The south central part of Florida is a massive area that includes the Big Cyprus Swamp, Lake Okeechobee, and the Everglades.  Geographically, it dwarfs the populous southern coastal areas of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the east coast and Coral Gables and Naples on the west coast.  It’s also an area I had never been to.

I recently watched a PBS documentary about the area.  It’s one of the American Experience programs called The Swamp.  The documentary is excellent.  It covers the history, social, and geological aspects of the area.  After watching this program, I decided to visit the area.

My winter home is only 2 hours away from Lake Okeechobee. I decided to start my exploration at this area.

About the Area

The southern part of Florida is shaped like a gigantic tablespoon that tips south with underground limestone ridges along the cost areas.  Water (surface, dew, and rainfall) from the central Orlando area drains south.  Lake Okeechobee is a large fresh water lake that catches this flow.  It gets it’s water from surface water that drains south from the Orlando area and from rainfall.  The primary surface input source is the Kissimmee River.  Lake Okeechobee originally drained south thru the Everglades, which some have called a slow moving river of grass.

Lake Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake within the boundries of the US.  After the 1928 Hurricane, which devastated the area south and east of the lake, a dike system was built around the lake for flood control and drainage.  Much of the land on the near south and east parts of the lake was drained and is now used for agriculture.  With the dike system, the water outflow was modified so in additional to flowing south, water drains west through the Caloosahatchee River and east through a series of canals.

The area around Lake Okeechobee is much different from the coastal areas.  To the north large cattle ranching is present.  To the south and east you’ll see an endless horizon of sugar cane and vegetable fields growing in the black muck soils.  It’s not a tourist area.

An excellent history of the area can be found in Majory Stoneman Douglas‘s book called River of Grass.

My Visit

My interest in visiting was to see the terrain and to see the small towns, many of which were destroyed in the 1928 Hurricane.  I also saw that there were good places for biking along the dike.  So, I planned a two day trip driving east from Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River.

We spent one night at South Bay.  We then drove along the east side of the lake, then north to Okeechobee.  The west side of the lake is very undeveloped.  We spent our second night at Moore Haven on the west side of the lake.

I made a video which in 10 minutes captures the highlights of what we saw along the drive, while biking, and from our drive.

Impressions

Here are some of my impressions from my brief visit;

• It’s not a tourist place.  Big trucks hauling produce, minerals, and farm equipment dominate the roads. Eateries cater to locals.  The Log Cabin BBQ in LaBelle is outstanding..
• Bass fishing is a big sport on the lake and there are several nice access points to get on the lake.  The scenic spots we visited in the video (Clewiston, Pahokee, Port Mayaca, Okeechobee) where all nice places to view the lake.
• It’s an economically depressed area.  The unemployment rate in some towns is near 25%.  You’ll see many boarded up businesses in the towns.  There are many small mobile home parks that dot the east side of the lake.  There are also many small churches.
• Biking along the top of the Herbert Hoover dike is outstanding.  The trail is called the Scenic Trail.  Its goes around the complete lake and provides over 100 miles of biking.  Many sections are paved.

Overall, I liked the area and enjoyed our visit.  It’s a different place.  I tend to like visually stark and less populated places.  Places like the deserts of southern New Mexico, the Llano Estacado of west Texas, the grass plains of western Kansas, and the endless rolling wheat fields of South Dakota.  The area round Lake Okeechobee is also one of those places.  Its big sky country.  I wouldn’t want to live there but it is great to visit and see a different terrain.  It’s an area of water, grass, sugar cane, black muck soil, and canal waterways.

For those interested, we stayed at South Bay RV Campground (excellent) and Moore Haven KOA (good).

Up Next

In early March, I’ll continue exploring the area with visits to the Everglades National Park and Big Cyprus National Preserve.