The Park I Can't Pronounce

Our friend Lorraine told us about a park in Stuart where we could launch our kayaks. It sounded interesting and a couple of days ago we headed to Halpatiokee Park off Kanner Rd., just east of I 95. This is a huge sports complex with all sorts of baseball and soccer fields, but we managed to find a dirt road to a small, out of the way kayak launch. 

Since we weren't quite sure where we were, we asked a really nice kayak fisherman if this led to the south fork of the St. Lucie River. No he said, this is a separate canal that leads to two fresh water lakes (you have to portage to the second one, which we opted not to do). He said that he has seen owls, cougars, alligators, and deer along the shore, so we were excited to explore a new place. It was similar to paddling the backwaters of Lake Okeechobee, but unfortunately there wasn't much nature out that morning (that could have been because it was late morning and I 95 and Florida's Turnpike, which run near by, was quite noisy with traffic).

It was very pretty, and especially nice to be in some fresh water, complete with flowers, some of which, like lily pads, we see in the northeast.

Afterwards, we drove further down the dirt road to another kayak launch area and a hiking and bicycle trail that goes around the lake. 

It looked like a picnic table was placed there just for us and our lunch. 

I still have a problem pronouncing the park's name, but I think it is Hal-patio-key. Call it what you want, it was a fun first discovery...with barely a soul anywhere.

😎