🥾 ActiveLong weekend · from Tampa, FL
Lake Wales Ridge — Bok Tower, the Cow Camp & the Ancient Scrub
The Lake Wales Ridge is a spine of ancient sand dunes running down the center of the Florida peninsula — the highest ground on the peninsula and, geologically, one of its oldest exposed surfaces, an island that stood above the sea when the rest of Florida lay underwater. This three-day trip, about an hour and a half east of Tampa, traces the ridge from its cultural high point to its wildest scrub. Day one climbs to Bok Tower Gardens and its landmark Singing Tower carillon, set in gardens on the ridge's summit. Day two rides deep into Lake Kissimmee State Park to an 1876 living-history cow camp and the birdlife of its prairies and lakes. Day three walks the globally rare scrub of Tiger Creek Preserve and the shores of Crooked Lake before the return. Nights are spent in the small ridge town of Lake Wales.
Day 1 — Bok Tower Gardens & the Singing TowerDay 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park & the 1876 Cow CampDay 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake
Day 1 — Lake Wales, FL
Day 1 — Lake Wales, FL
🚗 1 hr 40 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Tampa, FL → Bok Tower Gardens
1 hr 30 min8:00 AM → 9:30 AM
Bok Tower & Singing Tower Carillon
★ 4.9Bok Tower Gardens crowns Iron Mountain, one of the highest points on peninsular Florida, and is a National Historic Landmark given to the American people by the publisher Edward Bok in 1929. Its centerpiece is the 205-foot Singing Tower, a masterpiece of Gothic and Art Deco design faced in pink and gray marble and coquina, housing a 60-bell carillon that fills the gardens with music daily. Time your visit to a scheduled carillon concert, when the bells ring out over the reflecting pool and the surrounding oaks. The tower rises from formal gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., the setting the perfect introduction to the ridge's high ground.
9:30 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Bok Gardens & Pine Ridge Nature Trail
Beyond the tower, Bok's 250 acres spread into woodland gardens, a wildflower and butterfly garden, and the Pine Ridge Nature Trail, a half-mile loop through a restored stand of longleaf pine and wiregrass — a living sample of the endangered ridge habitat. The Window by the Pond overlook, a small blind above a garden pool, is a fine spot to watch turtles, herons, and songbirds. The paths are shaded and gentle, threading Olmsted's plantings of camellias, azaleas, and live oaks, alive with birds drawn to one of the ridge's great green refuges. An easy, beautiful morning of walking before lunch.
10:30 AM📍 See location
🍽️ Lunch11:30 AM
Blue Palmetto Café
The Blue Palmetto Café at Bok Tower serves a relaxed garden lunch — sandwiches, salads, soups, and Florida-inflected fare — on a terrace overlooking the grounds, an easy and convenient midday break without leaving the gardens. It keeps the morning unhurried and lets you linger for an afternoon carillon concert. The shaded outdoor seating among the plantings is the pleasant choice on a mild day.
2 options · tap to switch
☀️
Afternoon
Pinewood Estate & Preserve Trails
The afternoon at Bok can wander from culture to nature: Pinewood Estate is a beautifully preserved 1930s Mediterranean-style winter home on the grounds, open for touring and set in its own gardens, while the outer preserve trails lead into the sandhill and scrub that the gardens were built to protect. Endangered plants found nowhere else grow in this ancient ridge sand, and interpretive signs explain the globally rare ecosystem underfoot. It is a gentle, contemplative afternoon of strolling before heading into Lake Wales for the night, with a second carillon concert a fine way to close the visit.
12:30 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Bok Tower Gardens → Lake Wales, FL
10 min5:00 PM → 5:10 PM
🛏️
Lake Wales lodging
Lake Wales, ten minutes from Bok Tower, is the small ridge town that anchors the trip — a historic citrus and railroad town with a compact downtown and the landmark 1920s Dixie Walesbilt Hotel presiding over Main Street. Lodging runs to chain hotels along US-27 and a few local inns and lakeside options; nearby Winter Haven offers a broader range if needed. Book the same base for all three nights to avoid moving each day. A simple dinner in the walkable downtown, near the historic depot and mural district, sets up the days ahead.
Day 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park, FL
Day 2 — Lake Kissimmee State Park, FL
🚗 1 hr 10 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Lake Wales, FL → Lake Kissimmee State Park
35 min8:00 AM → 8:35 AM
1876 Cow Camp Living History
★ 4.4Lake Kissimmee State Park's living-history cow camp recreates an 1876 Florida cattle-drive camp, staffed on weekends by a costumed "cow hunter" who tends a herd of scrubby cracker cattle and answers questions in first-person character about frontier ranching on the Florida prairie. It is an unusual and genuinely evocative window into the state's cattle heritage — the cracker cowboys who worked these open ranges long before Florida was a tourist coast. A short trail leads from the parking area through pine flatwoods to the camp. Check the schedule, as the interpreter is present only on weekends and holidays; the camp site is worth the walk in any case.
