We planned this park visit to coincide with their 8th annual cane grinding. Sugar cane is brought in, ground, pressed, boiled, and filtered into cane syrup right before your eyes. After watching the process we had a picnic and then hiked across the lake and into the woods. The lake is gorgeous with it’s trees sticking up out of the water.

The 2.5 mile hike was a bit of a disappointment as we expected the “tortoise habitat” to be the reptiles in captivity. Turns out it is just a section of the woods where gopher tortoises roam wild. With the cool weather, the tortoises were all in their burrows keeping warm and out of sight. Guess we will just have to go back in the Spring!