Trip 10a – Highland Hammock

Highland Hammock State Park is about 2 1/2 hours from our home. We made a quick weekend trip to see the park during a different time, the wet season. It has been raining in FL for weeks now. Each afternoon thunderstorms rolls across the state, dropping inches of rain. Luckily a low formed off the northeast coast of Florida and it is pulling in some drier air for the weekend. Booking the 2 night was easy as it is off season and there were plenty of sites to choose from. I picked site 24 as it is on the outside rim and near a bathroom which we found out when we checked in that 2 of the 4 bathrooms were closed. Great, less traffic near our site.

Once we setup camp, we rode our bikes through the park to the Cypress Swamp Trail and came to find out the catwalk portion of the trail is closed for repairs. This is where we got the photos of the momma gator and babies on her head last year. I did not think would see the gators as I had heard the water was high and the river is actually flowing. It was nice to be back in the swamp even on the short portion of the boardwalk. The swamp has been very very good to us. We go slow and scan for all things, from trees to insects to reptiles. This trip we were lucky to see a swimming water moccasin snake and some dragonflies feeding.

The other nice thing about Highland Hammock is that it is near our friends John and Janet and we got to go to dinner with them and catch up on everything. This time I remembered to get a photo.

Wildlife sightings: Bald eagle, Deer (doe, buck, fawn), Gopher Tortoise, Water Moccasin, Dragonflies, Wild boar, Turkey, Wood storks, Pine lilies, bat, Barred owl, Eastern bluebird

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