Day 8 Kissimee Prairie Preserve State Park

 After laundry and bills, we headed up to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.  "The preserve protects the largest remaining tract of Florida dry prairie, an ecosystem shaped by cycles of flooding and fire."

It's part of the Everglades headwaters, but it has been very dry for the last 18 months so the low lying areas that usually have water are dry, and the deep hole that some alligators go to, have more alligators than usual.                     

Here we are at the trail head of the only shaded trail in the park.  On a sunny, 90 degree day this is the one we walked:  The Hammock Trail.

                                                                                        

Such a beautiful sky!

This is a very elegant looking young Live Oak tree before the branches start growing horizontally.  At maturity they are usually wider than they are tall!

This Live Oak toppled over probably many years ago.  Below are pictures of the base of the tree and the roots that pulled up the ground with it when it fell.

    

                                                                                    

                                                                                

                                           The wild pigs root around and make piles of dirt

                                                                                    

              This shows the inside of a decaying palm tree where critters like to hide.

                                                                               

                                                                                  

                          This Zebra Swallowtail butterfly followed us along the path for a ways.
        

                                                                                      

The palm tree in the middle of the picture towered above the other trees and we watched it for a while as it swayed just a little back and forth.  So beautiful!

                                            Prairie pictures:

                                                                                        

                                                                                                            

                                                                                    

 Some people like to wake up and hear the sound of the ocean surf and see the ocean from their room.  We like to see Brahma bulls out our side camper window.  As we were starting devotions this morning, I heard a "huff" snorting sound and we looked out and saw this! 

Cool fact about Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park:  it's "internationally recognized for its lack of light pollution.  The night sky above the prairie is inky black -- campers can spot the Milky Way without using telescopes or binoculars".