Hiking at Lake Kissimmee State Park

January 21-February 2, 2023                                   Most Recent Posts
Lake Kissimmee State Park                                      Lake Kissimmee: Kayaking
Lake Wales Florida                                                     Lake Kissimmee State Park

I forgot in my last post about paddling, subconsciously intentional no doubt, to put a picture of the damn dam that makes Lake Kissimmee possible.

This is what you can see of it from the kayak put in. The orange is the water block for the dam.  Notice the park’s boats there on the right.  At the launch you can only go left down to Lake Rosalie.  You cannot go under the bridge.

The other thing I forgot was the two videos I wanted to put in.  If you haven’t read the kayaking post you might want to first but for those who did,  The first short video is of my first attempt at kayaking on Lake Rosalie at the end of the canal.

And the second one is an even shorter seriously amateur video of the Anhinga playing his snake bird role and flying off.

On the days when I was not paddling up and down the canal at Lake Kissimmee as I talked about in my previous post, I was hiking on their trails.  As you can see, they have a lot of trails from .25 miles to 6.7 miles.  In addition there are service roads and fire roads which are also on the hand map which is in black and white.  But they are not on this posted colored version.

The Green Trail was nearest the campground and I walked it multiple times.  Sometimes connecting to the blue trail and some service roads to create a different route.  At first it was a shaded walk among lovely large Live Oak Trees.

Live Oak trees are so wonderful.  They can be from 40 to 60 feet tall with a 60 to 100 food spread and curving branches which in some cases will be lying on the ground.  They love this sandy soil.

And in many cases they are covered with Spanish Moss.  Both the tree and the “moss” are native plants and the moss is not parasitic on the tree but it can potentially shade it from the sun and block photosynthesis.

As I got closer to Lake Kissimmee on the trail, the habitat changed to open grasses and big sky.

And eventually to muddy and marshy.  That little white spot between the trees at the end of the road is the view of the lake.

Not much of a lake view and a wet and marshy shore line.  The arrow there indicates where the trail I was on goes next.  Doesn’t look like anyone has been able to walk there in some time.  High water.   At this point I backed up and started investigating how else I could get myself along this trail.

It takes the shade of the Live Oaks and palmettos to create a habitat for these bright shelf mushrooms.

I really love the shapes and structure of the Live Oaks.

At the end of one of the hikes  on this north east side of the park, I found myself at the Observation Tower.  It is 3 stories, 35’ tall but you can no longer access the very top level.  Apparently it has been this way for some time.

When I arrived no one but the guy on the railing was there.  The close up of him is for you Pam since you like vultures.

This is the view from the second tier with no zoom.  The railing is in the bottom corner of the picture.  You can barely see the view of the lake this was designed to showcase.

I asked a park volunteer who came around while I was here why it was closed off and he something structural and it had been that way for a long time.  I looked from here and from underneath but didn’t see anything.  I think the difference to the view from one  more story would be striking.

It would probably be a better version of this zoomed in shot I took from the 2nd level.

This view of the structure from the other side shows how much higher the third tier is than the one I was limited to

For some reason on several days after I got back from hiking, the deer were possibly looking for handouts that unscrupulous previous campers had given them. 

It was fun having them so close though I’d prefer that they were a tad wilder.  I always worry that when humans feed animals and then those humans disappear in the winter that can cause serious problems.  But of course in Florida, the campers are in the parks year round.

Don’t they just have the daintiest feet?

I have deer just like this at the farm and sometimes in my yard in family groups but this group hardly batted an eye when I came up and waked right by them into the rig.  At the farm, if I open the door, they are nothing but white tail flags as they jump the fence and are long gone.

They didn’t wander on until some time after I went inside.

This is the yellow trail on north west side of the park.  It is named for Kristin Jacobs a state representative who before her death from cancer at age 60, spent much of career focused on environmental issues.  The trail is a biking trail but in all the times I hiked it I saw mostly hikers and only one or two bikers.

The habitat it goes through is quite different from that on the east side of the park.

I was very shocked to see this on the side of the trail and wondered what predator here had left it.

