Camping at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park
Continuing on our journey, we to family in Fort Pierce, stayed a few days and then continued our camping adventure for one last stop before coming home. We stopped at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in Okeechobee, FL. This park is very much in the middle of nowhere – that’s why it is the ONLY designed dark skies state park in Florida. Our journey from Fort Pierce was just a short drive of long, straight roads going to where? The prairie lands as far as the eye can see!
Our driving journey to Fort Pierce from Hanna Park was about 233 miles. Our journey from Fort Pierce to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park was about 50 miles (just a few hours of rural flat Florida driving).
Park Details
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park
Address: 33104 NW 192nd Ave, Okeechobee, Florida 34972
Park 863 462 5360
Park 8am – sundown
Park Office Very ‘odd’ hours but unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly what they are – I can say this. The check-in time for your campsite is 3pm, but the office closes at 3pm. I received a phone call from the park office shortly before 3pm but since I didn’t know the phone number, it went to voicemail. On the voicemail was the gate code as well as information to proceed to our campsite. So, if you have reservations here and you see an 863 area code phone number show up on your phone – ANSWER IT! Or you’ll have to decipher all the information they left in the voicemail.
Cell service was great here with Verizon. I didn’t take time to check whether or not there was any antenna channels on the tv – we went star gazing instead.
The next odd thing was that there wasn’t a sign actually giving the name of the park. There was a little building, a flag flying, and a ‘park fee’ sign – but nothing that says you have arrived at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.
And this was our clue that Google was correct, this must be the state park since it has 'park admission fees' - but I didn't see anything with the name of the park anywhere at the 'entrance'.
- This park is infinite grassland (aka prairie) at 54,000 acres
- There are trails, but we didn’t get to explore those since we had only 1 night; the campground wasn’t full but there were quite a few people trickling in after we got there.
- Wildlife is definitely a site to see at this park
- We didn’t get to explore enough – but the Kissimmee River marks the western boundary of the park. The river feeds Lake Okeechobee which feeds water over the southern banks of the Everglades (maybe another time!)
Once you enter the park, say goodbye to a clean car and camper because you're in for several miles of dusty, unpaved roads before you'll get to the campground.
Campsite Details
30 amp electric
Picnic table, Fire ring
Dirt campsite and level
Water/Electric/dump station
Back in sites
Checkin is 3pm
Checkout is 1pm
Quiet hours 10pm - 7am
Our campsite was dirt, leaves and mostly shade, campsite #5. Lot of trees in this campground providing shade. It was interesting to see the number of people that tent camp in this campground.
The bath house was nice – with one unique feature – the outside lights are red in color, not white cutting down on light pollution. This is located at the entrance of the ‘family campground’. In the family campground there are fire rings for campfires as well as ability to use ‘white lights’ without being told – you’re causing issues. There is another camp area that is for serious star gazers – red lights only in this area (Astronomy Pad). Another campground area for those with horses.
The laundry machines were outside of the bath house.
No campground or other stores were nearby – so bring everything you need or be prepared to drive for quite some time on lonely roads.
Hiking
Our hiking consisted of walking around the campground and then taking a path over to the park office. There is one trail that is close to the campground but does not allow dogs. I am assuming this is because of the proximity of alligators but did not check it out to be sure.
Sunset - Sunrise
Sunset was very nice – we found a place over near the park office (and the star gazing campground) and set up to take some photographs.
The next morning, I walked over to the other side of the campground (a short walk) and watched the sunrise.
Wildlife
We did see wildlife at the park although some of it was more common – I suspect that the turkeys know they are on a preserve because they really were not very concerned about me wondering fairly close to them.
Deer came to the campground area near the bath house in the evening and morning hours. Our dogs spotted them – but they are getting better and didn’t go totally nuts.
The next wildlife was when we were at the dump station and this is where I will caution you to BE CAREFUL. The little frog wasn’t a big deal, but I took the photograph to remember it sitting by the water hose used at the dump station.
However, when I went to roll up the hose on the pedestal another little critter came out. Now thankfully I am not the kind to drop everything and start screaming or running but out slithered a small snake – which apparently was a young black racer (and they don’t look anything alike between youngsters and adults).
And Closer....
After dark
The dark skies here are definitely holding so many more stars than we ever see here at home. Tampa has way too much light pollution. This is one of the first times we left our dogs by themselves in the camper – by the time it got dark they were all passed out. No way did they look like they wanted to follow their crazy humans. So, we let them sleep and sleep they did. Not a peep out of them.
We took some photographs on the dirt road near the campground - we didn't stray to far from our camper just in case a noisy racket started up - but our campsite neighbors did walk by while we were doing photographs and said there wasn't a sound coming from our camper.
MAP
We stayed in the Family Campground.
To view all the photographs from this stop, click here.