Highlands Hammock State Park Trails

It was another hot day here - in the upper 90's, so we stayed in most of today. We did go over this morning to Dog Designs Pet Resort here in Sebring to see about having Tinker groomed tomorrow. We were able to get him an appointment for tomorrow morning.

This afternoon after it had cooled down a bit, we drove over to Park Loop Drive to go on a couple of the hiking trails here.

The first trail we went on was the Alexander Blair Big Oak Trail. The main feature of this trail is the 1,000 year old Live Oak tree. The tree trunk has a circumference of 36 feet!  A storm came through the park on April 25 of this year and damaged the tree, so we didn't get to see the upper tree branches. But you have to admit, it is still very impressive.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

The Big Oak Trail

From Highlands Hammock State Park

connects with the Hickory Trail

From Highlands Hammock State Park

and we followed it to the Orange Grove. The Orange Grove is a clearing where a Florida pioneer had cleared the land and built a cabin and planted orange trees. Tinker met his first armadillo in the Orange Grove.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

We stopped at the CCC Museum on the way back to the campground. Unfortunately we arrived after 5 p.m. and the museum was closed. Between the years of 1933 and 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) planted thousands of plants and constructed roads, buildings, dams, & bridges in Florida to include Highlands Hammock.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

There is also the Hammock Inn Restaurant here, but it is closed for the summer right now.

Tomorrow we are planning on visiting with Gary, a high school classmate of Mike's, who has a Doberman Rescue in Lake Placid.

Red Shouldered Hawk

We spent the day here at the RV and stayed inside working since it was pretty hot today.

Last night I kept seeing a hawk land on a post a couple of campsites over from us and this evening I was able to get a photo of him.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

Tomorrow we're going into Sebring to the Home Depot to get a couple of things and just to drive around the town.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

Moved to another campsite & Gary V. visited

This morning Mike drove up to the Ranger Station to see if we could move from site #52 to site #42 which has a lot of shade. Since there are only a few people here in the campground and site #42 isn't reserved, we were able to move.

We quickly broke camp at #52 and moved over to #42. The sites were close enough that it was easier just to carry some of our stuff from one site to another.

Mike didn't take any photos of site #52, but here are a couple of site #42.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

From Highlands Hammock State Park

A high school classmate of Mike's, Gary, drove up from Lake Placid to join us for dinner tonight. Gary runs a doberman rescue in Lake Placid and we were interested to hear about it. Mike and Gary had a good time remembering their days in high school.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

We're going to go down to visit Gary's doberman rescue facility in a few days.

Wauchula to Sebring

We left Peace River Preserve this morning about 11:15. We would have gotten on the road sooner, but we are continuing to have problems with our left front jack - it won't retract. Mike has to release the pressure on the solenoid valve and he is then able to pry or push the jack up. He then restores the pressure on the solenoid valve and we are good to go.

We traveled south on US-17 to Zolfo Springs and then east on SR-66 (part of The Florida Cracker Trail) to Sebring.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

We headed north on CR-635 to the entrance to Highlands Hammock State Park and arrived here at 11:45. We traveled all of 24 miles today.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

After checking in at the Ranger Station and getting a map of the state park, we drove to our campsite. We are in site # 52. We have water and 50 amp electric and a little shade. We are paying $71.94 (FL Senior Discount) for the week we will be here.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

We are going to check into moving to another campsite tomorrow. It was really hot this afternoon and there are some campsites near us with a lot more shade than we have at #52.