An extremely steep ascent faces you, one of the steepest in the Florida Peninsula. Consider making your own switchbacks as you climb to this lofty spot, which lets you survey all of the hiking you’ve done so far. At 1.7 miles you find a memorial to Allen David Broussard. His family placed quotes on the engraved memorial, and a bronze scrub-jay forever perches on his shoulder, looking out over this incredible panorama.
What goes up must come down. Facing this next slope down off the high ridge, you’ll want a toboggan. Keep left at the fork as the descent slides to the next prairie’s edge. Reaching Marker 19 at a T intersection, make a left and walk along the prairie. After a few footfalls, you meet the junction of the white and blue trails and the outer combination hiking/equestrian trail at Marker 18. Continue straight. Many lichens and mosses, including patches of sand spikemoss, grow beneath small woody shrubs.
You start a long ascent up the ridge, where the trail kisses the sky. Cloaked in pink blooms, sprays of Ashe’s calamint attract bumblebees and butterflies. A deer pauses at the top of the slope before vanishing into a forest only a few feet taller than you. At the crest, don’t follow the curvature, which drops into a deep valley. Go straight ahead and meet the outer loop at Marker 16. Turn left to walk downhill to the prairie. At the fork at Marker 15, the horse trail diverges to the right; stay left. Enough shade is cast by a hammock of sand live oaks to encourage you to stop and rest on a bench overlooking this prairie. You’ve hiked 2.3 miles.
After ascending up and over the ridge, the trail provides you with a panorama of a broad prairie rimmed in saw palmetto. Tall stalks of wheat-colored pinewood dropseed wave in the afternoon breeze. Past Marker 14 is a prairie showcasing the textures of at least seven types of grasses in succession, from sprays of sand cordgrass to tall stands of shortspike bluestem. This is the northern end of the long chain of lakes and prairies. When you reach Marker 13, continue straight to follow the red-tipped posts of the equestrian trail. The sand is more churned up, but this route is worth it. As you climb the hill, look back at the view behind you: across the prairie, framed inside a small oak hammock, you’ll see the sweep of a liquid landscape.
The outer equestrian trail joins in from the right at Marker 43, where several scrub plums with weirdly jointed branches flourish. Marker 42 is next to another prairie pond. The main trail skirts around the prairie, where the live oaks arch to provide a spot of shade. The trail turns and follows the prairie rim, where grasses wave in the wind, and climbs steeply uphill past Marker 41. This is the final climb out of the preserve. You complete the loop at the map box at Marker 2 after 3.4 miles. Continue up the footpath to your right into the oak hammock. It ends at the vault toilet and picnic pavilion adjoining the parking area, wrapping up this 3.5-mile loop.
Following the trail along a prairie pond
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Short Loop. A 2.5-mile alternative to the above hike, the Short Loop focuses on the first two ridges closest to the trailhead, and the valleys between them. Following a blue-blazed trail between Marker 9 and Marker 7, it leads you along a showy series of flatwoods ponds. Once you’re up and over the second ridge, use the trail between Marker 4 and Marker 41 for one last panorama across a wet prairie.
2. Long Loop. The 5.5-mile Long Loop veers off the main route just before the steep climb to the statue, adding another partial loop to the hike we describe. It accesses a primitive campsite added since the prior edition of this guidebook. Contact the preserve at 863-696-1112 if you’re interested in camping there. A fee must be paid in advance.
3. Equestrian Loop. For a real challenge in this soft sand, follow the 8-mile loop blazed with red-tipped posts. It pushes to the edge of the preserve boundaries in most directions and is well-marked on the map. Bring plenty of water for this hike.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Port Hatchineha Campground, 15050 Hatchineha Road, Haines City, FL 33844 (863-438-0228, polk-county.net)
Cherry Pocket Fish Camp, 3100 Canal Road, Lake Wales, FL 33898 (863-439-2031, cherrypocket.com)
Lake Kissimmee State Park
Total distance: 15.6 miles in two loops along a network of interconnected trails.
