Highlands Hammock State Park

This 9,000 acre park in Highlands County opened to the public in 1931 and is one of the earliest examples of grass-roots public support for environmental preservation. Local citizens, concerned about plans to turn the hammock into farmland, acquired the property and pledged to protect it. When Florida’s state park system was established in 1935, Highlands Hammock became one of the four original state parks in the newly established system.

Swamp along the Richard Lieber Trail

The park preserves a scenic virgin hardwood forest, a large cypress swamp, pine flatwoods, sand pine scrub, bayheads and marsh. There are nine trails that penetrate this thickly wooded preserve, with many having boardwalks that take hikers over the marshier sections affording vistas into the mysterious and fascinating swamps below.

Gigantic golden silk spider

Fern Garden Trail

There is also a campground, restaurant, museum and ranger guided tram tours. Highlands Hammock is located four miles west of Sebring on County Road 634. For such a small park it is dense with natural beauty and a wide array of contrasting biomes. It is well worth the detour off of U.S. 27 if you ever happen to be in this neck of the woods.

Delicate white fungi on the forest floor


An adult eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera)


Deep in the jungle wilderness


Giant oak trunk


Catwalk on the Hickory Trail