Park of the Americas — Attraction in Orlando

Park of the America’s (The Nature Park) is a beautiful park. There is a sizeable track surrounding the entire lake and the scenery gives you a refreshing break from the typical busy vibes of Orlando. The track even stays adequately lit at nighttime via the lighting fixtures installed all along it for those of you wanting to walk/run/jog/etc. it while it’s open. And although I noticed the nice playgrounds, dog park, and restrooms, I spent my time fishing the lake from 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM and enjoyed every minute of it; every individual that I saw there was kind and respectful to the property.

This park does have one big issue: the mass amounts of litter that have accumulated in the lake along with the filamentous algae. The water here is actually pretty clear, but the problem is that it appears to be so dirty because the floor of the lake is so topped with rotting vegetation, filamentous algae, and trash. The park clearly makes attempts to combat this and the rest of the grounds all appeared to be very clean. Unfortunately, plenty of trash still makes its way into the small lake. The city should have this lake treated and cleaned more routinely and/or organize a community clean up if at all possible; this is a very nice park and body of water and I’d be happy to help. So much trash exists in certain areas that I was unable to even cast into the lake and fish them.

For those of you visiting to fish, the main food source appears to be fry and minnows; mass amounts of minnows. I didn’t see one, single panfish either; this doesn’t mean that they’re not there, but typically their presence is easily made known. I caught one healthy 2 lbs. largemouth bass off of the south shoreline with a Strike King Shim E Stick in Smokey Shad color. I caught another healthy 2.5 lbs. bass off of the northwest point (near the drain) using a 7.5” lizard in brown pumpkin color with a chartreuse tail, and I missed another strike off of the northwest shoreline with this as well. The chartreuse probably helped drastically to produce strikes because of the water conditions, and the heavy amounts of filamentous algae (especially concentrated along the west and southwest shorelines) made finesse style fishing a better choice. A decent amount of the time I put on a bullet weight and was basically punch fishing the thick vegetation throughout these areas as well. And when the sun was setting and the wind died down, it made great conditions for top water (especially a frog). I’m willing to bet that spinner baits would work great in here too, but come bearing patience if you’re not using anything weedless, especially along the west and south shorelines.

Other than that, it’s a great park. Thank you to the city for already doing so well with this property! I’m excited to come back in the future and see what kind of bass that I can pull...

I recently visited Park of the Americas for the first time with my four-month-old puppy. My puppy is extremely sweet, calm, and well-socialized. We go to Barber Park weekly, and he always has a blast. However, our experience at Park of the Americas was nothing short of traumatic.

Upon entering the fenced area, my puppy was immediately attacked by another dog. My puppy did not fight back or growl but instead ran to me, shaking and terrified, even peeing on my foot out of fear. It took an unacceptably long time for the other dog's owner to come and collect their pet. We left immediately as we are not going to subject our dog to such behavior.

One person excused the aggressive behavior by saying the attacking dog didn't recognize my puppy. This excuse is ridiculous. Dog parks are meant to be safe spaces for friendly dogs to meet and play with other dogs, not for scheduling known interactions. The whole point is that dogs should be able to socialize safely with random dogs.

If you're a dog owner looking for a safe park where all dogs are friendly and their owners are responsible, I would not recommend Park of the Americas. Additionally, the layout of the park is odd. It has a long sidewalk that randomly opens up into the park, which doesn't give the dogs adequate time to realize they are entering a dog park. It’s essentially a narrow path that suddenly leads to an open area, which can be confusing and startling for the dogs.

We will definitely not...

Except for the weekend, the park is never really that crowded. We typically go in the morning & know most of the regulars.

The owners I know are responsible and manage their dogs well. Trouble only starts when an inexperienced owner or shouter arrives.

Come midday if you have a timid dog or one that doesn’t play well. The park is empty and you will have the field to yourself!

The small dog park is also typically empty too. And it’s much larger than the one at Baldwin Park!

However, I think this park was designed by a small dog owner. The main downsides are:

1. Sand EVERYWHERE! They need to add more sod or turf to the large dog area. By contrast, the small dog area has grass & no sand.
2. Small dog area has a nice shaded area & a picnic table. Big dog area has a small bench on top of a sandy dune hill - right near the (poop) trash can
3. Only ONE fountain located outside the gate. Big dog owners have to haul up two water buckets up to the hill, and the water is typically dirty. Little dogs can get to the fountain easily, as it’s right outside their gate
4. The county needs to find an eco- friendly to fumigate - there are little bugs
5. With all that freaking sand, a pet bathing area would be spiffy

As mentioned, this park is a good alternative to the often over-crowded and unruly Baldwin Dog Park. Just know...