Lake Apopka and Mt Dora

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Over the holidays, we were trying to find a location in the area which had a good Xmas light displays. Back in 2019, we had found a neighborhood in Cathedral City California that really got into the spirit and had several blocks of homes with elaborate displays. We were hoping to find something similar here. While searching google to find a spot near us, I stumbled upon the town of Mt Dora Florida. We watched a few YouTube videos and it looked to be very impressive. From the sounds of it, their displays are kept up well past Christmas so we didn’t have to rush over. It’s nearly a 90 minute drive from camp. Driving 3 hours round trip for Xmas lights seemed excessive so we decided to pick out other things to see and do along the way and turn it into an all day outing.

If we head due east towards Orlando, we would hit the town of Winter Garden and Lake Apopka. From there, we could head north to Mount Dora and make our day be a loop drive instead of an out and back. Friends of ours had told us about some good bicycle paths in Winter Garden but we decided to just look for walks or hikes so we didn’t need to bring the cycling gear and a change of clothes for later. During my search for parks or activities along the way, I saw mention of a wildlife drive on the north end of Lake Apopka from a geocache near there. The 11 mile drive is only open to vehicles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With that in mind, we plan for our drive on the upcoming Friday.

In the meantime, we caught up with our friends from Greensboro NC that we had met at a Habitat for Humanity build in Washington state more than 4 years ago. They have a place not too far from us in Florida so we invited them over for lunch and to check out the birds and gators we have at our campsite. We also made drives back to Tampa to pick up my sister and brother-in-law after their trip to Ohio for the holidays and to also finally get a new phone. Supply chain issues had made the model I wanted rather scarce but it finally showed up in stock and I could get what I wanted. My current phone was nearly 6 years old and I had severely cracked the screen back in October of 2021 on a hike in North Carolina. It will be nice to be able to actually read texts and emails on the phone again.

Osprey Framed

We left camp early on Friday morning for what we hoped would be a fun day. Our first stop was at the Oakland Nature Preserve just west of Winter Garden. It’s a 150 acre park on the south shore of Lake Apopka. They actually have quite a few trails although none of them are very long. We first take the boardwalk out to the lake. It’s about 0.7 miles long one way, so it is a rather lengthy boardwalk. It was a pretty day and there were numerous birds along the lake and surrounding wetlands. We did a portion of a wooded trail simply to find a geocache but we really didn’t have time to explore more of the preserve simply because we had to move on.

Heading Out Boardwalk at Oakland Nature Preserve

Marshy Area Along Boardwalk

Lake Apopka

Next was a stop in Winter Garden at Newton Park. This small park is right on the lake as well. It has a boardwalk along the marshy area next to the lake. We used a bench right on the boardwalk as our lunch spot. There were numerous bird species in the park and a couple dozen grackles landed on the railing a few feet from our bench and just stared at us as we ate. I suspect that some people feed them or at least they were looking for us to drop a bite so they could swoop in and get a snack. It reminds us that we need to watch Hitchcock’s “The Birds” again!

After lunch we spent 45 minutes walking along the boardwalk and checking out all the birds. There were several types we had never seen before and a couple of them were quite colorful. At first we thought maybe it was the same type of bird with one color pattern being male and the other female but from my bird app, it appears one is the ‘common gallinule’ and the more colorful one if the ‘purple gallinule’. We only spotted two of the purple gallinules and they were hiding quite well in the marsh plants. We saw a large number of the common gallinules.

Purple Gallinule

Common Gallinule Calling

Just Floating Along

Boardwalk at Newton Park

Common Gallinule Has Big Feet

Besides the boardwalk, there is a fishing dock and a few people we’re trying their luck. There were several small alligators and a couple of turtles visible as well. It was quite a nice little park and I could have spent more time here taking pictures but we needed to get to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive in order to give it adequate time for a visit.

