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Ha! Kissimmee Prairie! Absolutely beautiful! So much wildlife!
When you enter the park there is approximately 7.5 miles to the campground. That road was where we saw the most birds. We would be driving and suddently STOP! Look over there! Take pictures and then continue to another STOP! Wow! Can you see? There, on the branch! Click, click and then continue. We would laugh as it would take us so long to drive those miles!
The welcome center is very nice and manned that day by two very lovely women. They told us that there was a "resident alligator" named Stumpy who could often be seen sunning on the side of the road. The first time we saw him he was just around the corner from where we were camping. Quite a big guy he just laid there in the sun and not much could disturb him. We were told that although alligators can seem pretty harmless, they are wild and can be aggressive if perturbed or harassed. There were signs to that effect at different points in the park.
There were no stabling for the horses there but they did have nice paddocks, each with its own water spiggot to water the horses. There were no horses while we were there.
There were a lot of trails but they went for miles and miles and were more of an expedition than just a nice walk. We explored one of trails and it was weird as no birds could be heard singing at all. I thought maybe it was a sign. We did have to turn back at one point as the footing got quite wet and mucky. There was a nice short loop that started at the family campground which we walked twice. We saw raccoons one time and egrets. Again the very large live oaks are like trees from a fairy tale and when you add all the other different plants and palms it is just beautiful.
We also decided to go on a swamp buggy ride which turned out to be a bit of a dud as we hardly saw anything but got great information on the history of the prairies. I'm sorry but I can't remember anything of it. It was quite interesting at the time though. Our guide was a well-known birder named Dave Simpson and he could identify a bird just flying by and had such a sharp eye as to see a deer at a distance in the long grasses (almost impossible to see) while he was driving. We went to an area that the Audubon Society had first claimed and restored before the land was donated to the State and became a preserve. We also learned the difference between heritage hammocks as compared to more recently developed hammocks. By the way, hammocks are clumps of trees and vegetation that form a small forest.
We also learned that the cattle egrets we kept seeing in fields with cattle or horses are in fact from Africa. How they got here? Don't know.
The campsites were well laid out with each having electricity and water connections. It was nice to be able to turn on the lights at night after spending four days without electricity or water. And to take a shower! We were only a handful of campers so it was very quiet. At the equestrian campground, there was only a composting toilet but we did have access to the washrooms, showers and washer and dryer at the main campground.
On one of our drives we saw the very beautiful Crested Caracara. It is a falcon and will feed on dead animals at times. When we saw him he was feeding on a dead skunk and then flew on a post with a bone and was picking at that.
Another very pretty bird is the Eastern Meadowlark. We also liked the Loggerhead Shrike. We took pictures of other birds still unidentified by us. We heard owls and Glen heard some wolves but by the time I went out they had stopped. We did see many deers at different times. One time we were sitting outside in front of our trailer when we see three deers walking by slowly and very relaxed.
We also saw some curly mules. Must have been a mixed with curly horses!
We loved our time at the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve and would definitely go back. It was not a free campground but at $16/night it was affordable. The only thing is that it is so far out from civilization that we had a weak phone signal and absolutely no data. The closest store was about 20 minutes away but was so run down it looked like it should have been condemned. To go to a decent store we had to drive an hour.
Each place we go offers us something different to see and experience.
Loving it!
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