A Sigh of Relief

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Okeechobee, FL - Site #13

The family reunion was still going strong when we left Manatee Hammock this morning. We were outta there early and on our way southwest. We left the coast and headed inland to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. After the requisite stop to buy groceries (seems we are always buying groceries), we took a series of secondary roads to the park arriving in time for a late lunch.

The park is in the middle of nowhere (Florida), 35 miles from the nearest supermarket (reminds me of Aransas without the ocean) and is small in terms of facilities. It is actually a large park, at 54,000 acres with over 100 miles of trails and is one of the last remaining areas of dry prairie in Florida. There  are only 40 campsites spread among three areas—the family campground, the equestrian campground and the astronomy pad. The family campground is the main camping area with 20 sites and the restrooms, showers and laundry. The equestrian campground has horse paddocks, 50 amp service and 15 sites and the astronomy pad has 5 sites, each with an extra electrified area for telescopes.

We are resting in the family campground which currently has no families, just peace and quiet. A sigh of relief. The camping areas are really pleasant. The sites are fairly large; there is water and electricity; the restrooms and showers are clean and modern; and there are no lights.

There is no beach, no playgrounds and no recreation building, so it probably isn't that enticing a place to bring the kids unless you are into hiking, birding, riding or stargazing.

The stargazing aspect of the park is interesting. Being in the middle of Florida with no nearby towns, it has probably the darkest skies in the state. This is not to say it is dark like Big Bend or Chaco Canyon, since you can still see some glow from the coasts and flashing radio towers on the horizon, but you can see the Milky Way. The park has become a destination for Florida amateur astronomers, in fact they were instrumental in saving the park a few years ago.

During the last recession, Florida considered closing several of their state parks to save money, Kissimmee Prairie among them, but the various astronomy groups in the state prevailed on the government to keep the park open. They were evidently also responsible for getting the special astronomy camping area opened. It is away from the other campgrounds, is dark and has only small sites. One can reserve one of the five sites, but not online. Needless to say, it is very popular and reservations are tough to get.

The rest of the park is also kept dark. There are no lights on power posts or kiosks and no lamp posts. The lights on the visitor center are turned off at night and the outside lights at the restrooms are down facing and covered with a red coating to preserve night vision. Did I mention that it is also quiet! As Florida parks go, this could be one of our favorites.

The park has become more popular since the recession and like all Florida state parks, it is always fully booked on the weekends. The equestrian campground was just recently electrified. It used to be the case that there was almost always room available there, but no more, even though there is only a vault toilet there...but it is only a few minutes walk to the family campground. I biked over this afternoon and almost all the sites were filled on a Monday afternoon, but only one had a horse.

We figured that if we liked it here, we might spend an extra night or two as we have four unreserved days before the Everglades, but it might be tight, currently there are only four or five sites that are unreserved for Wednesday and Thursday. The campgrounds are fully booked Friday and Saturday.

We did a little birding around the campground this afternoon and only saw a few birds, Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers and some American Crows in the campground and White Egrets in a little wetland next to the visitor center. We will be hiking some of the trails tomorrow. and hope to see more.

Photos when we get better bandwidth.