Fishing Pier at Newton Park

Small Gator on the Prowl

Two Camouflaged Turtles

Green Heron

Duck and Egret

Looking Out Pier

Great Egret Searches

Gator Sunning

The drive starts from Lust Road just off State Route 414 on the northeast corner of the lake. The one way road is in decent shape. It isn’t paved but is very hard packed gravel. There were more vehicles on the drive than I was expecting but most of the road is wide enough to pass other cars as long as they aren’t in the middle of the road.

View Along Wildlife Drive

Having lots of other people on the drive does have the advantage of identifying where along the route some sort of animal worth stopping for is located. There are lots of herons, egrets, ibises and a wide variety of ducks.  Generally there is water on both sides of the road. Some of the surrounding area is large marshy ponds that don’t look very deep. Other portions have what appear to be 15 foot wide canals that are of indeterminate depth. After all the birds, gators were the next most popular animal. We saw dozens and dozens of them.

Gator Along Bank

Tricolored Heron

Great Blue Heron in Nest

One of the first gators we saw was a short distance from the start of the drive. From the car, we could tell this one was big and worth actually stopping and getting out for. I wasn’t able to convince Chris or any other people passing by to get close enough to it for a good size reference. It was on the bank of the opposite side of a canal so people weren’t too concerned about safety at this distance.

Biggest Gator We've Seen in Person

There is an audio tour for the drive accessible with your smartphone. Cell coverage seemed fine so we were able to get the scoop on all sorts of interesting information about the area. Back in the 1940’s, a levee was put in across the lake and reduced the size of Lake Apopka from 50,000 to 30,000 acres. The area removed was drained and turned into farmland. Back then, all sorts of fertilizers and pesticides were used and other poor farming practices made the area one of the most polluted lakes in Florida. In the 1990’s a restoration effort started to clean up the lake and this marshland north of the lake.

At the 2 mile point along the drive is the historic pump house. It was built to help create the farmland but is now used to help control water levels in the wetlands. This has a fairly large gravel parking area and is worth a stop to look around.

Historic Pump House

Pond Next to Pump House

There was all sorts of animal activity going on during our stop. We probably spent 20 minutes or more at this stop. There was one gator on the opposite bank of a canal. Another large gator was floating in the water. It almost seemed to be heading to the spot I was standing but when it got within 50 feet, it submerged and I didn’t see where it went. Out of an abundance of caution, I moved away from the water’s edge.

This One is Snoozing

This One Heads my Way

Another very fascinating thing was watching an anhinga in search of a meal. We have lots of these birds near our campsite. I had always called them cormorants since the two are quite similar in both appearance and habits. I’ve since learned that cormorants have a long bill with a curve on the end, while the anhinga has a straight bill. They often swim around in the water with their body completely submerged and just the neck and head out of the water. This behavior makes it look like a snake swimming in the water and got it the nickname “snakebird”. I have seen these birds dive underwater in search of fish and stay below for quite some time only to surface sometimes far away from where it went under. I had never actually seen one with a fish until now. When this particular anhinga came back up, it had a small fish speared by its long sharp bill. The fish was no longer moving but the bird swam out of sight before I could see how it moved the fish from the impaled position to the swallowed position.

Anhinga Speared a Fish

We continued the drive and the area changed a bit so there weren’t quite as many birds, but the alligators just kept showing up. Most were snoozing in the sun but a few were floating along in the water. The further north we got, the fewer bird and gator sightings we had. This was one of the better wildlife drives we have done simply because of the quantity of wildlife. We had talked with a person at one of our stops and she was from the area and comes here frequently. We asked if hikers and bikers are allowed in the preserve even on days the gates are closed for vehicles. She told us there are pedestrian gates and the area is accessible even when the wildlife drive is closed. We might need to come back again with our bikes since this was so much fun.

Gator Floats by One on Shore

It was a short drive from the exit of the wildlife drive to Mount Dora. We got into town around 5 PM so we had about 45 minutes before sunset. We stopped at Gilbert Park on the eastern shore of Lake Dora to see some things before it gets dark. There is a small peninsula that juts into the lake with a lighthouse at the tip. This is the Port of Mount Dora. It is a pretty setting with nice views of the lake as the sun was starting to set. Across the way is a rather large marina and boat yard - more on that later. An oversized Adirondack chair is available for your photo op.

