CAMPING AND LODGING
Lake Kissimmee State Park Campground (1-800-326-3521, floridastateparks.reserveamerica.com)
Camp Mack’s River Resort, 14900 Camp Mack Road, Lake Wales, FL 33898 (863-696-1108, campmack.com)
Lake Rosalie Park and Campground, 2859–2925 Rosalie Lake Road, Lake Wales, FL 33898 (863-679-4245, polk-county.net)
Tiger Creek Preserve
Total distance: 11.8 miles in a network of three loops and the connecting trails between them. Shorter options available.
Hiking time: 5–6 hours
Difficulty: Moderate to difficult
Usage: Free. Open sunrise to sunset. No pets or bicycles permitted.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 27.807983, -81.492050
Contact Information: The Nature Conservancy, 674 Pfundstein Road, Babson Park, FL 33827 (863-635-7506, nature.org)
When the rest of Florida was under a few feet of water, in Miocene times, the long, thin, dune-capped island that is now the Lake Wales Ridge stood well above the waves. It is now one of North America’s most diverse biological communities, with the highest concentration of rare and endangered plants in the continental United States. These are also the “mountains” of peninsular Florida, up to 300 feet above sea level. Along this fascinating ridge, The Nature Conservancy provides an outstanding hiking trail system for exploration of nearly 5,000 acres of the Lake Wales Ridge under their care at Tiger Creek Preserve.
Leading you across not just the desert-like scrub but a diversity of habitats sheltered by swales between ridges, the trail network at Tiger Creek Preserve includes a primary connector trail, the Pfundstein Trail, and three loops. Much of the trail system is very dry and open. Take plenty of water along. A hike to and around the hilly Heron Pond Loop via the well-trodden Pfundstein Trail is a 4.2-mile trek. Most hikers looking for a long day hike tackle the Highlands Loop, which is 8.4 miles by going straight out and back along the Pfundstein Trail to the loop. Stretch that to 10.2 miles by tacking on the new Creek Bluffs Loop at the north end of the preserve, or even to 11.8 miles by adding on the Heron Pond Loop on the way, and a stop at Patrick Creek. See Other Hiking Options, at the end of this chapter, for more alternatives from a new trailhead for the Wakeford Trail added at the northeast corner of the preserve. Our route follows the full 11.8 miles you can hike from the Pfundstein Road trailhead.
GETTING THERE
Follow US 27 south from Lake Wales to CR 640 east. CR 640 turns into FL 17, passing through Babson Park. Two miles south, turn left on North Lake Moody Road, then left again on Murray Road. The road plunges downhill through orange groves and crosses a railroad track before reaching Pfundstein Road. Turn left and pass the pulloff for the George Cooley Trail before reaching the main trailhead on the left.
THE HIKE
Sign in at the trailhead kiosk. The white-blazed Pfundstein Trail makes a left away from the forest road behind the gate, working its way through a grassy, open scrub. Several low, rounded, natural bowls are cutthroat grass seeps, found nowhere else but Florida. Moisture seeping from the sand feeds the minimal water requirements of this endangered grass. The glistening white sand path is made up of ancient particles of quartzite. It winds through the oak scrub, a forest in miniature. As you walk down the trail, notice how few oaks tower above your head. Myrtle oak, Chapman oak, and scrub live oak thrive here, as do stunted wax myrtle and the pygmy fringe tree. Although the bright white sand reminds you of a desert, this area receives up to 50 inches of rain each year. The well-drained sand soaks up the rain so rapidly that scrub plants barely have an opportunity to use the water. Instead, the oaks and shrubs rely on deep taproots and waxy coatings to maximize their survival.
Where the white blazes lead into the pine flatwoods, wiregrass creates a hazy forest floor under the tall longleaf pines. As the trail climbs over gently rolling hills, you’ll notice dead pines in the swales. Extensive flooding along Patrick Creek soaked the roots of those trees for so long that they succumbed to rot. At a junction with a forest road after 0.8 mile, you meet the Patrick Creek Trail. Turn left for a quick ramble to the creek. There is a bench right before the bridge, which provides a primordial scene of cabbage palms forming a backdrop to the marshy creek.
