Where’s the best view of Lake Okeechobee’s wildest shores? It’s hidden in plain sight in the town of Lakeport, in a park that’s alternately known as the Harney Pond Canal Recreation Area and Margaret Van De Velde Park.
While the paved trail here is short, it’s long on great scenery and a prime birding spot along the lake.
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Overview
Location: Lakeport
Length: 1.5 miles round-trip
Trailhead: 26.986658, -81.066144
Fees: none
Restroom: near the boat ramp
Land manager: Glades County
Phone: 863-946-0771
Open for day use except for boaters, who use the facility at all hours to access Harney Pond Canal and Lake Okeechobee.
When birding the shoreline, be very mindful of snakes, alligators, and alligator nests. Don’t enter areas where you can’t see what’s around you, especially deeply vegetated areas.
Directions
From US 441 in Okeechobee, follow SR 78 west to Lakeport, or from US 27 in Moore Haven, follow SR 78 east to Lakeport. Look for the turnoff for Harney Pond Canal at the canal and commercial area with gas station and motel. Follow the road around to the recreation area.
Details
This long, linear county park extends out into Lake Okeechobee from the Herbert Hoover Dike and connects up to Lakeport via a paved bike path.
The Florida Trail heads northbound from a gate along the levee where you first drive into the park, extending along a natural surface segment past Dyess Ditch up to Indian Prairie Canal.
Continue down into the park. It tends to be very busy with boaters around where the restrooms are, but you will find parking space there.
Park anywhere near the restrooms, out of the way of boat traffic, and walk or bike down the paved path along the edge of Lake Okeechobee.
Where the paved path loops at the end of the park, there is a fishing platform and picnic pavilions. The old restroom facilities there have been locked and looked abandoned. The end of the peninsula is a popular spot for bank fishing.
On our earliest visits to this park, we were delighted by the stellar views provided from a perch on a high boardwalk at the park’s very tip.
Now there is a replacement observation deck honoring Sam Griffin while providing a stellar panorama of the lake and canal.
Explore More!
Slideshow
Our slides from Harney Pond Canal Recreation Area
Nearby Adventures
More worth exploring while you’re in this area.
Fort Center Explore Fort Center, a pre-Colombian village lost in Florida’s past – and uncovered again by archaeologists – by following this trail in Fisheating Creek WMA. 
Knobby Knee Trail The Knobby Knee Trail treats you to a sampling of wild and scenic Fisheating Creek and its beautiful cypresses along a 1.7-mile loop trail in Fisheating Creek WMA
Florida Trail, Okeechobee to Okee-Tantie 3.8 miles. On the sweep of Lake Okeechobee shoreline between Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River, expect some of the best birding along the lake as you walk along the dike
Scott Driver Recreation Area Providing access to the Kissimmee River, C. Scott Driver Recreation Area is also an important trailhead for the Florida Trail along Lake Okeechobee