Highlands Hammock: One of Florida’s First and Wildest State Parks

Some of the oak trees at Highlands Hammock were already old when Spanish explorers first reached Florida. This park near Sebring protects a slice of the state so ancient and untouched that walking into it feels like stepping back a thousand years.

Saved Before the Parks Existed

Highlands Hammock opened in 1931, before Florida even had a state park system, after local citizens raised money to protect its old-growth forest from logging. When the state system formed a few years later, this was one of its first parks. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built trails, bridges, and structures here, several of which still stand, along with a small museum telling the story of that era.

Ancient Trees and a Swamp Catwalk

The park’s nine short trails are extraordinary, winding through one of the oldest hardwood hammocks in Florida. A raised catwalk carries you out over a cypress swamp, eye to eye with the knees and roots, while another path passes a massive live oak estimated to be around a thousand years old. Alligators, deer, songbirds, and the occasional Florida panther move through the dense green, and the air feels cooler the moment you step beneath the canopy.

Plan Your Visit

Highlands Hammock sits just west of Sebring in the middle of the state and is open year round from eight in the morning until sunset. You can hike, bike the loop drive, camp, or take a guided tram tour into areas you cannot reach on foot. Mornings are coolest and best for wildlife. Bring water and bug spray, wear shoes you do not mind getting muddy, and give yourself time to walk slowly. The trees have waited centuries; they are in no hurry.

Official page: Highlands Hammock State Park