Feb 20, 2010 - Lake Okeechobee



Not far to go today, so after a leisurely morning drinking our coffee we took off for Lake Okeechobee. As we followed 80 just south of the Caloosahatchee River, we saw lots of orange groves, but nowhere to pull off for pictures. As we got closer to the lake, though, the orange groves started to disappear. They were replaced with a few cornfields, some strawberry fields, and even a banana field or grove or orchard or whatever. But mostly we saw sugar cane. Here and there you could see black columns of smoke rising up from where a field was being burned off. Apparently this is done after mechanically harvesting the cane to kill off insects in the field and get it ready to be replanted. If the cane is harvested by hand, the field is burned before harvesting to remove the leaves without hurting the cane itself. It also kills off poisonous snakes in the field before the harvesters go in. I don’t know anything about sugar cane farming, but that last part seems like a really good idea to me.

We passed through Clewiston (America’s Sweetest Town) and location of U.S. Sugar’s corporate HQ. Continuing on around the south end of the lake, we stopped at Lake Okeechobee Outpost in Pahokee. The town of Pahokee itself is in pretty sad shape, frankly. We missed our turn into the campground, and in the process of doubling back, we discovered that some parts of Pahokee are, well, a little scary.


Guess we'll check out the pool ...

After the check-in process was completed, they gave us a brochure (oh, by the way, take this) that among other things, warned us that alligators and snakes were both very common in the park. It then went on to say that they were both extremely dangerous. There are also signs everywhere warning campers to Watch For Alligators, and, oh yeah, No Swimming Due To Alligators. We also learned that Lake Okeechobee is only about 9 feet deep on average, and in 2007/8 a record drought caused water levels to drop so severely that much of the lake bottom was exposed. The exposed bottom vegetation that had formerly been nice and fireproof beneath the water then proceeded to dry out and burst into flame. 

Snakes, alligators, fire. This is one crazy place.

Lake Okeechobee KOA

The campground facility is nice enough, though. Even though the sites are narrow and there’s precious little shade, they’re all right on the lake. They have several shower/bathroom/laundry buildings, a beautiful common room with big screen TV and WiFi, an outdoor Tiki-style picnic area, and a conference center. Also, they have a really nice alligator-free pool. They also have park models for rent, and many of them have screened porches on the end facing the lake. There are some seasonals who stay here all winter, and lots of fishermen camp here too. I chatted for a bit with a couple who pulled into the site next to us. The guy came here hoping to see some alligators – man, he was just giddy when he saw all those warning signs.

There’s a store with the basics, a boat launch, and a seemingly new marina, with several hundred slips. The marina had exactly 5 boats in it. Of those 5 boats, only one had anyone aboard, and it had seen better days. However, the owner was working hard out on the aft deck to put her back into shape. He had already apparently installed a great stereo system, because as he sanded away, some fantastic high volume smoky blues piano was just sort of oozing out into the marina. By the time we finished our tour of the docks, he had switched to jazz. Stardust played on the clarinet, to be exact. I walked back that way just before dusk, and he was still hard at work. It must be he was getting tired and needed a little kicker by that time, ‘cause he had switched it to Motown, baby!


It’s a nice clear night tonight, and I was planning to go out and see if I could get some shots of the stars over the lake, but I keep thinking about all those alligator signs out there, so forget it.



Took this shot, then ran for cover before the 'gators came out.