Two weeks of warm weather near Fort Meyers

View From Our Campsite #6

We got to our campsite on Valentines day. It is the same campground we were at in January but we got a much nicer campsite. It is under a nice big shade tree , however now we can’t see the sunrise or sunset like we could in our other site#11. At least it is not out in the hot sun and it is more private with a better view. We occasionally see Bald Eagles in the tree directly across the channel.

Because of the hot weather and the windy days we only paddled twice up Telegraph Creek for a 7 mile paddle, but the river was also very low since there has not been much rain. Telegraph Creek can be paddled upstream for about 3 miles or so and there are a lot of birds and a few turtles.

Right before it empties out into the Caloosahatchee River there was always a big alligator hanging out. On the opposite bank was a crazy boxer dog that would bark at us and jump into the water. The alligator usually went in also, I figured maybe that was his strategy to grab the stupid dog while he was preoccupied with barking at us.

We also only biked twice around the neighborhood streets and that was only 9 miles each time. I guess we are either getting lazy, getting old or hate biking in 80o weather.






Early on Friday morning we will head north to Lithia Springs Park. We will do some grocery shopping and get some propane in Arcadia, FL.  

They don’t take reservations and Fridays are usually not a good day to arrive. It is supposed to be a cold weekend so we are hoping there will be a campsite that we can get.

Hot two weeks but now turning colder

Slowly heading North–Back at WP Franklin

North Bound FL Trip Map

The FL map above shows our next four planned camping spots. Yesterday we headed north (only 10 miles to #2 - WP Franklin Corps of Engineers Campground where had stayed last month. We will stay here two weeks before heading North to #3 - Lithia Springs County Park for 5 days and then North to #4 - Silver Lake Park in Withlacoochee State Forest for 4 more days and finally to #5 – Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest. 

We don’t plan to drive on any interstate highways until be reach NC. We find that the state and local highways have less truck traffic and in the south are in much better condition than our northern roads and therefore much more relaxing to drive.

After Ocean Pond we will begin to check the weather in Cleveland as well as the road conditions for driving through GA, SC, NC, VA, WV & OH. We usually plan to get home about mid March. 

John Prince County Park

John Prince Park in Lake Worth, FL is a few miles south of West Palm Beach. 
This is a large county park with 300 tightly squeezed campsites. Many sites can be reserved for the entire winter season, those along the lake have a 14 day limit. 
Since we were only staying for 12 days that’s where we had hoped to get a campsite, but no luck they put us in a compact section with almost all French speaking Quebecers.

The campground has 300 sites all with electric and water and some with full sewer hookups. There were several reasons we came here. It is pretty far south so the temperatures are usually near 80oF.

The campground is part of a very large city park right off I-95 that has a beautiful 10 mile long paved bike trail that goes entirely around Lake Osborne.


You can also bike into a gated community around a golf course. It is close to grocery stores and shopping centers as well.

We stayed here for a week 4 years ago but we decided it is too unlike the “Real Florida”. We like wild nature and even though there are Wood Storks, Egrets and Herons along the bike path and lake, it is much too civilized for our taste.

There was even a big festival in the park this weekend, called the Garlic Festival, with carnival rides, entertainment and food like garlic ice cream and donuts. Luckily it was a mile away so we were not bothered by any noise. We did not attend.

We will be here until Valentine’s day this coming Friday and we then will head back to the west coast of FL and stay again at WP Franklin Corps of Engineers campground on the Okeechobee River which is the Across FL Waterway from West Palm beach to Fort Myers.

Highland Hammock State Park

I know we have visited this park but I’ll bet it was over 30 years ago. I couldn’t remember what we did, that’s why I like creating these blogs. At least it reminds me what we did and if we liked the park.

The park first opened in 1931, it was developed by CCC in 1934 and became one of the first Florida state parks in 1935. The 140 site campground is crowded under a large canopy of trees, it feels like you are jammed in pretty tight but they do have 30 amp power & water at each site. Some large RV’s may have trouble finding a site they could fit in.

They have a bunch of short hiking trails, some raised on boardwalks that can be reached from the 4 mile paved bike trail that winds through a jungle like setting including a claimed 1000 year old oak tree.


There are some longer bike trails that are on old gravel roads. There is also a 3 mi asphalt trail that parallels the main road all the way to Sebring. We rode about 18 miles on our tandem bike on all the various trails.


We camped here for three days and enjoyed the small CCC museum visitor center that is run by the volunteers.

Saturday we had a light rain that curtailed our activities.

On Sunday we will head south to Lake Worth, FL near West Palm Beach and watch the Superbowl game at John Prince County Park.

Myakka River State Park

It has been 12 years since we last stayed here. It is a popular park and the reservations fill up moths in advance. They have three campgrounds. We were able to get a small site #39 in Old Prairie Campground for just two days. So we planned to get here before 10 AM even though check-in time is not until after 1 PM. We were able to get a permit to canoe to Deep Hole from the launch right at the campground entrance. The large picnic ground had a 500’ sidewalk to the river so we could easily wheel our canoe cart to put-in from the large parking lot.

Myakka River Gator

The narrow river flows two miles south to the large Lower Myakka Lake. Right at the start near the highway bridge were some of the biggest alligators we have see on the trip, we counted 2o before we got out of site of the highway. I think we even hit a large gator that swam under us.

The river was very low and we had to walk across a sandbar to get into the lake where we saw a flock of white pelicans.

White Pelicans

There were more large birds along the way than we have seen anywhere else.

It is about a mile to get across the lake and to find “Deep Hole”. The beach and water here of full of hundreds of large gators.

Even without a boat the permit allows you to hike 2-1/4 miles to a nearby beach that you can view the crowd of gators. They only hand out 30 permits/day to either paddle or hike. We were the only boat we saw on our early morning paddle.

Deep Hole Gators

When we saw all the gators in the water as well as on the beach we decided to turn around and head back. It was a harder paddle back against the wind and the current in the river. We made it back to the ranger station just after 1 PM and got our campsite permit. The only site that we were able to book was a 20’ site for our 27’ RV. However the lengths they publish must include a car since there was enough room.

Our our second day we decided to bike the rest of the park taking the park road to the north gate that is only open on weekends. We had a snack there and cars and campers were wondering how to get into or out of the park. There were no signs that told them how to get to the main entrance 28 miles away. These people were following their GPS which didn’t know that this is not the normal entrance. We tried to explain to these drivers that they needed to drive over 20 miles out of their way. The nice 7 mile long 25 mi/hr park road was full of bicycles that they rent at the Upper Myakka Lake. It was a pleasant shady bike ride and the cars were slow and careful of the bike and pedestrian traffic.

Last night we had a little rain but they are predicting another dry day. We leave latter this morning for a short 70 mi drive to Highland Hammock State Park near Sebring, FL. We will stay there for three nights, again that's all that was available.