Top Florida state parks
By Jay Clarke
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
December 2 2004, 4:06 PM EST
I've watched bison rumble across a prairie, listened to carillon music under moss-laden oaks, spent a night aboard a boat anchored at a tropical island, explored a massive Civil War fort with a soldier who pretends he's living in 1864 and walked on sand that squeaks -- all in Florida.
All these, and many other experiences, came to me on visits to Florida's state parks, which offer amazingly varied recreational opportunities.
"Florida has one of the top park systems in the country . . . but many residents don't know what they have in their own back yard," said Larry Perry, assistant director of Florida's Park Service.
Florida's 158 state parks attract more than 18 million visitors a year, but their most significant quality may be their extraordinary diversity. There are camping parks and tubing rivers, beaches and historic homes, 19th-century forts and urban museums -- even one park that is underwater and another that is underground.
"We have parks as small as the Ybor City Museum and as large as Fakahatchee Strand Preserve, with 60,000 acres," Perry said.
Over the years, I've visited more than 60 Florida parks. Here are some favorites.
Paynes Prairie
It sounds far-fetched, but it's true: A small herd of bison (14 now) roams the grassy bottom of this one-time lake near Gainesville. They're hard to spot; easier to see are wild horses and scrub cows descended from those the Spanish brought to America, as well as some of 237 species of birds found here.
Paynes Prairie is actually an enormous round sinkhole, its northern rim rising 150 feet above its lowest point, which is a natural drain known as the Alachua Sink. More than once, when the sink became blocked, the 21,000-acre prairie has become a lake. The last time was in 1871, and for 20 years steamboats regularly ferried passengers and cargo across it. But in 1891 the sink suddenly unblocked, draining the lake in less than two weeks.
Today, visitors can scan the prairie from an observation tower or hike to the alligator-infested Alachua Sink. In fall, they are rewarded with views of 1,500 to 2,000 large sandhill cranes that spend the winter there. The preserve also offers boating, fishing and swimming on Lake Wauberg. It has 30 miles of hiking trails and 50 campsites. 352-466-3397.
Sebastian Inlet
With shores on both the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean at Melbourne Beach, this popular park offers a variety of outdoor activities -- fishing, surfing, beach swimming and sunning, scuba diving and boating.
But visitors may find the park's McLarty Treasure Museum just as absorbing. It displays silver and gold coins and artifacts recovered from the Spanish plate fleet that sank offshore in 1715.
Sebastian Inlet is a favorite with anglers, who can cast their lines from the beach, from jetties, catwalks, the inlet and the Indian River shore. Their targets: snook, redfish, bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
Another plus: From the marina, visitors can take a boat tour to America's first wildlife refuge, Pelican Island. They aren't allowed on the island itself, but the boat tour comes close enough so that passengers can see nesting birds. With 51 sites overlooking the inlet, this is a popular camping park. 321-984-4852.
Highlands Hammock
One of the oldest parks in the Florida system, this preserve near Sebring is one of the few locales in Florida with a virgin hardwood forest. A favorite site for visitors, according to park manager Peter Anderson, is the Cypress Swamp Trail, a boardwalk that takes you into a stand of tall cypress trees rising amid still, spooky waters. Also impressive are the Fern Garden Trail, bordered by a variety of ferns, and a forest of tall sabal palms that predates the advent of Europeans to the New World.
Six other trails meander through the park, including one that takes visitors to a 1,000-year-old oak.
The park's historic Hammock Inn restaurant was recently renovated and now is known as the Friendship Lodge. It still serves its signature wild orange pie, though. Across the way is a second recently renovated building built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. It serves as the state's CCC Museum.
The park's tram tour is one of the best ways to see the park. The park has 138 regular campsites and 16 primitive ones. 863-386-6094.
Grayton Beach
What is most impressive to visitors to this Florida Panhandle park is the squeaky-clean whiteness of its sand and the translucent green of the Gulf waters here. Actually, the squeaky part of the sand is quite literal -- when you tread on the sand it emits a squeaking sound.
