Tiger Creek Forest is a gated rural-acreage community near Babson Park, in the Lake Wales area of Polk County, Florida, described by area real estate sources as having tree-lined shell-rock roads, a private lake, and an abundance of wildlife (multiple Lake Wales area listing guides, 2026). It sits on the Lake Wales Ridge and is largely encircled by the Nature Conservancy Tiger Creek Preserve and the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest, which buffer it from crowding and overbuilding.
The community was developed by Saddlebag Lake Resorts, Inc., with the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of Tiger Creek Forest and Tiger Creek Forest Addition recorded in the public records of Polk County (Tiger Creek Owners Association governance documents, OR Book 1985, Page 1678). The Tiger Creek Owners Association, Inc. owns and maintains the common property and roads and levies assessments on each tract; confirm the current dues and rules with the association.
Parcels are a minimum of five acres, and listings range from raw wooded tracts to improved lots and a smaller number of site-built homes, with some properties already carrying a well and pump, septic, electric, and a cleared center pad ready for a site-built or manufactured home. Because most of the value sits in the land, the work is utility and buildability diligence: confirm the well, septic, power, road access, flood and wetland lines, and what the covenants allow per parcel.
The pitch is genuine country living with privacy, mature oaks and pines, room for animals or a small ranch, and conservation land at the edge, while still being a manageable drive to Lake Wales and Babson Park for services. The work is the distance and the diligence: this is rural living on wells, septic, and shell-rock roads, so plan for that lifestyle and verify every utility before you buy.
