Let's get high

Above: The Highlands Hammock State Park in Florida is a great place to tour. Visitors see a wide variety of plant and animal life.

Each day at 1 p.m., the park offers a ranger-guided tour. Visitors ride a tram-like gizmo that is pulled by a pickup truck. Tickets are given out and the number is limited. Each day the tour "sells out," so you have to go early to be sure of a seat.

Besides the animals seen below, there are turtles, vultures, red-shouldered hawks, egrets, wildcats, panthers, deer, raccoons, an occasional bear and many more.

When you hear the word hammock, you think of something you lie in, perhaps drinking a fruity drink. Hammock also has another definition:

a fertile area in the southern United States and especially Florida that is usually higher than its surroundings and that is characterized by hardwood vegetation and deep humus-rich soil

You can read about the park in Wikipedia here.


Above: This alligator was looking directly at me. Camera range was close enough.


Above: A Blue Heron takes flight.


Above: The park ranger poses with another of the wild animals. You can see just a part of the tram to the right.

Images taken with my Canon 40D. Bottom one shot by my sister, Deb.