🥾 ActiveLong weekend · from Orlando, FL
Lake Wales Ridge — Bok Tower, the 1876 Cow Camp & the Ancient Scrub
An hour south of Orlando, the land quietly rises onto the Lake Wales Ridge — a spine of ancient white-sand hills that stood as islands in a warmer, higher sea more than a million years ago, and today harbors one of the highest concentrations of endemic plants and animals in North America. This three-day escape climbs that ridge and its lakes. Day one visits Bok Tower Gardens, where a 205-foot marble-and-coquina Singing Tower crowns the peninsula's highest point amid Olmsted-designed gardens and a nightly carillon. Day two heads to Lake Kissimmee State Park to walk into an 1876 Cow Camp brought to life by a costumed "cow hunter," then birds the open prairie and hammock at the water's edge. Day three explores the globally rare scrub of Tiger Creek Preserve and the shores of Crooked Lake before the drive home. Nights are spent in the historic town of Lake Wales, at the heart of the ridge.
Day 1 — Bok Tower Gardens & the Singing TowerDay 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park: the 1876 Cow Camp & prairie birdingDay 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake
Day 1 — Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL
Day 1 — Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL
🚗 1 hr 10 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Orlando, FL → Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales
1 hr 10 min8:00 AM → 9:10 AM
Bok Tower Gardens & the Singing Tower
★ 4.8Bok Tower Gardens crowns Iron Mountain, at nearly 300 feet one of the highest points on peninsular Florida, with a 205-foot Gothic Revival "Singing Tower" of pink marble and coquina rising above 250 acres of gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Built in the 1920s by Dutch immigrant and publisher Edward Bok as a gift to the American people and dedicated by President Coolidge, the tower houses a 60-bell carillon whose recitals drift across the reflecting pool and moss-hung live oaks below. A morning stroll through the woodland gardens, past the koi pond and the window-on-the-pond wildlife blind, is a serene and unexpectedly grand introduction to the ridge. Time your visit to catch a carillon concert, when the bells fill the whole hilltop.
9:10 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
Pine Ridge Nature Preserve Trail
Within the Bok Tower property, the Pine Ridge Nature Preserve trail leads out of the manicured gardens into a restored tract of the ancient Lake Wales Ridge scrub and longleaf pine sandhill — the globally rare habitat that makes this ridge one of the botanical wonders of North America. The easy loop passes through white-sand scrub studded with endemic plants found nowhere else on earth, with interpretive signs explaining the fire-shaped ecology and the many species clinging to survival here. It's a quiet, revealing counterpoint to the formal gardens and a first taste of the wild ridge you'll explore over the coming days. Watch the open sand for gopher tortoises and their many burrow-sharing neighbors.
10:10 AM📍 See location
🍽️ Lunch11:10 AM
Blue Palmetto Cafe at Bok Tower
The gardens' own Blue Palmetto Cafe is a pleasant, convenient lunch stop without leaving the hilltop — a light menu of sandwiches, salads, and Florida-inflected plates served in an airy space, with a shaded terrace overlooking the greenery. After a morning among the tower and trails it's an easy, unhurried break before the afternoon. For a heartier meal, the historic downtown of Lake Wales, a few minutes away, has several local cafes and restaurants to choose from.
2 options · tap to switch
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Afternoon
Lake Wales Historic Downtown & Ridge Overlooks
The small city of Lake Wales, founded in 1911, retains a walkable brick-street downtown of early-twentieth-century storefronts, a restored 1928 depot museum, and murals tracing the citrus-and-railroad history that built the ridge towns. It's a relaxed afternoon to stroll the historic core, browse the shops, and take in the surrounding hills and lakes that define this unusually high corner of Florida. The town makes an ideal, central base for the three days, close to every stop on the itinerary. Cap the afternoon with an overlook of one of the ridge's many spring-fed lakes as the light softens.
12:10 PM📍 See location
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Evening
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Lake Wales Lodging
Lake Wales sits at the geographic heart of this itinerary, making it the natural base for all three nights. Options range from chain hotels along the U.S. 27 corridor to the historic Hotel Grand Lake Wales and a scattering of lakeside inns and bed-and-breakfasts on the ridge. Staying put here keeps every stop — Bok Tower, Lake Kissimmee, Tiger Creek, and Crooked Lake — within a short, easy drive, so you can settle in once and range out each day. Book ahead in the popular winter season, when snowbirds fill the ridge's limited rooms.
Day 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park, FL
Day 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park, FL
🚗 40 min driving📍 5 stops
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Morning
🚗
Drive
Lake Wales, FL → Lake Kissimmee State Park
40 min8:00 AM → 8:40 AM
1876 Cow Camp Living History
★ 4.4Deep in Lake Kissimmee State Park, a short trail leads to a recreated 1876 Cow Camp where a costumed "cow hunter" tends a herd of piney-woods scrub cattle and stays entirely in character, speaking of the price of beef and the rigors of the Florida frontier as though the year truly were 1876. These Cracker cowmen — who cracked long braided whips to drive wild cattle through the palmetto, giving Florida's "Cracker" heritage its name — worked this very country, and the camp brings their vanished world vividly to life amid the oak hammock and open range. It's an unusual, memorable start to the day and a genuine window into Florida's cattle history. The living-history camp typically operates on weekends and holidays, so check the park schedule before you go.
