For the month of February we decided to visit a park we’d never been to before, the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park located just south of Yehaw Junction. This park is truly in the middle of nowhere. After heading south on the Florida Turnpike from Orlando you arrive in Yehaw Junction and exit onto US-441. You then head south for another 15 or so miles until you turn west on a small county road. After another 10 miles or so, you head north until the pavement ends, and you are at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. But the campground and ranger station are another 5 miles up the unpaved road. Don’t forget anything you’re going to need for the trip, because it’s close to 40 miles to the nearest convenience store/gas station and more like 60 or 70 to the nearest grocery store.

The park is pleasant. There is a family camping area and a horse campground with water and electricity at all sites. There is a bathhouse in the family campground, but the horse campground just has a composting toilet and of course corrals for the horses. Since this park is so isolated, it has dark skies, and is great for viewing the stars, and there is a special camping area for the astronomy hobbies that show up during the new moons. The park has numerous trails that are open to walking, biking and horses. During our visit we encountered deer, wild turkeys and numerous other birds on our walking and riding outings, and sign of wild hogs but we didn’t see any.

The sunsets are beautiful here, but come prepared to read or just walk around. This is probably not a great summertime park, as there is little shade, and no water to cool off in. There were no ranger programs during out stay, but there was a young lady ranger that was very enthusiastic and visited the campsites with a traveling exhibit box to show off artifacts found in the park, and talk about the park and its history. It was sort of like having a personal ranger program. Not sure when or if we will head back here, but it was a great place to relax for the weekend.

Photos are here.