Hiking time: 7–8 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: $4–5 per vehicle. Open 8 AM to sunset; campers have access to trails before the park opens. Leashed pets welcome.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 27.943847, -81.354761
Contact Information: Lake Kissimmee State Park, 14248 Camp Mack Road, Lake Wales, FL 33898 (863-696-1112, floridastateparks.org/park/Lake-Kissimmee)
Hugging the western shore of Florida’s third largest lake, Lake Kissimmee State Park provides a weekend’s worth of hiking and wildlife sightings galore. Herds of white-tailed deer browse unconcernedly along the entrance road. Sandhill cranes stride through the tall prairie grasses. Alligators bask in the sunshine along a canal filled with colorful purple pickerelweed blooms. The vast prairies and scrub along Lake Kissimmee provided a grazing ground for a scruffy breed of wild cattle known as the scrub cow, descendants of cattle brought to Florida in 1539 by explorer Hernando de Soto. What is now Lake Kissimmee State Park was once a vast cattle ranch. There is evidence of that past along this hike.
Using the park’s major trails, we’ve put together a route that shows off the vast sweep of this landscape. Do any of the loops on their own as an alternative. To enjoy all of the major trails in this park, arrive and set up camp in the full-service campground, hike the Buster Island Loop, and spend the second day tackling the North Loop Trail and Gobbler Ridge Trail. Or plan a backpacking trip: there are two primitive campsites as an overnight option.
GETTING THERE
From the interchange of US 27 and FL 60 in Lake Wales, head east on FL 60 for 9.7 miles, driving through the village of Hesperides before you reach Boy Scout Camp Road. There should be a prominent sign pointing out the turn. Turn left and drive 3.5 miles to Camp Mack Road. Turn right, following this road 5.4 miles to the park entrance on the right. After you enter through the ranger station, the park road twists and winds through the oak hammocks that dominate the North Loop. Continue past the campground and the turnoff to the Cow Camp, reaching the parking area next to the marina. The park’s trails radiate from a prominent trailhead here.
Pine flatwoods on the Buster Island Loop
THE HIKES
Buster Island Loop
Sign in at the hiker kiosk, which is at the trailhead at the marina parking area. Follow the trail through an oak hammock to a road you passed on the way in—the 1876 Cow Camp. Turn left at the trail junction and follow the road over the bridge. At the fork in the road, the right side leads to the trail; the left side leads to the Cow Camp. Open on weekends, it’s a living history encampment of cowmen—never call them cowboys—who show you what it took to live and work in the rough conditions of frontier Florida. A herd of more than 200 scrub cattle roam in the park, a tribute to Florida’s frontier history. You may encounter them along this loop.
The blue blazes end as Cow Camp Road ends, so follow the white blazes to continue along the Buster Island Trail. After 0.5 mile, you reach the start of the loop. Turn right into the pine flatwoods to walk it counterclockwise. Thin-needled sprays of wild pine decorate the gnarled branches of live oaks. Comprised of wet prairies, pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, and scrub, Buster Island is an island surrounded by Lake Kissimmee, Tiger Lake, and Lake Rosalie. You can’t tell that from the trail since you never see the lakes. Instead, you’re on a corridor of high ground. Beyond the cool shade of the live oaks and slash pines is prairie, stretching off into the distance. This trail provides a close-up look at the succession of the pine flatwoods to Florida’s climax forest, the live oak hammock. Fire is an integral part of the natural pine flatwoods ecosystem. Prescribed burning and other land management techniques are used to restore the pine flatwoods, so the once-grand oak hammocks on this loop aren’t what they used to be. A noticeable number of dead oak trees are obvious throughou
t the park.
As you cross a forest road at 1.1 miles, there is an old section of fencing. This land was once farmland owned by the Zipprer family, who sold it to the state in 1969. After walking through a low area of tall grass and ferns, you return to the familiar hammock and pines. For a while, the corridor widens, the prairie disappearing beyond the trees. Watch for signs of the turpentine industry. Although the original pine forest was logged more than a century ago, some of the tall stumps and snags of long-dead pines have the v-shaped catfaces that indicate the pine was tapped for resin.
After 2.2 miles of hiking, you see open scrub. As the trail enters the scrubby flatwoods, it becomes a pine-needle footpath edged by grass. Gallberry swarms the understory. Cross a forest road into an area where the grass creates a chestnut haze beneath the slash pines. At 3.4 miles, the trail turns left at a double blaze, briefly following a forest road before leading you into an oak hammock. Butterfly orchids dangle overhead, catching your eye with their long, grass-like leaves and tall yellow-green flowers with white lips striped purple. The butterfly orchid is Florida’s most common wild orchid, blooming from late spring to early fall. It is also a protected species.