8:40 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
Buster Island & Gobbler Ridge Trails
★ 4.3Lake Kissimmee State Park protects a superb mosaic of dry prairie, pine flatwoods, oak hammock, and lakeshore marsh, laced with trails that make for excellent hiking and some of the best birding in Central Florida. The Buster Island Loop circles an ancient sand-ridge island of live oak and longleaf pine, while the Gobbler Ridge trail runs out toward the marshy edge of Lake Kissimmee itself. Sandhill cranes bugle across the prairie, bald eagles and ospreys work the lake, and white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and gopher tortoises move through the flatwoods. Carry plenty of water, wear sun protection for the open prairie stretches, and bring binoculars for the abundant birdlife.
9:40 AM📍 See location
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Afternoon
Lake Kissimmee Observation Platform & Prairie Birding
★ 4.8An observation platform near the boat basin looks out over the vast, shallow expanse of Lake Kissimmee — third-largest lake in Florida and a stronghold for wading birds, waterfowl, and alligators. The open prairie and marsh edge here are prime late-afternoon birding, when herons, egrets, wood storks, and roseate spoonbills gather to feed and the low sun sets the grasses aglow. Anglers know these waters for trophy largemouth bass, and the ramp is a fine place to watch boats come in against the sunset. Linger with binoculars as the light turns golden and the cranes call across the prairie before returning to Lake Wales.
12:00 PM📍 See location
Manny's Original Chophouse, Lake Wales
★ 4.3Back in Lake Wales, this well-loved local steakhouse is a hearty way to end a long day on the prairie — generous plates of steak, ribs, and Florida seafood in a warm, casual room popular with locals and ridge visitors alike. After hours of hiking and birding it's a satisfying, unpretentious dinner close to your base. If you'd prefer something lighter, the historic downtown a short drive away offers cafes and a couple of family-run eateries.
1:00 PM📍 See location
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Evening
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Lake Wales Lodging
A second night in Lake Wales keeps you centrally placed for tomorrow's exploration of Tiger Creek Preserve and Crooked Lake on the southern ridge. Return to the same hotel or inn you settled into on night one — the town's compact size means dinner, lodging, and the morning's trailhead are all a few minutes apart. Rest up for the final day among the ancient scrub, and consider stepping outside after dark, as the ridge's rural skies can offer a fine spread of stars.
Day 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake, FL
Day 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake, FL
🚗 1 hr 45 min driving📍 4 stops
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Morning
🚗
Drive
Lake Wales, FL → Tiger Creek Preserve
30 min8:00 AM → 8:30 AM
Tiger Creek Preserve Trails
★ 4.9The Nature Conservancy's Tiger Creek Preserve protects nearly 5,000 acres of the Lake Wales Ridge's most precious habitat — ancient white-sand scrub, sandhill, and pine flatwoods surrounding the clear, tannin-tinted Tiger Creek, a blackwater stream far more Appalachian than Floridian in feel. Its trails wander through globally imperiled scrub that shelters endemic species like the Florida scrub-jay, the sand skink, and a host of plants found only on this ridge, then drop to shaded creek banks lush with fern. Quiet and little-visited, it is the wildest and most botanically remarkable stop of the trip. Go early for cool air and active wildlife, carry water, and move slowly and quietly for a chance at the endangered, family-living scrub-jays.
8:30 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
Crooked Lake Prairie & Sandhill Overlook
★ 4Adjacent to Tiger Creek, the Crooked Lake Prairie tract offers a short trail through restored scrub and sandhill to overlooks of Crooked Lake, one of Florida's few state-designated Outstanding Florida Waters — a large, exceptionally clear ridge lake perched atop the aquifer. The white-sand uplands here are classic scrub-jay country, and the open vistas across the water and rolling sand hills capture the strange, ancient beauty of the ridge better than almost anywhere. It's a fitting place to pause and take in the landscape that has anchored the whole trip. Bring binoculars and scan the scrub and lake edges for jays, wading birds, and soaring raptors.
9:30 AM📍 See location
Historic Downtown Lake Wales Cafe
★ 4.9For a final meal before the drive home, the cafes and eateries of historic downtown Lake Wales offer a relaxed, local send-off — from a hearty lunch counter to a sit-down spot on the brick main street, a short hop from the southern-ridge preserves. It's an easy, satisfying way to cap three days on the Lake Wales Ridge before pointing the car back toward Orlando. Lingering here also lets any midday heat ease before the hour-plus drive north.
10:30 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Crooked Lake Sandhill Nature Preserve Loop
★ 4For a last easy walk, the sandhill loop above Crooked Lake winds through longleaf pine and wiregrass on the high white sand, with filtered views down to the clear water and a final chance to soak in the ridge's distinctive scrub before the drive home. The gentle path is a low-key, restorative close to an active weekend — deer and gopher tortoises are common, and the afternoon light through the pines is lovely. Keep an eye out for scrub-jays and other ridge specialties one last time, then begin the return to Orlando with the sun still up.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Crooked Lake / Lake Wales, FL → Orlando, FL
1 hr 15 min5:00 PM → 6:15 PM
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