Camping

Highlands Hammock State Park

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We spent part of spring break camping at Highlands Hammock State Park. The corona virus was starting to cause shut downs and we weren’t sure what would happen (they did end up closing the campground after we left). However, camping is the best way to isolate yourself (well, besides staying home, but camping is more fun!).

Campground at Highlands Hammock State Park — Our home for a few days.

We love Florida State Parks! They’re well maintained and the campgrounds are always nice. This one was bigger than what we normally stay at, and there wasn’t a lot of green space between campsites, but it was still nice. They only have water and electric hookups and there’s a dump station. We try to be careful how much water we use in the camper and use the campground bath houses. We did take our blue boy (which happens to be gray) so that we could drain our tanks if needed.

We almost always take our bikes – it gives my boys something to do at the campground aka burn some of their neverending energy. Lots of times there are nice bike trails around the park as well. The trail here was a nice hard packed one with several geocaches along it.

Bike Trail at Highlands Hammock State Park

They also have nine hiking trails in the park. My favorite was this one although it’s currently the dry season and the swamp isn’t very, well, swampy.

Once you get to the swamp, this is the boardwalk. I can’t imagine what it must be like during the rainy season (we are planning to go back).

This mama gator and her baby were perfectly content to just watch us from across the swamp. I imagine if it was the rainy season we would’ve seen a lot more gators!

This turtle was catching some sun. There was another one swimming around munching on some leaves.

The other boardwalks at the park are equally as nice. They are easy to walk on and have plenty of benches so you can sit and relax.

Some of the other trails do not have boardwalks.

One of them leads to this amazing 900+ year old oak tree!

We always look for an ice cream place when we camp – preferably a locally owned place. We weren’t sure anything would be open because corona was in full swing and groups of ten or more were discouraged. Fortunately, Sebring Soda and Ice Cream Works was open. They had a nice variety of sodas in glass bottles and lots of ice cream flavors!

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Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Par

On our recent camping trip to Key Largo, we took a day to check out Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park (say that ten times fast!). It is a former quarry that provided stone for Henry Flager’s Overseas Railroad in the early 1900s. Then it was used to produce Keystone (decorative stone). There are five trails that are numbered and there’s a tour guide book that you read as you go.

Self guided tours come with a tour book that's numbered — Our tour guide

Even though some of the trails are shady, it was still really hot hiking in the Florida summer! We brought water with us plus we refilled our bottles everytime the trails took us close to the ranger station.

The depth of the coral was amazing! In some places it was almost 8 feet!

The equipment they used to work here is pretty impressive!

This is black ironwood. We were amazed at how hard it is – can you imagine trying to lift a board made with this?! 80 pounds/square foot!

We “climbed” all the way to 18 feet above sea level!

What boy doesn’t love climbing a coral wall?

The leftover pieces of Keystone are huge!

It was $2.50/person to get in which was totally worth it! They are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Find more information here.

Kayaking Adventures – John Pennekamp and Indian Key

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One of the things we’ve recently started doing (recent being in the last two years or so), is kayaking. We figured out how to take them with us in the camper. Because our camper has beds that fold out, we are able to slide the kayaks in from one end and they fit in the open space. We also put the two smaller kayaks in the very back of the camper standing up (bungeed in place).

Our big green kayak is a three person kayak, but we normally only put two in it. Three’s definitely a crowd! I have my own one person kayak so I normally carry all the stuff (water, snacks, etc). We bought both of them used.

We have two of these 6 foot kayaks (which we bought new) that are perfect for our boys. If they get too tired, we loop a rope through the handle at the front and pull them along for a bit. As they’ve gotten more experience, we haven’t had to pull them as much. These little kayaks didn’t have hooks for seats and the boys biggest complaint was the lack of a seat. I found some clips and rivets online and they were super easy to install. The seats were also bought online.

I watched these seats until they went on sale – I paid $27 for them.

These are the loops I bought. Please note that you will need a rivet tool to install these.

The mangrove tunnels at John Pennekamp were fun to explore although some of them were a bit narrow!

One thing I’m always intrigued by is abandoned/closed things (buildings, trails, towns, whatever) and at John Pennekamp there’s a trail that’s been closed for several years. It’s called the Mangrove trail and you can only walk a couple steps down the boardwalk before you’re met with a gate and a sign that says it’s closed. The written literature says that it’s closed while they repair it, but we asked a park ranger once and it seems that it’s permanently closed. Of course that just adds to my curiosity. I’m not willing to ignore signs and do anything illegal, but I was very curious as to why it was closed.

On our kayaking travels around the park, we checked out an area that we thought would take us near the mangrove trail. We found the trail, or what was left of it!

It was pretty clear why the trail was closed!

It was damaged by a hurricane and a large portion of the boardwalk washed away. I can’t imagine the effort it would take to rebuild it!

Being told it’s closed for repairs is one thing. Actually seeing what’s left of it is so much different! For now my curiosity is satisfied. On to the next kayaking adventure – Indian Key Historic State Park.

Paddling to the bridge towards Indian Key

According to our geocaching app, Indian Key is about 1/2 mile from the launch point. That seemed like a doable distance – it was a clear day, the water was smooth.

Paddling under the bridge toward Indian Key

We paddled under the bridge and into the boat channel. For me that’s always the worst part, especially in open water (when we’re paddling around smaller bodies of water, the boat channels aren’t as deep or wide). We quickly paddled across it and then slowed down to enjoy the sea life.

My youngest was super excited to spot this sea urchin.

Sea Urchin on the way to Indian Key Historic State Park

Our easy paddle quickly became hard when we realized that it was low tide! We struggled through some really low areas where our bigger kayaks were dragging and then just when we thought we had made it, we noticed a sign that said the area was protected and you couldn’t land there. The kayak landing was around to the right of the island. The sign was leaning back and we couldn’t see it until we were ready to pull up the kayaks. The ground was so soft – like sink to your knees soft! We finally managed to drag, I mean paddle our way around to the kayak landing.

