Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Par

This park, in the center of Florida, was well off the beaten track and not too easy to find. We left civilization behind and Paul found that gas stations were all behind us as he neared empty. In this region there are many for sale signs for 20 acres plots, so we sense that landowners are selling off their land into smaller parcels. There don't seem to be many of them being sold though.

Close to the park saw a very large alligator in a water drainage ditch; it must have been a good 8-10' (or more) long so we were glad we didn't have a flat tire. The park office staff person said that they won't bother you if you don't bother them. We'll try not to disturb them. Oh yes, there are some in the 12-14' range.

Monday morning sunrise

Monday, February 27 we got out for a bike ride looking for “gators” and to see the park. The women at the park office told us where to go to see some, so off we headed on our bikes. We managed to find them without any difficulty too. There were 12 of varying sizes basking in the sun, some of which were quite large! We were thrilled, needless to say, to find so many in one place. We also saw birds and even a burrowing owl which is just a little thing. I am sorry I didn't get any photos of the owl.

The youngsters 

Might be mom or dad!

In the afternoon we hiked a short trail near the park office through some wonderful old stands of live oak and very tall palms. We saw deer too, but only fleetingly.

Evening found us with thunderstorms and quite a bit of rain. The rain had delayed the Daytona 500 on Sunday and then again on Monday. It finished up at something like 1:00 am Tuesday!

Tuesday, February 28 and we got out for nearly 12 miles on the trails here. We got to see deer again, and a flock of juvenile ibis near a water hole with a good sized alligator just watching us from the far side! We rode a combination of good and terrible trails. We selected one that ended in water...oh the trail was still there; it was just under about a foot or more of water. When mentioned to a park ranger after our return, we were informed that on the map that shows as a “seasonal wetland”, however, that information would have to have been intuited from our map as the legend was chopped off from the photocopy! We did experience some lengthy distances of sugar sand which is nearly impossible to ride through and some rutted trails as well which were also tough. Needless to say, we were all ready to stop when we got back to the campground.

We were getting just too close!

Paul turned around when we made the decision that maybe there could be things like snakes, gators, and other unsavory creatures in this stretch of wetland.

Side note: we saw the most interesting spider. Photo says it all.

This state park has been somewhat of a surprise. We were uncertain just what the prairie would hold for us. It is flat and wide open; it also happens to be the beginning of the Everglades. It has been beautiful and if we were to spend more time here would we would be seeing much more of the wild life.

Wednesday, February 29 we thought we were hearing light rain only to discover that the very high humidity combined with an overnight low temp of about 60 has caused condensation which in turn is gently dripping down onto the areas under the trees. So, we hear it raining :). Also, we have had two beautiful little tree toads end up inside our camper the past two mornings.