Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park: Home of Big Sky and an Ocean of Stars

When I rediscovered backpacking last winter, I made my first one-night trip on an unfamiliar trail to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, on the 5.5-mile Kissimmee Prairie Loop that is a favorite trail for Florida families. I described Kissimmee Prairie Preserve in my book with reverence and awe, as I still do today. A huge attraction for astronomy enthusiasts, this state park should be on the bucket list for anyone looking to enjoy Florida’s beautiful sunrises, sunsets, and night skies.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is an internationally certified dark sky park and therefore a mecca for stargazers. It protects 54,000 acres of Florida dry prairie and numerous endangered species, including the grasshopper sparrow, which can only be found in the dry prairie ecosystems found along the Kissimmee River. Having been used for decades for cattle grazing, its landscape was altered significantly by the straightening of the Kissimmee River long ago by the Army Corps of Engineers. Its trails are primarily old ranch roads, and a portion of the Kissimmee Prairie Loop includes a military trail built during the Second Seminole War.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is located south of Kissimmee off the Florida Turnpike, miles from metropolitan areas whose city lights drown out the stars, and it therefore caters to visitors who enjoy spending nights enjoying the thousands of stars visible above on clear nights. Nighttime use of lights is restricted, and visitors can even book sites in a specially designated star-watching campsite where only red lights may be used after dark. For hikers and backpackers, the region is extremely flat, with an endless ocean of prairie of sawgrass and palmetto interrupted only sporadically by oak and palm hammocks.

The Kissimmee Prairie Loop is a favorite for families because of its flat terrain and the Prairie Loop campsite located within a hammock with three spacious campsites. One of those campsites (P2) has a covered picnic area large enough to fit a tent during inclement weather, and another (P3) has a reliable pitcher pump.  The trail can be shortened to 4.6 miles by parking at the trailhead beside the equestrian campsite; beginning and ending at the park office extends the hike to 5.5 miles.

I chose to begin the loop at the trailhead kiosk at the equestrian camp and then hiked 2.1 miles along the blue-blazed portion of the trail to the Prairie Loop campsite, hiking the loop in a clockwise direction. This is the shadier and more winding stretch of the trail, as it passes through alternating stretches of open prairie and hammocks of oak and cabbage palm trees. The trail eventually meets a wider grass road just south of the campsite, before arriving at a large palm and oak hammock containing Prairie Loop camp.

The hike beyond the campsite continues north on the grass road before eventually linking with Military Trail, the portion of the loop also shared with the Florida National Scenic Trail where the blazes turn to orange. The remainder of the trail then marches east for another mile and a half before returning to the equestrian campsite, mostly through a shadeless but often breezy sea of palmetto with birds chirping and alligators occasionally lying in the ditches beside the trail.

The big attraction here is the sky. After setting up camp when I visited last February, I spent an hour hiking through the fading daylight, then grabbed mosquito repellent and a poncho to use as a picnic blanket and headed to a spot north of camp, where I took my post reclining on my backpack to enjoy one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Having chosen to visit one night before a new moon, I stayed there two hours after sunset to enjoy the hundreds of stars above me, before clouds rolled in and forced me to return early to camp.

The campsite I chose on the edge of P3, atop a small rise looking east over the prairie, was one of my favorites of last season.  Having initially chosen the spot to gaze at stars that ended up being hidden all night behind clouds, I woke up on that cool February morning before dawn in a dreamscape of fog, the sun fighting through the mist and squeezing its beams of morning light between the palmetto fronds and live oak boughs. My photo of my tent after breakfast that morning is the now the cover shot for my blog.

If you’re new to backpacking and looking for a great place to spend a night at a primitive campsite, the Prairie Loop at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park may be the best place to try first.