cypress forest. The walkway was more stable than it looked. However we did watch our steps.

The cypress trees were everywhere. Those are high water mark on the trees.

The pond was also an alligator nursery. This little guy was about 1 ½ feet long. Alligators grow about a foot a year for the first three years so this guy was a little over a year old. We were told that mother – a 7 foot alligator – was nearby, but missed seeing her.

We tried another walk through an old growth hammock forest. About halfway along the trail, we came across this guy enjoying the morning sun, stretched out across the pathway. And he was not going to move. Karen tried stomping the ground to announce our presence. He then slowly moved a bit to the side, waited awhile, then turned around and started to come towards her. Karen then decided to let him enjoy the sun on the path all to himself, reversed direction on the trail and tried to catch up with me. Our best guess is that this was a 4-5 foot water moccasin, one of the 4 poisonous snakes in Florida.

We carried on and tried another trail through an area heavily populated with ferns. There we were treated to a view of this incredible butterfly – we think it is a tiger swallowtail and it must have had a 5 inch wing span. The butterfly was feeding on a flower right beside the path and allowed Karen to get off several great shots.

Our time in the Southern half of Florida has drawn to a close. Our next booking is 200 km North in St. Augustine – on the Florida East coast near the Florida/Georgia border.