Back at the MAIN TRAIL sign after 1.2 miles, continue along the white blazes. The trail passes a bench beneath the pines, a rest stop with a view of an eagle’s nest in the distance. For those returning to this hike after a long absence, as we did, you’ll be delighted to discover the trails moved off the forest roads and onto fresh footpaths, especially along the next mile. The exception is where you join a road to walk on gravel through a bayhead swamp to minimize wet feet. After climbing out of the bayhead, watch for the double-blazes into the diminutive scrub forest. Most intersections from this point on have maps to keep you on the correct route. The footpath leads up the slope of a ridge into sandhill habitat, where longleaf pines stand tall above the turkey oaks. The bayhead swamp follows the base of this ridge to your right, loblolly bay trees making a tall, shimmering green wall. Crossing a sand road, the trail continues into the shade of an oak scrub, where sand live oaks knit a low canopy overhead.
After 1.9 miles, you reach a junction with the Heron Pond Loop. As it’s surprisingly hilly, it’s best to tackle it while you’re fresh. Turn right to follow the red blazes. A small memorial presents the trail in memory of Ken Morrison, a former director of Bok Tower Gardens. He spent decades preserving The Jungle, this landscape between the creeks, as Edward Bok had wished it to be, with the help of The Nature Conservancy.
Keep left at the Y to walk the loop clockwise. Passing through an oak scrub, you’ll find it tricky at times to distinguish the red blazes from the red blanket lichen. As the trail gains a noticeable amount of elevation, marshes are visible in the valley below, especially from a peak with a bench. Sandhill habitat with smatterings of scrub covers the hills, which offer views down to the marshy pond. The trail drops to the level of the pond and meets a forest road. Turn right to walk along this road between the marsh and the open water of Heron Pond. On the opposite shore, take a side path to the viewing platform. A shady perch on the shoreline above the open water of the marsh, it’s a perfect spot for birding.
Returning to the forest road, make two quick turns, following the double blazes. The trail ascends through a dense understory of saw palmetto and scrub oaks. Views are more pronounced across the marshy pond. Cross a sand road that arcs downhill to the pond. The trail tunnels through oak scrub before entering a stretch of sandhills where gopher apple, a favorite food for gopher tortoises, grows densely. Dropping downhill, the Heron Pond Loop leaves your last glimpses of the pond behind as you enter a pine flatwoods and cross a sand road. You reach the end of the loop after 3.1 miles. Pass the memorial and turn right. The trail makes a sharp left onto a forest road to cross a bayhead along the graveled surface of the road. As the road becomes soft white sand, look for the TO HIGHLANDS LOOP sign to the right. Walking between the saw palmetto, you reach an oak hammock where Spanish moss hangs thickly from the tree limbs. Cross a sand road and continue into oak scrub, another delightful tunnel of tangled limbs. Take a moment and pause to listen. One of the most endearing reasons to hike at this preserve is the quiet.
Birding platform on Heron Pond
The white blazes of the Pfundstein Trail end, after 3.5 miles, at a clearly marked junction for the south end of the Highlands Loop. Turn left to begin this loop, the largest one in the preserve. Winding through oak scrub, the trail heads uphill as it parallels a large marsh in a swale between the ridges. After crossing a small creek on a bridge, it enters the sandhill forest. Follow the orange blazes from the heights of the sandhill into scrubby flatwoods, dense with saw palmetto and gallberry. You pass a bench where this loop hike used to begin before it was moved off the forest roads.
The desert-like scrub is the highlight on this higher ground, which is the domain of the Florida scrub-jay. The many short scrubby plants with yellow star-shaped flowers are
varieties of St. John’s wort, some only found in this preserve. The trail is crowded by vegetation in many places, so watch for blazes. In the open scrub, several cabbage palms are growing in a low grassy area—an indicator of a seepage slope where cutthroat grass thrives. Longleaf pines edge an open prairie. Turning left, the trail rises through the scrub, the footpath blinding white sand. Keep alert for a sharp right where the trail climbs beneath the turkey oaks.
