Highlands hammock is an interesting ecosystem with pine flatwoods and a hardwood swamp. It’s another of Florida’s CCC parks, and includes a CCC museum. In return for their labor, the CCC men got a salary, some education and as much food as they could eat. One fellow commented that he came out 50 pounds heavier. This program was a lifesaver for people caught up in the Great Depression.
There is a nice bike ride through the park which provides access to several of the trails. We walked the Big Oak, Cypress Swamp, and Fern Gardens trails.
The big oak trail features a tree that is almost 1000 years old and has a trunk 36 feet in circumference. Unfortunately when we got to the end of the trail we saw a big stump and a pile of logs.
The cypress swamp trail began as a typical boardwalk. After a few hundred feet it turned into something else: a narrow walk about 3 boards wide with a skinny rail on one side. We were lucky to see an alligator, a great blue heron, and an anhinga.
We were very surprised to see an armadillo. I thought my eyes were deceiving me until we saw a second one on the museum lawn and a third rustling around in the leaves behind our campsite.