It was Christmas Eve and Brian Scott was in Orlando for the holiday so I asked him if he would like to do a little State Parking with me. We met at my mom’s and headed out to Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek because it was smack dab in the middle of the state and a little over an hour away from moms. I did something I typically did not do, I read in the information booklet ahead of time and we got pumped up by the description. We also thought it would be fun to follow the directions in the book on how to get there instead of using the GPS. The booklets directions got us in the area of the park but not exactly there. After going longer than we felt comfortable with, we finally decided to pull up the GPS to get us moving in the right direction. Thankfully we were not that far off.

When we began our travels the weather was prefect but as we approached the park, it really seemed to heat up. How could it be so hot at the end of December? We hiked, up the very soft sand for what seemed to be miles. All the hills just felt like they were going up; were we hiking to heaven? We made it to a beautiful watering hole, hiked around it and started on the next set of hiking trails. Looking around all I could think of was this must be what it was like to be stuck walking in the desert. Time felt like it stopped and everything began to look the same. I realized that this was just not the park for me. I asked Brian if he was good with moving on and off we went back to the truck, continuing to walk up those soft sand hills until FINALLY we found the one that led down!

I will admit, my spirit was dampened a bit by that experience because I was upset that I did not really like what the park had to offer. It might of been my lack of experience with that type of scrub environment. It could of very well been the heat. I am not sure. All I know is I was relieved when we made it back to the truck and happy to be moving on.

Before you visit, make sure you check out the parks website for all of the up-to-date park information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/index.php/catfish-creek