Unlike the sand on the Atlantic coast, which is made of shells and coral, Grayton's sand is composed of quartz. "If you look at our sand in a microscope, you'll see its grains are round," a local resident once explained to me. "That's why it squeaks when you walk on it." Grayton Beach's biggest claim to fame is that it was chosen as the best beach in the United States in 1994 by Stephen "Dr. Beach" Leatherman of Florida International University in his annual best beaches list. His reasons for naming Grayton No. 1: "We looked more at pristine environment. It has that very fine, super-white sand, the water quality is very high, and there are miles of shoreline to walk on."
Grayton hasn't lost those qualities in the interim, but the state park has undergone some improvements. One is the addition of 30 two-bedroom vacation cabins, each with accommodations for up to six people.
These are set behind the dune line, which rises as high as 25 feet, as are picnic sites, bathroom building, parking and other park service facilities. If you're up to slogging through sand, a marked trail will take you through the grasses, sea oats and scrub that characterize the dunes.
Also available are 37 campsites with water and electricity; campfire programs are given on Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The park sits near Santa Rosa Beach. 850-231-4210.
Gold Head Branch
The Mike Roess Gold Head Branch Park in North Florida lies in the rolling sand hills six miles from Keystone Heights. It is one of a handful of state parks that has vacation cabins as well as campsites. The park has 16 cabins, nine built by the CCC during the Depression, five built in later years and two recently constructed two-bedroom facilities.
All the cabins overlook the lake, where visitors can go swimming. Canoeing and kayaking are also available, but motorboating is no longer allowed because a long drought has dropped the lake level. Fishing is permitted, but you must have a freshwater license.
A deep and cool ravine bisects the area, while ferns and other lush foliage -- quite different from that normally seen in these sand hills -- border the ravine path and springs flow here and there from its sides. The spring waters coalesce to form the waterway known as Gold Head Branch, hence the park's name.
The park has 73 campsites, most with water and electric hookups. The cabins rent for $50-$85 a night and must be reserved months in advance. 352-473-4701.
John Pennekamp
Situated at Milepost 102.5 on the ocean side of Key Largo, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is one of the state park system's most popular units. "Our campsites are always full," said park manager Eric Kiefer. "We haven't had an empty site in three months."
The big attractions here lie underwater.
Glass-bottom boats take guests who like to stay dry several miles out to float over the only coral reef in the continental United States. Other park boats ferry divers and snorkelers to the reef, as well. What they see there are not only living coral in various forms but bright parrotfish, angel fish and yellowtail snappers weaving in and around the coral.
For a more controlled look at the marine life of the Keys, visitors tour the park's aquarium, where tanks teem with grouper, lobster, many eels and other reef fish. The visitor center also has a theater, boat ramp, picnic sites, nature trails and 48 campsites. For park information, call 305-451-1202; park snorkel tours, 305-451-6300; dive tours, 305-451-6322.
Fort Clinch
It never saw military action, but Fort Clinch at the northeast tip of Florida was occupied by both Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War. Though it is a large fortification covering five acres, it was never completed.
Its strategic location at the convergence of the Atlantic Ocean, St. Marys and Amelia Rivers makes it an ideal observation site, still used by the military.
Today, visitors can tour the fort and talk to docents dressed as soldiers of the period -- and their answers may surprise you. All of them play the role of soldiers in 1864, so they've never heard of cars or airplanes, refrigerators or televisions. You learn a lot about life in 1864 just chatting with them.
Mounted in the fort are 10-inch Rodman cannons, which could propel a 90-to-120-pound cannonball three miles. These are fired occasionally (without the cannonballs).
The docents conduct drills on the first weekend of the month. A $2 per person fee is charged for tours.
With 1,200 acres and frontage on three bodies of water, Fort Clinch offers much more than a historic fort. It has 62 campsites with water and electricity, a seven-mile mountain biking trail, hiking and nature trails and a half-mile ocean fishing pier. 904-277-7274.