8:35 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Lake Kissimmee Observation Tower & Trails
★ 4.8The park protects nearly 6,000 acres of pine flatwoods, prairie, and lakeshore between three big lakes, and its trail system is prime birding and wildlife ground. A short walk leads to an observation platform overlooking Lake Kissimmee, where bald eagles, sandhill cranes, ospreys, and wading flocks are common and the vast open water stretches to the horizon. Longer loops such as the Buster Island and North Loop trails cross prairie and hammock where white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and the occasional bald eagle nest can be seen. The flatwoods hold gopher tortoises and, rarely, the endangered Florida scrub-jay. Carry water; the prairie stretches are open and sunny.
9:35 AM📍 See location
Picnic at the lakeshore pavilions
The park is remote enough that a packed lunch is the practical choice — its shaded picnic pavilions near the boat ramp and lakeshore have tables and grills with views over the water, an ideal spot to rest between the cow camp and the afternoon trails. Grab supplies in Lake Wales before you drive out, since there is no concession inside the park. Eating lakeside, with eagles overhead and the prairie breeze coming off the water, keeps the day rooted in the park's wild character. For a sit-down alternative, save the restaurant meal for a late lunch back in Lake Wales.
10:35 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Buster Island Loop & Prairie Birding
★ 4.8In the afternoon, the Buster Island Loop carries you deeper into the park's least-traveled ground — a mix of ancient oak hammock and open dry prairie ringed by the lakes, where the birdlife and the sense of solitude are the reward. This is classic old Florida cattle country turned wildlife refuge, and the low afternoon light across the prairie is when deer and turkey move and the sky fills with soaring vultures, hawks, and swallow-tailed kites in season. Pick a loop scaled to the day's remaining energy and heat; even a short out-and-back onto the prairie captures the wide, quiet character of the place before the drive back to Lake Wales.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Lake Kissimmee State Park → Lake Wales, FL
35 min5:00 PM → 5:35 PM
🛏️
Lake Wales lodging
Return to your Lake Wales base for a second night, keeping the same hotel or inn to avoid packing and moving. The downtown offers a handful of local restaurants for dinner, and the quiet ridge town is a restful contrast to the day on the open prairie. Staying put here positions you well for the third day's scrub-and-lake walking at Tiger Creek Preserve, a short drive south. An early night sets up an early start, when the scrub birds are most active.
Day 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake, FL
Day 3 — Tiger Creek Preserve & Crooked Lake, FL
🚗 1 hr 55 min driving📍 4 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Lake Wales, FL → Tiger Creek Preserve
25 min8:00 AM → 8:25 AM
Tiger Creek Preserve Scrub Trails
★ 4.9Tiger Creek Preserve, a Nature Conservancy holding of some 5,000 acres, protects one of the finest remnants of the globally imperiled Lake Wales Ridge scrub — an ancient, desert-like community of sand pine, scrub oak, and rosemary growing on brilliant white sand dunes that are millions of years old. A network of blazed trails winds from the scrub high ground down to the blackwater Tiger Creek itself, one of the cleanest streams in Florida. This is prime habitat for the endangered Florida scrub-jay, a curious, cooperative-breeding bird found nowhere else on earth, along with gopher tortoises and a suite of rare endemic plants. Go early and walk quietly; the scrub-jays are most active and most easily spotted in the cool morning.
8:25 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Continue at Tiger Creek & Blackwater Stream Trail
★ 4.9Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Tiger Creek Preserve Scrub Trails — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.
9:25 AM📍 See location
🍽️ Lunch10:25 AM
🍽️
Lunch in Lake Wales
Back in Lake Wales after the morning in the scrub, the downtown's local restaurants make an easy, welcome lunch stop — Southern comfort food, café fare, and a brewpub in the historic buildings near the depot and mural district. It is an unhurried midday meal to refuel before the last stop at Crooked Lake and the drive home. Pick a spot with a shaded patio and let the heat of the day pass before setting out again.
2 options · tap to switch
☀️
Afternoon
Crooked Lake & Sand Ridge Overlook
★ 4Crooked Lake is one of the ridge's largest and clearest sandhill lakes — a state-designated Outstanding Florida Water, its irregular shoreline named for its many arms and coves. The scrub preserves and sand-ridge conservation lands along its western shore offer overlooks and short trails with wide views across the blue water framed by white-sand scrub, and it is a fine place for a final afternoon walk, some birding, or simply sitting by the water. Bald eagles and ospreys nest around the lake, and the light on the clear water and pale dunes is at its best late in the day. A serene last stop before the drive north to Tampa.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Lake Wales, FL → Tampa, FL
1 hr 30 min5:00 PM → 6:30 PM
Plan your own escapeExplore more trips →