My dad asked me if I wanted to go out to him and take a horseback ride for the full moon and then just stay out at the cowboy condo for the night. Of course I just had to say yes. My plan was to stay out there for the weekend. He had a few lessons to do the next day so I took advantage of that time and headed to the center of the state to visit some parks.
I made the best of my two hour drive, making many stops along the way before I finally made it to Highlands Hammock State Park. I loved the park as soon as I pulled in and immediately started planning my return, with Andrew, my son. The park has nine hiking trails to choose from, all different lengths. I went on four of the nine trails. There were a few trails I could not hike because Casey was not allowed to go on them. I’m pretty sure gators had a lot to do with that. We did walk through a Cypress Forest and it was just magical! The trees towered over us and the knees were almost the same height as me, some even taller. One of the trails had this skinny little catwalk all the way through and cute baby gators off in the distance. I spent a few hours there and I still did not get to see everything I had access to.
I will say, Highlands Hammock was the first park I visited that made me want to actually stay and camp there, not alone of course. There were just many aspects I still needed to explore and a really cool tram ride I was interested in taking. It’s only about a 2.5 hour car ride from my house so a revisit to that amazing park is not out of the question.
Before you visit, make sure you check out the parks website for all of the up-to-date park information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/highlands-hammock-state-park