After 6.2 miles, you reach a trail junction with a map. This short connector leads to the Creek Bluffs Loop, the northernmost loop in the preserve. It’s worth a visit since it offers scenic views of Tiger Creek. The loop begins at a bench atop a ridge, overlooking a wet prairie in a depression. Turn left and climb into the longleaf pine forest. With the sparse scattering of pines and an extremely open understory, views are extensive. Crossing a sand road, the trail continues into a short thicket of scrub forest, with the taller trees in the distance marking the edge of the bluffs along Tiger Creek. Passing swales of prairie grasses between longleaf pines, the trail makes its way to a stand of tall cabbage palms upon the bluffs of Tiger Creek. Your first glimpse of the creek is along a showy bend, with the trail providing panoramas in several directions, and a bench for taking in the view.
Tiger Creek from the Creek Bluffs Loop
Beyond this high point, the trail pulls away from the bluffs while providing views of the healthy longleaf pine forest to the west. The next view of the creek is much closer, almost an invitation to cool off in its depths were it not for the massive alligators that call this waterway home. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy, Tiger Creek is one of the last remaining blackwater streams in Florida with a fully protected watershed, and it’s along this stretch of trail you realize what that means, in the wild nature of this waterway. Another bench provides a place to enjoy this cool corridor along the creek. After following the edge of a prairie, the trail reaches a tributary flowing into the creek and crosses it on a small bridge.
As you emerge at the CREEK BLUFFS LOOP sign, make a sharp right to stay with the pink blazes of this loop, as the white blazes lead to the Wakeford Trailhead, an alternative access point for these northernmost loops. The trail arcs around a large prairie in a swale, its far edge defined by the longleaf pine forest you first walked through on this loop. You climb out of the scrub and up beneath the pines on this last part of the loop, reaching the bench at the connector trail with the white blazes and the sign TO HIGHLANDS LOOP. By the time you return to the back side of the sign for the Highlands Loop, you’ve logged 7.9 miles. Turn left to continue along the south side of this loop, which is particularly rugged and scenic. Your ramble beneath the longleaf pines continues, the trail snaking between well-defined clumps of saw palmetto. As the sand grows brighter and softer, the pines retreat where the trail curves through a prairie. The orange blazes briefly lead onto an old sand road. A sharp left leads back to a footpath through an oak scrub at a sign for Tricia’s Peak.
Climbing to one of the highest scrub ridges in the preserve, the trail offers a pleasing panorama of the prairies and pines below. A bench honors Tricia Martin, one of the preserve’s longtime managers. From this promontory, the trail winds downhill through the sandhills, where the pines are more scattered, offering little shade. A grassy prairie fills a swale at the base of the ridge. Past a statuesque longleaf pine, the footpath leads you through the intimacy of a cluster of sand live oaks. Gopher apple grows densely under young turkey oaks. The trail reaches that line of trees in the distance when it crosses a forest road. Climbing up and over the next ridge, notice the co-mingling of habitats: sand pines and silk bay, usually found in scrub forests, popping up among these sandhills. After the next forest road crossing, Spanish moss drapes in thick curtains from the oak canopy overhead. From a high point, you can see a marsh in the low swale.
Just a little ways past the bridge over the outflow of the marsh, you return to the PFUNDSTEIN TRAIL sign after 9.8 total miles. You’ve hiked this trail northbound to get here, so now it’s time to take it directly south to the trailhead, without any side trips. Turn left and stick with the white blazes, taking advantage of the handful of benches along the way for a break along the next couple of miles. Keep alert where the trail jumps on and off the forest roads to go through the two bayheads. At 10.2 miles, you pass the junction with the Heron Pond Loop, and, at 10.9 miles, the junction with the Patrick Creek Trail. Make a sharp left here to stay with the white blazes as they wind back through the rolling hills above the creek. The last 0.25 mile is mostly open, but the parking area is within sight. You reach the kiosk at 11.8 miles. Sign out before you leave.
Prairie and scrub below Tricia’s Peak
OTHER HIKING OPTIONS
1. George Cooley Trail (27.806755, -81.498606). This 0.8-mile nature trail along Pfundstein Road provides a quick overview of the habitats found in this preserve. Follow a well-worn path between a set of posts to reach the trailhead kiosk. The Circle Trail is the main loop, with several spurs off it to scenic spots, including along Patrick Creek.