Turning left into the pine flatwoods, you hear a distant, constant buzz—airboats on Lake Rosalie. Half-hidden by tall cinnamon ferns, blueberry bushes rise from the needle-carpeted forest floor. A chorus of frogs sings as the trail skirts around a large flatwoods pond, reaching the sign for the primitive campsite. Nestled under live oaks, the campsite has two picnic tables and several fire rings. It’s a great place for a break after 3.8 miles of hiking.
Returning to the trail, turn right. The footpath becomes a narrow corridor between dense saw palmettos. Spanish moss drapes over the live oak limbs overhead. You see the prairie, a savanna of tall grass just beyond the tree line. As you walk in deep shade, look for butterfly orchids overhead. A near-seamless canopy of live oak branches shades the trail. After 4.6 miles, the grasslands become more visible as you cross a horse trail. The trail jumps on and off a forest road several times before it makes a sharp left into the scrub.
Short scrub live oak and myrtle oak trees characterize the scrub habitat, with only scattered slash pines. Florida rosemary grows in small clearings between the saw palmettos. A grassy pond sits along the trail. At 5.2 miles, the trail turns right onto a forest road that leads into the pine flatwoods, making a second sharp turn. As you pass another marshy pond, the forest floor gleams green with the needles of hundreds of slash pines taking root. Dark earth gives way to white sand as the elevation increases slightly, bringing you into a sand pine scrub.
After 6.1 miles, the trail enters the vast prairie at the heart of Buster Island, where you cross a forest road. The sweep of the tree line fills the distance, your route through the oak hammock and pine flatwoods in review. You reach the beginning of the white-blazed loop at 6.5 miles. Turn right to follow the blue blazes back to the main trailhead. On the return route, walk down to the Zipprer Canal, which drains Lake Rosalie into Lake Kissimmee, to watch for wading birds and alligators. You reach the marina at 6.9 miles.
North Loop Trail & Gobbler Ridge Trail
Start at the main trailhead by the marina. Follow the same blue blazes as for the Buster Island Loop, but this time cross Cow Camp Road. The trail skirts the edge of the prairie along the Zipprer Canal. A large sign confirms your choice of route. Continue straight ahead until you reach the beginning of the yellow-blazed North Loop Trail after 0.4 mile. Turn left, wandering through open cabbage palms and dense gallberry. Entering a tall stand of pines, the trail makes its way to where you see prairie between the trees. A mirror image of the Buster Island Loop, this trail parallels the south edge of the same prairie.
Fallen Oak Campsite, North Loop Trail
Walk through a stand of young cabbage palms decked out in their full mass of fronds at ground level, growing out before they grow tall. Scattered live oaks and saw palmetto clumps break up the pine forest. A broad ditch, perhaps a seasonal stream, drains into a flatwoods pond. The forest yields to oak hammock, where a damp fur of resurrection fern covers the sprawling limbs of live oaks. Butterfly orchids grow here, too, with several large clusters on the oaks. Saw palmettos with trunks up to 20 feet long sprout near the base of one large live oak. After you cross the forest road at Marker 4, the soil becomes a deep cinnamon color, the result of deep layers of decomposing pine needles. Passing another flatwoods pond, the trail reaches the sign for the Fallen Oak Campsite at 1.9 miles. Turn right to check out the campsite, 0.1 mile down a blue-blazed trail. It’s a beauty spot under the live oaks, with a picnic table and fire ring.
Continuing along the yellow-blazed loop, the trail veers into the pine flatwoods. Glimpses of open sky show that the prairie isn’t far away, but you run out of park. The trail makes a hard right within sight of the fence line, passing through a hammock of sand live oak before it enters the open scrubby flatwoods. Another hard right leads you straight down a long corridor across the park entrance road. A stark but compelling landscape of dense, low saw palmetto and scattered longleaf pines goes on for the next 0.5 mile, broken only by circular wet prairies and one tiny oak hammock. At 3.2 miles, you reach a pen with an unusual occupant—a fire-roasted snag catfaced for turpentine.
