Lake June in Winter Scrub SP

This place is pretty interesting for many reasons. On one side it's a weird thick scrubby area with creeks running through it. On the other is a really intense example of the sandy stripe in satellite photos that make up the Lake Wales Ridge - basically it was the beach eons ago when water levels were higher and now it's got quite a few stranded species living there. I think this is close the the southernmost point of it. The whole park is on a hill going down to Lake Placid. The drive around the lake from here to the city of Lake Placid and the city itself is pretty interesting as far as those things go.

The hill down the lake - enormous clouds of some kind of flies. They didn't exactly bite but they envelope you to such an extent you have to leave. Maybe I just did it on a bad day.

At night it can get oddly cool fast - if you stay near dusk you can feel the sand almost pulling the heat out of you. It's something about the pure sand here not holding in the heat like other areas. During the day I assume it could be like walking along a beach. Not sure why but other lake wales ridge areas don't seem like this to me.

Supposedly this is bear habitat - I wasn't holding my breath.

It's fairly close to Highlands Hammock State Park - that's the only reason we came here. On the way we had a GREAT prolonged encounter with a couple of Caracaras on the side of the road eating an animal. They are bizarre looking impressive birds we've only see one other time so far.

Walking in the actual scrub we spotted some pigs just barely and there weren't a great deal of birds visible but we saw eagles and a towhee. I'd believe it if more was possible here.

An odd thing about this is that it's a state park but no rangers - you just pay 2$ at an envelope drop.

Two thumbs up - recommended!