This month our co-op met together to continue our study of Florida Flora and Fauna by exploring Highlands Hammock State Park. It's a great area to explore as there are so many short hiking trails and interesting things to see at the park. We walked 3 different trails all around half a mile in length, before having a lunch break to do our nature journaling. Everyone enjoyed some time on the playground and a few of our members were able to get together and find a few geocaches before heading home for the day.
Nature Trails
One of the most lovely aspects to Highland Hammocks is the Loop Drive. It is a short scenic drive that carries you through the main section of the park, and gives you the opportunity to see wildlife and a number of different ecosystems right from your car. However, the real beauty of Loop Drive are the eight trails which are spaced out around it for hiking. All of them are short and unique, showcasing a different aspect of the park.
We explored Fern Garden Trail, Big Oak Trail, and Cypress Swamp Trail with our Co-op. Fern Garden Trail as the name might imply is a short loop through a damp area of low ground in the park, and has several kinds of lush ferns all along the path. It was my favorite trail that we explored that day. Big Oak Trail leads to a massive oak, that while no longer living still stands. All the kids LOVED this trail as there was a narrow bridge that lead back to the oak, which they all then had to climb as high as possible. Our final trail of the day was the Cypress Swamp Trail, where the kids saw their first wildlife of the day - a snake.
Lunch Break
After our hiking, we made it over to the playground for a lunch break. The kids played awhile before coming around for food. After everyone had a chance to eat and have a little bit of a break, the kids pulled out their nature journals to record the things they had seen. I saw some snakes and alligators, as well as some pictures of the swingset among those things recorded for the day. All of us moms had a great time visiting, trouble shooting curriculum ideas and homeschool solutions. I love that time, since I'm always looking to get some ideas and be able to reassure other parents too. It's a comfort to be reassured that I'm not screwing these kids up and get ideas for day to day problems. Like I said in a previous post, it's important to find your tribe, and these women are definitely mine. The kids of course had a hey day taking pictures of each other with my phone.
Geocaching
After lunch and nature journaling, a few of the kids wanted to do some geocaching, since there were two close to where we were hanging out I offered to take them. I always read them the clue and turn them loose. I let them take turns carrying my phone to try to follow the GPS coordinates. The first one we found almost immediately. The next one was a little bit tricky but turned out to be the most fun. The GPS took us over near the ranger station and we looked all around that building and under everything trying to find that cache. I won't spoil the surprise for you but we finally found it, and got a chance to talk with the Rangers. They had bug collections, prints from bears, raccoons, and more. There was a hummingbird nest and turtle shells. The kids had a blast asking questions about every sort of creature and thing they could think of and the ranger seemed to love having a captive audience as he kept pulling out more items for them to look at.
After telling everyone good bye we drove another loop around the park and found 3 more geocaches. We also checked out the campground which was small but had alot of sites with electric and water hook-ups. It is such a nice area to visit that it would be fun to camp there for a week and do more trails and exploring. Before we left we saw four deer grazing together near the campground. It was a great way to end our day at Highlands Hammock.
All in all, the area is beautiful and it is worth the trip even though it's a bit of a hidden gem, out of the way for most Floridians. We will definitely continue coming back and we'd like to try to find more of the geocaches. If you'd like to make a visit the preserve is located at 5931 Hammock Road, Sebring, FL. The park is $6 for a carload of up to 8 people 6 and older.
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