I saw deer on this trail nearly every time I hiked it.

I recognized this destruction at the edge of the trail as the work of wild hogs.  Perhaps they are the predator.

These palm tree trunks are the result of the park’s reliance on controlled burns to imitated the actions of nature.

Even though I know this prickly pear cactus is native to Florida, it always surprises me that it is here and not in a desert.   I do love the various ways they grow.

Like deer, this west side had a number of live armadillos.

Looks like an armored animal.  Right down to his tail.  Amazing that he could be prey.

This installation at a trail crossing the park road was wonderful.  I wish I’d asked at the ranger station how it came to be and who built it.  I had noticed it the couple of times I’d driven in and out but I got a good look when the trail I was on crossed the road where it was.

Feb 1  black faced squirrel  Pretty sure he’s a Sherman’s Fox Squirrel.  He was great to watch.

I saw this guy a couple of times.  He’s a Sherman’s Fox Squirrel. He’s native to mid and northern Florida and South Georgia.  He’s a large squirrel with a fancy big bushy tail.

He was great fun to watch with his black face, white ears and nose.

I’m not sure what he has in his hands but he stood right up to eat it and didn’t mind me at all as long as I stood stock still.

Lake Kissimmee has two campground loops in figure 8.  Each of them has a “pioneer-tent”.  Not sure if these are done by the same company that did the glamping thing I showed in my Alafia River post.  You’ll have to click this link to see the inside as no one was using one the day I saw it and it was closed up.  They call it carefree camping.  What do you think?  Would any of you do it?

As I mentioned in my first post on Lake Kissimmee State Park, it is WAY OUT THERE.  The internet and phone are iffy.  It is 3 miles from the ranger station to the campground and 15.5 more to the nearest town of Lake Wales.  Where I went only once for groceries and a special treat.

I met Shayne and Bev at a very popular local restaurant named Jay Bees.  Shayne used to live in this area and suggested we meet there as they were going to be in the area.

One of Bev’s friends made her this great shirt.  The quote appears to be from Bev’s Bible.  Just in case I didn’t blow it up big enough for you to read it all, it says

YES,
I’m Always Cold
    ME 24:7
Book of Bev

The portions here are large.  Enough to take home for sure except Shayne will help Bev out with hers. 

But no sharing the wonderful chocolate peanut butter pie.  So glad I thought to get this picture before I scarfed it all up.  Boy was it delicious!!!

Lake Kissimmee: Kayaking

January 21-February 2, 2023                                      Most Recent Posts:
Lake Kissimmee State Park                              Lake Kissimmee State Park
site 12                                                                     Florida SKP For the First Time
Lake Wales, Florida

Here’s a reminder of where I am in site 12 at Lake Kissimmee State Park.  What I LOVE about state parks as opposed to private parks is the ability to WALK not drive to all the trail heads and to the kayak launch.

And that’s pretty much what I did every day.  I alternated between kayaking the canal and hiking the trails.   The lakes are oten too rough and too many air boats which are VERY popular here.   So I did not kayak them.   The canal is about an hour paddle up to Lake Rosalie and is relatively sheltered from the wind unless it is blowing straight up or down the canal.

This is a combination of pictures from the days I was on the water. 

This launch site is just down from the damn dam.  The dam and canal control the water in both lakes.

I knew the deer were in my campsite and on the trails but I wasn’t really expecting them to wade in the water.  They must be getting their feet wet this close since the canal edges are marshy.   She’s really reaching out to get something.

I was also surprised that the birds on the canal were so skittish, given all the kayakers that must do this all year long.   Nearly all the pictures of them I took required my canon’s zoom lens since as soon as I got even 200 feet away it seemed, they were on the wing.   The exception was the egret who didn’t seem to be very bothered.  He saved a lot of energy.

How does a large bird like an anhinga perch on such insubstantial branches?  Especially with big black webbed feet.

Most of my days paddling down the canal were cloudy like this one.

Many of my bird shots looked like this.

All of these shots were taken from quite a distance and cropped.  This looked sort of like an anhinga apartment house with 3 floors.

