Review of Seminole Ranch Conservation Area
29,223 acres to explore
I went hiking at the Seminole Ranch Conservation Area. As Seminole Ranch is a huge tract of land (nearly 30,000 acres) that doesn’t narrow things down a lot. It’s owned by the St. John’s River Water Management District. Part of Seminole Ranch is a Wildlife Management Area, so hunting is permitted between October and January. However the property is so large I was about 6 miles from the hunting area. I had planned to do the entire 7.5 mile loop but decided to call it a day after 5 miles, 2.5 each way.
I’m walking this trail about 1 day after the remnants of Hurricane Eta came through Central Florida. We got little damage but several days of rain. Therefore parts of the trail was very wet.
But the early part of the hike was dry and I saw the animals you’d expect in an upland setting like these turkeys crossing in front of me. In all I saw about 20 turkeys, but most were much further away.
Overall the early part of the trail was well maintained. But it was less so as the trail got wetter. The wet summer evidently made it difficult on the mowers.
Biologists sometimes talk of a sentinel species when assessing the health of the environment. If a given species is doing well then probably most of the environment is also doing well. If you use the southern leopard frog as a sentinel species then you would have to conclude that the environment around this trail is doing fine. I saw roughly 20 southern leopard frogs long enough to identify them. I also heard/saw at least a hundred splashes of various frogs jumping into the water as I approached.
And if you have lots of frogs you’ll probably have lots of things that think frog tastes really good like this dusky pygmy rattlesnake. He seemed at peace with the world on the palm frond. I think he was trying to find a dry place to sunbathe after a few days of rain. As I walked by he turned and started to get off the palm frond for better concealment. But stopped as soon as I was gone and when back to his original position.
Another local frog eater is the banded water snake. This guy seemed to be sleeping in the path in a marsh area. He actually scared me more than the rattlesnake because I didn’t see him until I was very close. The banded water snake juveniles look enough like the juvenile water moccasin to cause alarm. I really wasn’t sure which it was until I got home.
I’ve tried of late to get a picture of a bella moth in flight recently with little success. Their flight is fast and unpredictable with lots of turns. But when they fly they show their hot pink hind wings. It’s a brilliant flash of pink that disappears quickly. In this case I got a reasonable shot of a bella moth in flight, but not great. It’s still blurred, especially on the right wing. But it’s the best I’ve gotten to date.
Overall this was a pretty nice trail. It had a combination of wet and dry walking and the plants and animals that you expect on each. The wet hiking is always more taxing physically as slogging through water just isn’t as easy as dry ground. And also after seeing a rattlesnake I’m usually pretty attentive on where my feet go for a while. So if it’s wet you may want to lower the mileage goal of the hike.
Seminole Ranch is a great place to hike if you like wild, primitive hiking. No facilities and virtually no other hikers around. It’s nearly 30,000 acres and borders the Charles H Bronson State Forest for an additional 11,000 acres and Orlando Wetlands Park for 1,650 acres more. Taken together these lands give over 66 square miles to roam and encounter nature. Social distancing on steroids.