Florida is full of state forests (38 forests with ~1.1 million acres). Cary Forest has several possible activities including a few campsites with water and electric. The hiking trails go through pine forests with saw palmettos below.
The trails are unique (to me at least). There is a very short grass on the path with distinct walls to the path depending on the height of the plants on either side. Right now the path is covered with pine needles. The grass and needles made for a very comfortable hike.
A portion of the trail is a boardwalk through a swamp / wetland.
This part has dark tannin water and cypress trees. Luckily there were no
mosquitoes right now.
The forest is home to Hooded Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia minor) which are carnivorous which includes plants like
the Venus flytrap. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a carnivorous plant in the
wild and these are a threatened species. They bloom in the spring so we’ll come
back then.
Back home we saw an immature (best guess is 2 years old) eagle that sat on the roof of our back patio. The picture is taken through a window and isn’t very clear. But very cool! Every few months we see an adult eagle visit our pond for fish but this is the first young eagle we’ve identified.
