Highlands Hammock State Park

packed dirt bike trail

Highlands Hammock State Park/Florida:
This is a first visit for us…and inland park in the center of Florida near Sebring. My first impression…wow the campers are really crammed in…get me out of here! That was the same impression I got from Collier Seminole State Park and left the next day. We are here for two nights (it was supposed to be four….  I’m a country girl/former backpacker so this packed in camping is not for me…kind of like an apartment house for campers? I should have stayed at Walmart/free like we planned. That said, it is near any/all conveniences as it is off route 27.







paved bike/car road in park

They supposedly have free wifi but we couldn’t get it to work and didn’t push it as we have MIFI and we were only going to be here for two nights. There is a newer bath house and three old ones. There is are washers/dryers that cost $2.00 to do a load of laundry. There is one (yes, only one) dump station for those 138 campsites which equals lineup at the dump station if you don't time it right.












biking within park

Highlands Hammock has a biking trail for those with fatter tires. It is about 5 miles (as per ranger) and out in the palm tree forest. The surface is hard packed sand and it was easy to bike. We connected that with a paved park road to get 8 miles. We will do it again tonight to get more mileage in. There are short 25 – 35 minutes walk off of the paved park circular road. So you can bike to the trails, walk, and repeat that until they are all done!





Cyprus Swamp trail

  The paved park road is in the hammock (rather dense forrest of huge palms, oaks and such…very old trees).  The paved bike path also extends beyond the boundaries of the park and heads east on 634 until it runs into route 27.















Cyprus Swamp Trail

We walked a few of the little walks within the park.  The Cypress Swamp Trail proved to be a nice
walk through a grove of cyprus trees with a creek running through it.  There were some great photo ops that my Coolpix just didn't do justice...reflective views, an alligator, lily pads.


In the end, I liked the park but the sites were just crammed too close together to get good grades from me.


We had friends that also camped here another time and their impression was the same.  Still if you are rving in Florida this is a good place to stop for the night...most times you won't need a reservation
either.