We left Colt Creek State Park on Friday, January 12, 2024 and drove about 3 hours south and east to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in Okeechobee County, Florida for a 7-night stay.
This park is comprised of 54,000 acres of Florida prairie. In fact, it is the second-largest state park in Florida. Only the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in South Florida is larger, at 85,000 acres. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is mostly prairie grass (hence the name) and is teeming with plant and animal life. Driving in we saw Spanish Moss-covered Oak trees, Palm trees, Dwarf Palmetto Bushes and miles and miles of prairie for as far as the eye could see. We saw various birds as well, and would see other wildlife during the course of our stay.
The park is also a designated Dark Sky Park. There are almost no infrastructure lights in the campground and guests are asked to limit their own use of outdoor lights in the campground. At the official viewing areas only red lights or flashlights with red cellophane over their bulbs are allowed. Unfortunately for us, Friday night was the only night that we could see the stars. The other nights were so cloudy that we had almost no stellar views to enjoy.
The park’s website says a 38 foot RV will fit in the site we reserved, but we arrived to find there was almost no way our 35 foot travel trailer can be maneuvered into the site due to a tree at the front of the site, a tree on the opposite side of the road AND it’s all on a curve in the road. Cindy asked the park ranger at the office and they agreed that, despite my best efforts (because I’ve really gotten quite good at backing in Nomad in just about any kind of situation), no one could get a 35 foot RV in there. Much less a 38 foot one. So they kindly moved us down to the equestrian camping area, though sadly there were no horses.
Where they moved us is also a “Volunteer site” where park volunteers can stay for free. It’s not really different from the other sites EXCEPT the power pedestal is 50 amp instead of 30 amp. We got backed in there fine with no issues.
This park is so isolated that it is 35 miles to the nearest gas station and even farther to a grocery store. We made sure to stock up on groceries before leaving the Lakeland area and we filled up Voyager’s gas tank when we were about 50 miles away in Yeehaw Junction.
Oh, and the day we arrived they had a break in their water line, so we were under a boil water notice that did not get lifted until the following Wednesday. That was a first for us in our travels.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday we hiked part of the Prairie Loop; an old dirt road that snaked through the prairie; and another dirt road down to the ranger office/visitor center. The weather was nice until Monday around 11 am when it started raining pretty hard for the rest of the day. Tuesday we were able to get in a mile and a half walk down to the dumpster to dispose of our accumulated garbage and return to Nomad just as the rain started. It began as a sprinkle and turned into a downpour that lasted until 1:30 pm. We suddenly had sun again for about an hour before it went dark and started raining again, lasting into the middle of the night. We finished our re-watch of the series “Boston Legal” that we had started a few months back.
Wednesday morning we awoke to clear, blue skies, brisk winds and 47 degree temperatures. A little cold for this Florida boy, but still better than the ice and snow most of the rest of the country was experiencing. Glad we scheduled a little longer time in Florida this year, or we would have been caught in some of the frigid weather on our travels.
During our hikes (and even just around the campsite) we’ve seen Wild Turkeys (not the drinking kind, damnit), crows, buzzards, Red-Shouldered Hawks, Crested Caracas (which I initially thought, from a distance, was a pheasant), squirrels, and lots of evidence of wild hogs rooting in the ground, but not the hogs themselves.
Until Thursday morning. Cindy was sitting outside enjoying her morning tea and the quiet of the time just as the sun comes up. She heard a sound in the nearby underbrush and realized it was approaching the end of the brush and emerging into the clearing not far from Nomad. She got out her iPhone and started filming as a wild hog made its way out of the bushes, grubbing around. Sadly, it looked like it was injured (as you can see in the accompanying video) as it dragged its hindquarters along while it rooted. Later, during our hike, we stopped by the ranger station to let them know about the apparently injured creature. It turned out they already knew about it and had set traps trying to capture it. No one said if it was to treat it or euthanize it, and we didn’t ask.
There were lots of other creatures in the park we never saw. Alligators, snakes, Florida panthers, and river otters. We were fine not seeing the first three, but that last one might have been fun to watch in the water. Kissimmee Prairie State Park is an essential habitat and home for a number of rare and endangered species, like grasshopper sparrows. And even though we observed a wide variety of flora during our stay, we know we did not see all (or at least recognize) all of them. Heck the booklet of plants checklist they gave us at check-in was 15 pages in length!
Thursday night, as we ate dinner, we started watching the Apple TV+ original series “For All Mankind” and decided we liked the first episode well enough to continue.
Friday morning we left around 10:30 am to stop by the dump station before we left. As we were at the dump site “taking care of business”, we saw a raccoon come out of the bushes and make his way to the dumpster, looking to get in and get some food. Then, as we were driving the final 5 miles out of the park, we saw a Great Heron, Blue Heron and a beautiful Peacock. It was a nice “Goodbye” from the dwellers of the prairie.
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