Day trip: Sebring and Lake Placid, Florida

The cities are on the southern end of the Lake Wales Ridge, a geological formation of high scrublands

Spring Day Trippin' Column:
Sebring and Lake Placid

Probably the funniest thing that happened to me ever in a hotel was in Sebring during my first visit to the city.

I arrived late at night, so I went straight to my hotel, the historic Kenilworth Lodge. After checking in and climbing the wide staircase to my second-floor room, I couldn't open the door and went back downstairs to the front desk. The clerk, a friendly man with a raspy voice and white hair who said this was his last night on the job, offered me the master set of keys for the entire hotel -- as long as I returned them.

Although I didn't take him up on the offer and eventually got into my room, I have since decided that folks from Sebring and neighboring Lake Placid are typically kind and generous -- sometimes too generous, like the clerk.

Besides the hospitality, the cities of Sebring and Lake Placid in Highlands County are a fine place to visit for their nature. Strung together by US 27, the cities are on the southern end of the Lake Wales Ridge, a geological formation of high scrublands that are said to have once been islands.

You can see examples of this rare Florida habitat all around, but it's best explored at Archbold Biological Station, Lake June in Winter Scrub State Park and Lake Wales Ridge State Forest. Archbold is a scientific research facility that allows visitors to hike its scrubby trails and watch a 20-minute film about the ridge. Lake June in Winter Scrub State Park preserves some of the last undeveloped scrub habitat on the lake, where ospreys, swallow-tailed kites, eagles and Florida scrub jays can be seen. (Please see EcoFlorida's winter 2001 issue for an article on this park.) North of here in Frostproof, Lake Wales Ridge State Forest preserves 22,000 acres of lakes, scrub, hardwood hammock and pine flatwoods where species such as the Florida black bear roam.

For even more hammock and flatwoods habitat, visit Sebring's Highlands Hammock State Park, which offers tram tours. Be sure to get out and hike to look for deer and pileated woodpeckers.

While you're in the area, you may want to check out why Lake Placid calls itself both the "town of murals" and the "caladium capital of the world." Lake Placid's 30-odd famed murals depict the nature and history of the area. Most of them are on buildings on Interlake Blvd. west of US 27. As for the caladiums, more than 1,200 acres of these leafy plants grow here, and driving by the fields in summer is a popular activity for visitors, as is the annual caladium festival in August.