Long strands of Spanish moss dangle like beards from the tall longleaf pines. After 4 miles, the forest becomes denser, turning to pine flatwoods that offer well-appreciated shade. Crossing the park road again at Marker 7, you enter a hammock of pines and oaks. Soft pine needles obscure the footpath; watch carefully for the blazes as the trail swings left after the road crossing. Squeezed between the park road and the prairie, this narrow strip of hammock contains both the trail you’re on and the trail you’ve been on, not more than 100 feet apart. Be cautious about stepping off the footpath, as you might step onto the wrong yellow-blazed trail! Skirting a prairie, the corridor narrows through a densely wooded area, becoming damp underfoot. Crossing the park road at Marker 9, you enter another stretch of pine flatwoods beyond a forest road under a power line.
At 5.7 miles is the junction for the blue-blazed connector to the Gobbler Ridge Trail. Continue straight, following this trail out towards Lake Kissimmee. The trail weaves beneath oak hammocks of a sand ridge that is only a few inches high, but high enough to keep the sweeping prairie at bay. Where the forest ends, the ground is almost desert-like. Clusters of seafoam-colored deer moss sprawl across the blinding white sugar sand.
When the trail reaches a Y intersection with a bench, you’re at the Gobbler Ridge Trail. Keep left, reaching the next fork in the trail beneath the oaks at 6.7 miles. Keep right. Traversing a low-lying marsh on a causeway, the trail leads to the tree line on Gobbler Ridge. Once up and over the small ridge, you meet the shoreline of Lake Kissimmee and can see for quite a distance out across the lake. Two benches provide a spot for birding. If the lakeshore has been mowed, it’s possible to walk a loop along it to another bench, following the sweep of blue water. Be alert for sunning alligators close to shore. If the water is too high, backtrack the way you came.
View from the observation tower near the Gobbler Ridge Trail trailhead
At 7.3 miles, the bench on the north end of Gobbler Ridge looks out past a lone cabbage palm to the channel which boaters use to access Camp Mack River Resort, a fish camp not far from the park entrance. The forest road loops back through the marsh, sometimes soggy underfoot, to rejoin the other part of the loop in the oak hammock. Turn right. Once you’ve returned to the bench at the junction with the blue-blazed connector to the North Loop Trail, you’ve hiked 7.7 miles. Turn left to follow the lime-green blazes of the Gobbler Ridge Trail.
A sand road along the prairie’s edge, the Gobbler Ridge Trail offers the best wildlife watching in the park. We encountered a pair of bald eagles and a flock of turkeys, two families of sandhill cranes, pileated and downy woodpeckers, two herds of deer, raccoons, an opossum, and several armadillos. The trail curves along the prairie, skirting a round marsh before
ducking beneath the splendor of ancient live oaks fuzzy with resurrection fern. It’s at the next curve you see picnic tables, a place to stop and take a break if no one is occupying the group camp.
Sweeping over to the prairie rim, the trail leads you to the park’s observation tower. If you haven’t already climbed it, do so to savor the views. Instead of following the green-tipped posts to the trailhead, stay with the path along the prairie. Let it lead you around the picnic area to the Zipprer Canal. Follow the canal back to the marina parking area to complete this 8.7-mile loop.
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. Flatwoods Pond Loop. Directly across the park road from the main trailhead, this 0.4-mile interpretive nature trail is a sampler of the habitats along the longer trail system. True to its name, the trail loops around a small flatwoods pond.
2. Gobbler Ridge Trail. A trailhead kiosk at the parking area at the end of the park road marks the beginning of the 3-mile Gobbler Ridge Trail, which is included in the larger circuit we described above. Follow the lime green blazes through the picnic area and past the playground to the observation tower, then along the forest road on the prairie rim to the junction with the cross-trail to the North Loop. Continue to the right to walk the loop to the shore of Lake Kissimmee. Return along the green blazes.
3. North Loop Highlights. The best of the North Loop lies between two small parking areas along the park entrance road. For this 2.2-mile trek, park at the small parking area closest to the campground. Walk along the edge of the park road towards the entrance to meet the trail crossing at Marker 13. Turn left and follow the trail to Marker 2, where you make a right to enjoy the pine flatwoods and oak hammocks that offer glimpses of the wetlands around the Zipprer Canal beyond. When you reach Marker 4, turn right and follow the forest road to the entrance road. Turn right and walk past the second parking area to the trail crossing at Marker 7. Turn right to head back into the woods and stick with the loop as it continues all the way back around to Marker 13. Walk back along the entrance road to where your car is parked.
50 Hikes in Central Florida Page 21