2. Patrick Creek. For quite some time, Patrick Creek, a tributary feeding Tiger Creek, rose well above its normal banks and, in doing so, submerged a popular boardwalk loop leading to a giant sand pine. On our visit, the bridge to the loop was still mostly underwater. A hike from the Pfundstein Road trailhead to Patrick Creek and back is 2 miles.
3. Wakeford Trail (27.831846, -81.456699). This northern connector to the trail system off Walk-in-the-Water Road enables you to hike to Tiger Creek (1 mile) or do the Creek Bluffs Loop (2.6 miles). If you add on the Highlands Loop, it’s a 6.9-mile day hike from this new trailhead.
4. End to End. With two cars, leave one at the Wakeford Road trailhead and hike up to it from the Pfundstein Road trailhead. For the best scenic views in the preserve, we recommend you don’t skip the Heron Pond Loop, do the south side of the Highlands Loop, and do the north side of the Creek Bluffs Loop. Walking between the two trailheads on this route with a stop at Patrick Creek nets you a 7.3-mile hike.
CAMPING AND LODGING
Lake Wales Campground & RV, 15898 US 27, Lake Wales, FL 33859 (863-638-9011, lakewalescampgroundrvresort.com)
Walk-in-the-Water Primitive Campground, Lake Wales Ridge State Forest (27.783537, -81.447576), (1-877-879-3859, floridastateforests.reserveamerica.com)
Westgate River Ranch Resort, 3200 River Ranch Boulevard, River Ranch, FL 33867 (863-692-0727, westgateresorts.com)
Crooked Lake Prairie
Total distance: 2.3-mile loop on the perimeter of two interconnected trails.
Hiking time: 1–1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Usage: Free. Open sunrise to sunset. Leashed pets permitted. Bicycles permitted but not recommended due to soft sand.
Trailhead GPS Coordinates: 27.8065, -81.5593
Contact Information: Crooked Lake Prairie, 985 Ohlinger Road, Babson Park, FL 33827 (863-534-7377, polknature.com/explore/crooked-lake-prairie)
At Crooked Lake Prairie, the dunes of the Lake Wales Ridge meet showy prairie grasslands along the eastern shore of Crooked Lake. This hike is a refreshing excursion into habitats found on the high hills of the Lake Wales Ridge, a counterpoint to the spreading residential developments replacing scrub forests and orange groves on these high hills. Hiking through this 525-acre preserve provides a pleasant immersion into a healthy scrub forest, and birders will delight in being able to see both green herons and a family of Florida scrub-jays along one short loop. There are two primary trails in the preserve: the Lake View Trail, which loops to a boardwalk on Crooked Lake, and the Scrub Trail, which loops through the heart of the scrub. As the habitats here are very open and desert-like—to be expected of the Lake Wales Ridge—sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat are a smart idea.
GETTING THERE
From the junction of FL 17 and CR 630 in Frostproof, drive north 3.8 miles to Cody Villa Road and turn left at the sign for Crooked Prairie Preserve. Follow the road for 1.3 miles, making a right onto Ohlin
ger Road. Look for the left into the parking area.
THE HIKE
Start at the preserve kiosk, which has brochures about the trail. An important note: our map and their map are different. They no longer show the loop that the Lake View Trail makes, although we confirmed that the trails still create a large loop. They may not in the future if the boardwalk is renovated. Following the sign that says SCRUB TRAIL STRAIGHT AHEAD, duck under the oak tree to follow this narrow corridor into the oak hammock, following a corridor edged by saw palmetto and sand live oaks. You pass a picnic bench tucked away in the shade. The trail corridor is tricky to follow in places, so watch for both signs and a worn footpath. It pops out onto a sand road with views across a prairie. Turn left and look for the next arrow sign and hiker symbol pointing back into the shade of the oaks. An orange arrow sign guides you away from the preserve’s perimeter fence with a working orange grove. Making a right turn, the trail crosses the sand road and you see a SCRUB TRAIL sign. Continue walking beneath the shade of sand live oaks along a well-defined path.
50 Hikes in Central Florida Page 22