Welcome to Indian Key Historic State Park

After catching our breath, we set out to explore. Indian Key was home to Jacob Housman who was a wrecker in the early 1800’s.

The island was laid out with streets and landmarks identified similar to what it would’ve been while it was inhabited.

Street Sign Indian Key Historic State Park

Imagine, a hotel on an island 1/2 mile off shore!

Tropical Hotel Indian Key Historic State Park

This was our favorite part of the island.

Mystery Feature Indian Key Historic State Park

Kayaking back was much easier – the tide had come in a couple inches and that made all the difference! After we arrived back at our launch point, the guys decided to cool off before heading back to camp. The boys thought it was fun to float with their life jackets (plus it’s good for them to know that they really do work).

After all that hard work, ice cream was definitely a much needed reward!

Do you kayak? What was your best adventure?

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John Pennekamp/Key Largo Camping Trip

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Several years ago we drove to Key West and made some stops along the way. One of them was John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. We were quite taken by it and quickly made reservations to camp there. We had such a good time that we planned to come back. Life conspired against us and here we are almost three years later and we’re just finally making it back there.

We took along our kayaks, goggles (no snorkels though), and our underwater camera (that we bought right after our last trip there…we also bought a floating strap for it). We left around 11:30 and planned to take our time driving across the state. We drove across on 41 which cuts through the Everglades. There are so many places to pull off, but with the camper behind us, I’m reluctant to pull off unless I’m sure I’m not going to get stuck. We did stop at the Big Cypress National Preserve visitor center. They had rv parking spots that were perfect for easy in, easy out, no backing up.

RV parking at Big Cypress Visitor Center

It’s funny how you forget little things, but when you see them again, you immediately remember. These lubbers were one of those things. My kids instantly remembered them and were fascinated by them…well, all except my daughter.

We learned a lot about Big Cypress and the different habitats there. There are also plenty of photo ops at the visitor center.

It was looking pretty stormy, so we decided to focus on getting across the state and only making a stop for gas when we got to a convenient station. Along the way there was a detour (which we knew about) and instead of following the detour signs, I listened to Siri. I’m not sure why – I had been following the detour signs, but for some reason when Siri said to turn, I did. Then I realized that I was supposed to be following road detour signs instead of listening to Siri. So, we got a tour of Homestead. Eventually we made it back to the right road, found a gas station, and continued on our way with no major problems.

The campsites are long and narrow at John Pennekamp. We’ve been spoiled by the larger sites at other Florida state parks. However, we don’t plan to spend much time at our site, so it doesn’t matter.

There are a couple swim areas roped off. Last time we didn’t have anything for the kids to float on – although they can swim, we spent a good portion of time where it was over their heads and they tired out quickly. This time we took along a couple noodles and took turns holding on to them. It also makes looking at the plant/animal life easier since you don’t have to worry about staying above water. This time there was a lot a seagrass that had washed in and the water wasn’t nearly as clear. It didn’t slow us down. My boys still wanted to swim over the deep part (there’s a drop-off in the main swimming area and normally it’s pretty clear and you can see lots of fish).

My daughter is a cat person and was thrilled to discover a campground kitty. It was a little skittish and she didn’t get to pet it, but she did convince me to buy some treats at the store.

Turns out campground kitty has some friends!

There are two hiking trails that are open. The first one we checked out was the citrus grove trail. We loaded up on bug spray (they don’t spray for mosquitoes so they are ferocious!).

It’s a nice walk and ends at, you guessed it, a citrus grove. It is still maintained and some of the trees had fruit on them.

We didn’t stay for long since the mosquitoes were out in force. We took a quick stroll around the grove and then beat feet back to the camper.

At the end of each day, we walked to the docks and the main swimming/concession area and enjoyed the peace, looked at the boats docked, and looked for fish.

Stay tuned for our kayaking adventures…

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W.P. Franklin Campground, Alva FL

Recently we wanted to get away for the weekend. Someplace close to home so we could get there at a decent time even though we weren’t leaving until after work. I found this campground while checking out our favorite campground (which sadly had no sites available). There was one site available for the weekend at W.P. Franklin Campground and when I saw it was on an island – that sealed the deal for me! Hubby was thrilled – fishing right outside the camper! Almost all sites are along the river. They’re paved and have a nice little pavilion along with a grill and fire ring.

I love sunset (if you follow me on instagram, then you already know that). The sunsets over the Caloosahatchee River are gorgeous!

You can walk out on part of the dam to fish. They actually have a very nice (large) fishing area with benches off to the right.

There were turtles swimming around the dam too. We saw fish jumping and a couple manatees too.

We could watch boats going through the lock from the campground, but it’s on the other side so you can’t see anything except the boats. One day we drove around to the other side of the river – there’s two ways to go and both are about 15 minutes. We went through Alva – a neat little town with a museum (we didn’t get to stop this time…maybe next time). Of course we had to stop for the drawbridge.

The maze of walkways at the lock (they aren’t open to the public, but I would love to run through all of them!). There’s also a visitor’s center and a park with a nice little playground near the lock.

This, right here, was probably the best part of the whole campground! Right out our camper door was the river and plenty of room for the kids to run! Hubby got to fish to his hearts content. The kids could fish for a bit, run around, go back to fishing…it was wonderful!

I will say that the sites are close together, but with all the open space behind the sites ,you don’t really notice it! Also, there are no full hook up sites. The dump station was easy to get to, but we just made sure we were careful with our water usage (we used the bath house for all showers). We will definitely be going back!