Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring

What started out as wanting to go take cool pictures with new camera, ended up being a full family outing. I invited some real close friends and their kids to come along. I thought that the kids would enjoy the park and we adults would get some time to socialize. Next thing you know my extended family (in-laws) are also going. So we set a date for Saturday, planned a picnic for lunchtime and headed off. Upon arrival (11:00) we found the parks first tram ride of the day was full and that the 2:30 was still available. Being that we had 12 in our group now we went ahead and purchased the tickets. Almost forgot cost, we spent $54.00 on entrance fee and tram ride for 8 adults and 4 kids. We explored about half of the trails stopping and taking pictures of everything. We got pictures of a cottonmouth snake that part of our group almost stepped on. We took pictures of the family on a 100 year old oak tree what I big family tree that was. We explored the catwalks and found a gator on the fern trail. We then headed back to the picnic area for lunch. We took lunch in picnic form, to avoid spending $200.00 at any restaurant we stopped at to feed our crew of 12. After lunch, a trip to the play ground for the kids and a sample of the parks orange ice cream it was time for the tram. Our park guide was great he told us about himself before we took off. He took us both on the loop that you can make with the car, as well as to parts of the park that are not accessible to the public. As we crossed the first bridge we saw an alligator. We knew then that we had done the right thing buying those tickets. From there until the end of the ride we never put our camera's down there were numerous opportunities for shots of alligators, turtles, flowers and butterflies on this trip. An hour tram ride turned into 1-1/2 hour ride and we all came out loving it. We finished the day by taking the trails we had yet to explore. This was a great day had by all. I am getting asked where are we going next weekend already and its only Monday. We are trying to explore the Florida state parks as a family, and catch pictures of the wildlife we see in our travels.