While many of our RVing friends have covered a great deal of Florida and graciously shared their knowledge and suggestions, no one we know had been to KPPSP before. We rolled in after a rainy drive not knowing quite what to expect. The park is remote and comprised of a 54,000 acre “dry” prairie with an abundance of wildlife. It even has hot clean showers (with pitiful pressure) and open-air laundry facilities.
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| entrance road |
I’d chosen a site in the Equestrian Loop because there was No Horse Required! to camp in that section, and it wasn’t the Family Loop. It was further from the office, which was closed anyhow, and a one-mile round trip walk to the dumpsters, but it turned out to be a good choice for us and definitely the less-busy of the two loops. A rafter of wild turkeys escorted us into our space, and they would make daily appearances along with several white-tailed deer that vacuumed up the steady rain of acorns.
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| Horseless in site 34 |
KPPSP isn’t what most people would think of as typical Florida. The vast prairie stretches as far as the eye can see, sparsely punctuated by palm oases and hardwood hammocks. It appears more like an African savanna than a sub-tropical wilderness – until you put your feet down. The recent tropical storms made conditions wetter than they would normally be, but that only means the water was deeper in some areas. Unfortunately for us, that made many of the trails on which we’d planned to stomp, unstompable. We still managed to fill our ten days there without regretting booking ten days there.
On our first evening walk we spotted one of the birds the preserve is noted for as it mingled with the buzzards roosting on their old dead tree.
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| One of these things is not like the others. |
The bird so nice, they named it twice, the Crested Caracara! It is the national bird of Mexico and not rare worldwide, but it only lives in a few places in the U.S. with a small range in central/southern Florida being one of them. They are not shy birds, and we saw them nearly every day, some mornings four at once, striding through our site and hopping along the fern-festooned oak tree branches.
Many of our daily walks/runs were on the dry main roads, and as we ambled along one afternoon, the light was just right to give me pause.
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| Could be a log… |
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| …but it’s not. |
Our first official gator-sighting! It looked plenty big to us, but hang tight. This was a mere baby compared with what’s to come.
While the skies were clear for our stay, the temps were much cooler than average, and we enjoyed slow mornings inside waiting for things to warm up a bit before venturing out. We set out one late morning to bike as far as the bog would let us.
It was passable for a decent distance, but having to be so close to the high grasses was a bit unnerving, especially when the taller of the two riders looks off the side of the trail and spots this:
What we couldn’t see until we got home and downloaded the photos was that this was a delightfully frightfully large mama gator with at least seven adorable creepy little babies.
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| Zoom in and count for yourselves (hint: they’re to her right, your left.) |
The hatchlings actually are kind of cute – as long as they’re far enough away because while alligators will normally move away from encroaching humans, mama gators don’t take kindly to anything that gets too close to their brood. She and her little ones were far enough off the trail for us to continue, but we could only go so far before the water turned us back.
One of the advantages of staying in the horse loop was the nice view from our front windows.
While we encountered lots of wildlife on our walks, our windshield was like a panoramic movie screen.
The park offers over 100 miles of trails, but with the soggy conditions, we only attempted one real “hike.”
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| Prairie Loop Trail |
Some parts of it were dryer than others, and some of it was a squishy bog-stomp.
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In normal times, the park offers swamp buggy tours on which visitors sit high atop big-wheeled open-air buggies, overlooking the prairie and gaining access to areas that are inhospitable to those on two feet or two wheels. I had been willing to shell out the dough for a ride on one, but, predictably and wisely, the tours weren’t running this year.
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| Peavine Trail |
Two wheels it is then! We rode out the Peavine Trail twice, the first time traveling nearly to the end, sometimes through grass that made my heinie pucker with the worry of rolling over a bitey snake.
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| Nevermind the occasional trail ambassador. |
The signs all advise you to leave at least 15′ between you and any gator, but gators can’t read, and they do what they want. On the return trip, we geared down to roll past as fast as we could, and this chomper wanted nothing whatsoever to do with, slipping quickly into the water to escape our mad pedaling.
Other bipeds were apparently not so lucky.
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| You’re too close. |
By far, the biggest gator we saw was, thankfully, from a safe viewing distance.
On our second ride along this trail, that big boy and a turtle provided some extra entertainment.
At first, all was calm, and we were able to get some nice photos of both critters.
As we continued to pass, though, we startled the food straight towards the jaws of doom. We could only watch helplessly. I have an absolutely fabulous video of this, but what I don’t have is good enough internet to load it because I’m posting from a swamp hole. I promise to share it soon, though. Until then, you’ll have to be in suspense over the turtle’s fate.
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| Hungry or not hungry? Stay tuned… |
Speaking of food, I finally tried my hand at some homemade shrimp and grits, and TBG proclaimed it to be fantastic.
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| Plated on our fancy service. |
KPPSP is also a designated dark-sky park, complete with an “astro-pad” for those who wish to dry camp and set up their star-gazing equipment. Our stay coincided, of course, with the full moon. While that was pretty, we had to wait until the very end of our visit for TBG to be able to try a few night photos. His attempts were somewhat foiled by the interior bathhouse and nearby campground lights. He could’ve gone out to the astro pad, but I like the shots he got anyhow.
While it wasn’t the most activity-packed visit, and it was the wrong time of year to catch a glimpse of the endangered and elusive Grasshopper Sparrow that is only found here, the abundant wildlife, relative peace, and the chance to experience a different side of Florida, made for a good stay.
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| Goodnight KPPSP! |
COMMENTS
We’ve hiked several different sections of the Florida Trail, and this one looks pretty intriguing. That flat savanna is standard fare for the middle of the peninsula all the way down to Lake O, so you can see why cattle have historically been an important agricultural product in Florida. In more coastal areas the Florida trail includes stretches that go over sand dunes and along the beach.
Looking forward to seeing you guys when you visit our area. You arrive just after a new moon, I believe, so plan to spend some time on night shoots early in your stay. This part of the panhandle of one of Florida’s best dark sky areas.
Really looking forward to some visiting in the round, kayaking, and photography with you Florida experts soon!!
One day I got to taste that specific shrimp and grits, my fave southern dish.
Are you still there to see the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter?
Your shrimp and grits look delicious! And as you know, we have a set of the same china, hahahaha!!!
Speaking of food, I fear that I’m not going to like the ending of your turtle and alligator story. We were biking in Shark Valley several years ago and watched a gator eat a turtle. Crunch. :-((
Will our turtle meet the same end as the one you saw in Shark Valley? Tune in to the next episode!