Such wonderful feather patterns on their backs.

You can barely see the three in the tree branches on the right.

Notice the great green legs.   I think this is an immature Little Blue Heron but hopefully Laurel will let me know for sure.

That’s the opening to the lake.  The lovely red/pink are the maple catkins.  Spring in late January.

Not sure who the buoys are supposed to keep out of the canal from the lake but they don’t keep out fishermen with trolling motors.   Notice the bird on the pole.

I saw many more anhingas than Double Breasted Cormorants.  This is a zoom picture so you cannot see his great feather designs on his back.   The gray sky made it hard to show his designs.

Another distant bird shot but I got her closer later on.  I’m surprised I even saw her up there since I would never think to look for her so high up.  If you’ve ever heard a bird sound like a woman in distress, it’s probably a Limpkin like this.

Better light angle although I still had to lighten it.

I just love this rattling bird.  He is SO fast that I consider it a real coup when I can get a non blurry shot of him.  He doesn’t sit still long enough. 

This is the sort of thing I saw over and over.   And then too, many of the shots I tried to get of them in flight were too blurry.  It’s hard to keep up with a moving bird when you are zoomed in.   He flies right out of your frame.

I loved the shimmering water color look to these so I’m using 3 of them.  Even the one that isn’t quite sharp.

Who is this with the black wing tips?  Head is too light for a wood stork.  Can’t be a white pelican here.  Whooping crane has black feet.   I thought White Ibis only had black wing tips on the farthest ends of the wings not all the way around.  Help Laurel.

More birds in flight.

Aren’t they amazing.

And then there are birds that fly and swim.  The Anhinga is also known as the snake bird.  You can see why here.

I went out on the canal pretty much every other morning.  Some days were much sunnier than others

And some were much windier.

Still most of the birds were flying away when I got near.

But this kingfisher didn’t and you can see why.  How did he fly to this branch with that big fish?

These pictures are combinations of several days and on another day from the above I caught a great shot of this kingfisher chattering.

The rough water didn’t seem to bother this Common Moorhen at all. 

One of the birds I saw most frequently and one less likely to fly before I was anywhere near was the Little Blue Heron.

Turtles were only out on the sunny mornings which was less than half the days I was on the water.

The canal was exquisite on these few bright blue sky days.

I was surprised to spot this gator on the bank in the woods rather than in the sun where they usually like to soak up the heat.

In the picture above you have to look closely to see his head in the water.  He was relatively long.   Below is a close up of his eyes watching.

After I had already put the cloudy day pictures together I came upon this sunny day picture of the same Cormorant, I assume, perched in the same place on another brighter day.  His designs and black webbed feet are more visible here.

These are the days on which I feel as though I am paddling through the skies.

This water bird has  had his name changed so many times that I can’t keep up.   He was the Florida Gallinule, then switched over to the Common Gallinule and in 1982 to the Common Moorhen which is how I know him.  But in 2011 they switched back to the Common Gallinule but I’m not doing it.  I didn’t join in the switching around of the Rufous Sided Towhee to the Eastern Towhee either.   He’s rufous to me.

I was amazed that the moorhen was not the least bit bothered by being within a foot or two of my boat  and paid me no mind as he nibbled what I assume were seeds off of the grasses on the edge of Lake Rosalie

His bill always reminds me of Halloween candy corn.  He makes me laugh.  What a design.

Here’s a non water bird I was able to spot along the shore. the red bellied woodpecker.

This “look mom no hands” pose also always makes me laugh.

Don’t think this is the same alligator since he doesn’t look as long.  But I spotted him or a different day so it is possible.

As an appropriate ending to my days on the canal – another bird on the wing.

And on only one day did I see the darling Pied Billed Grebe who was there every day when I started out paddling and returned on the Wekiwa Spring Run.

I had intended to do one quick post on kayaking and hiking at Lake Kissimmee.  Clearly I got very carried away and unable to contain my pictures.  This is a constant problem for me.  Anyone with suggestions on how to curb it please do advise    Next post will be about hiking at the park.   I’ll try to do better but without some advice I don’t know if it will happen.