Avon Park Air Force Range -> Attractions & Recreation

Recreation
The Avon Park area offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities: fishing in our 30+ lakes, golfing on one of the 11 area golf courses, hiking and biking trails, shuffleboard and tennis. For Children there is the The Children’s Museum of the Highlands which offers a unique "hands-on-experience, or just relax and enjoy the magnificent sunsets. The Avon Park Air Force Range has approximately 82,000 acres open for public access on a regular basis for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, and other related activities. We welcome you to come and enjoy!

More than 30 service and civic organizations welcome new members and participants for enhanced community support and involvement. A list of Avon Park organizations are available at the Avon Park Chamber of Commerce office located at 28 East Main Street.


Cultural Events
The 1,500-seat auditorium of South Florida Community College is the setting for the annual Cultural Series which often includes Broadway musicals, ballet, and outstanding concerts by well-known artists. SFCC also offers a Senior Enrichment Series (on Tuesday afternoons during the winter months) for residents and visitors 55+. The Series features headline performers, as well as arts groups from area schools, churches, and civic groups. The Music Department provides many performances throughout the year featuring the highly acclaimed SFCC Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Chorale, the Sweet Adelines, and the Highlandaires.

In 1988 the Avon Park Public Library became part of a county-wide system. The Avon Park Branch offers more than 30,000 volumes, audio and video tapes, large print books and a genealogy reference collection. The Highlands County Library System has joined with DeSoto, Hardee, and Okeechobee counties to form the Heartland Library Cooperative offering an interlibrary loan service which provides access to extensive library collections.

The Learning Resource Center, a part of South Florida Community College, has more than 41,000 books plus 100 journals and 14 national computer data bases. The Learning Resource Center is available to residents when they purchase a library card (good for one year) for only $5.

The annual "Springtime on the Mall" Arts & Crafts Festival held in late March brings vendors from around the country and draws over 15,000 in attendance for the two-day event. The Avon Park Chamber of Commerce is proud to have sponsored this event for almost 20 years.

Shopping
Avon Park has two central shopping districts and numerous retail centers, as well as the "Mile-Long Mall" antique district with other unique shops and restaurants. Close by on US 27 are two enclosed malls: Lakeshore Mall to the south, and Eagle Ridge Mall to the North.

Wildlife Viewing:

Description:
Although Avon Park is an active military installation, it is endowed with large areas of rare central Florida ecosystems, including dry prairie, oak and sand pine scrubs, pine flatwoods, and freshwater marshes that abut the Kissimmee River. There is a catwalk with an observation tower that looks over Lake Arbuckle, a levee for walking around a freshwater marsh, and 12 miles of the Florida National Scenic Trail. Access to the range is limited.
DUE TO MILITARY USE AND MANAGED HUNTS, SITE IS OPEN TO PUBLIC JANUARY - OCTOBER ONLY, THURSDAY NOON THROUGH MONDAY EVENING.

Watchable wildlife:
There is a tremendous variety of birds at this range. Red-cockaded woodpeckers, eastern bluebirds, and other species of the flatwoods nest near Bravo Road. Crested caracaras and grasshopper sparrows are sometimes seen along the north side of Kissimmee Road. Pileated woodpeckers, barred owls, white-tailed deer, and wild turkey live in and around a string of oak hammocks that separate the marshes from the surrounding uplands.

Ownership:
U.S. Air Force

Contact:
(863) 452-4254

Directions:
Take Florida Highway 64 10 miles east of Avon Park.  Obtain permit, map and other information at the natural resources office.