Lighthouse at Port of Mt Dora

Marina and Dock

Big Chair

From this spot, we could see a boardwalk not far away. We head over towards the Palm Island Boardwalk. It’s only open until sunset so we don’t have a lot of time to explore. Besides the boardwalk, there are some trails on land in the trees next to the lake. It’s a pretty walk with more great views.

Palm Island Boardwalk

Pretty View from Boardwalk

We had planned on finding a place to eat dinner in town so we drove to downtown although it turned out to be just a few blocks away. We walked around town a bit before dark and picked out a restaurant. Magical Meat Boutique British Pub probably wouldn’t have been selected except for the chalkboard sign touting their fish and chips special. We ordered a couple beers and enjoyed a nice meal outside where we could people watch and easily social distance. The restaurant next door had their band start before we finished and got to enjoy some classics from our younger days. As we were leaving, the band for our restaurant was just arriving. I guess we have that old person, Florida resident thing of eating early. But we at least had an excuse, we wanted to walk around town and see the Christmas lights. Just a block away was the town’s large Christmas tree, nicely decorated but without the lights turned on yet. Many of the shops still had lights up and displays in the windows.

Seasons Greetings

Decorated Storefront

We headed back to the car to put on some additional layers since it was getting chilly now that the sun had set. Plus I wanted to switch to my other camera for the night shots. We were parked right next to Donnelly Park which was supposed to be one of the more decorated spots in town. As we arrived we definitely can agree with that statement. The park isn’t all that large - basically one city block. There is a large building next to a few tennis courts and quite a few large trees in the park and practically everything is covered in Christmas lights. It wasn’t clear what the building’s function was but that wasn’t important since we just wanted to enjoy the lights.

Walkway to Building

The sheer magnitude of the of the lights and how they were placed carefully over the building, in the shrubbery, wrapped around tree trunks and hanging from the tree branches was just astounding. The amount of time required to install these lights had to be substantial. I suppose this is why they leave the lights on through February in order to maximize their effort.

Highly Lit Trees

The Mount Dora city hall is next to the park and was decorated as well. We knew the marina was supposed to be decorated as well, so we start to head there. Now that we know how close it is, we decide to just walk there and pass though more of the shops in town on the way there.

City Hall Aglow

Modernism Museum Shoppe

We had seen the marina and boat house earlier in the light of day and it really didn’t appear to be decorated so we were expecting much.  It as we turned the last corner and got a view of it in the distance, we were flabbergasted at what we saw!

Approaching Marina Buildings

On one side of the building was a nativity scene with all sorts of angels on either side. It wasn’t clear until we got up close, but the angels are actually three dimensional. It was quite impressive.

Nativity Scene

Side View of 3D Angels

As we came around the corner of the building, the displays got even more elaborate. They appear to have two large buildings where boats are stored 3 or 4 high. Each building had thousands of lights hanging from the roof. A Santa Clause on his sleigh and 8 reindeer spanned between the buildings. There was a functioning merry-go-round on the top of some other building. The palm trees around the boat yard were also decorated.

Santa, Sleigh and Reindeer

Decorated Palm Trees

We easily spent 15 minutes walking around the outside of the gates to get a different perspective and find other displays. When we had walked by this place during daylight hours, we didn’t realize just how many displays and lights were setup here. I even remember thinking that it wasn’t likely as good as we had seen on YouTube videos. My understanding is that at the start of the Christmas season, the boat yard is open one night and visitors are permitted inside the fence. While that might have been nice, it seemed like we got nearly as good of a view from the outside of the lot.

We were getting a bit tired and knew we had a long drive back to Brooksville so we didn’t try to go over to the Port of Mount Dora to get a wide distance view. We head back thru town to the car. There were lots of people out and about enjoying the bands playing at many of the restaurants and bars in the area. This is definitely a cute little town especially during the Xmas season.

Masonic Temple