New Year's Day Hike: Circle B Bar Reserve

Lakeland, Florida: It's a new year and what does that mean, it means getting lost in nature and exploring a park. New Year, New Hike as been a family tradition for quite a while. Maybe a way to avoid the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of pork and sauerkraut or maybe just a way for me to be me, but the New Year's Day Hike has been going strong for a while now.

Today's hike location is the Circle B Bar Reserve just outside of Lakeland.  This place has been on my radar for quite some time.  You may know it, not by name but by photos/videos.  Ever watch the evening news and see a massive dinosaur sized gator crossing a hiking trail, well you can take a good bet that it has occurred here at the Circle B.  And if that alone isn't enough to peak your interest, the Circle B's nature photography is some of the best in the sunshine state, more reason for me to check it out.

The Circle B is massive and has miles upon miles of trails.  We began our hike on the Heron Hideout trail and it didn't take long to see why this place is so popular for wildlife photography.  Within the first hundred yards of the hike there were herons, egrets, ibis, gators and a cottonmouth snake.  Yup, a poisonous I can kill you snake and a flesh tearing gator all within inches and no zoo wall to keep them back.  Ok, that's being pretty dramatic but it was pretty cool. 

Heron Hideout led to the famous Alligator Alley, no not the I-75 deathtrap but the one at Circle B where you can actually see gators.  And by see them, I mean see them, lots of them.  There are everywhere on this trail, in the lake, in the marsh, by the path, across the path.  If you make it through this trail without seeing a gator, let me know cause I know a good eye doctor that can help you out.  If you were only able to do one trail, this is the one I highly recommend.

From there, we hit the Shady Oak trail.  One of the quieter walks in the park.  There is an open field in the beginning of it that was filled with butterflies.  This trail connected to the Lost Bridge Trail.  A trail that not only lost the bridge but the trail as well as it was unpassable due to flooding.  So we went to the other side and reached the boardwalk from the parking lot side and through the Cow Camp. 

The final trails of the day was the combined Marsh Rabbit and Eagle Roost trail.  Probably two more really good trails but by this part of the day, I was exhausted and ready to be back at the car, only problem is the car was over a day and a half away from where we were.  The wildlife was still plentiful, but unfortunaley at this point, I was so tired I was like oh hey look another bird and never picked up the camera.  I did feel really bad at one point during this portion of the hike, the trail sat about 4-5 feet above the water and we were walking and there was this little gator climbing out of the water to cross the trail, it was maybe about three feet in size, I almost stepped on him cause he was concealed in the brush, it scared him and he fell back into the water.  That wasn't an easy climb for the little fella and to make it almost to the top and have to start over, well that just plain sucks. 

About to pass out from exhaustion, we finally made it back to the car.  What a long and rewarding day of hiking. There are so many trails at this place, it really is impossible to do it all in one day, but we sure tried.  Along the way, we found a bunch of wildlife, almost 50 different species seen/photographed today and I can only imagine what we would have seen if I actually knew what I was doing and what I was looking for. 

Circle B Bar Reserve is located at 4399 Winter Lake Road in Lakeland, Florida.  It is open daily from sunrise to sunset and admission is free.

Click on the photos above to view my Circle B Bar Reserve photo gallery.