Exploring two Florida State parks near White Springs Florida

 

Location: White Springs, Florida

Date: May 18, 2014

The weather was perfect for some outside activity, so Julie and I decided to take an hour drive north on I-75 to the town of White Springs where that are two Florida State Parks. The Stephen Foster state park has camping so we wanted to take a look as we are always interested in finding new locations for short weekend camping adventures.

As the name implies Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park is dedicated to the American composer Stephen Foster who lived from 1826 – 1864. He wrote more than 200 songs and many remained popular long after his death. The building below looks like and old southern mansion and contains a museum covering the life and songs of Mr. Foster. This museum included many old pianos from his time as wells a a number of diorama's showing scenes from many of the more popular songs.

The Carillon Tower tolls through out the day and on the top of each hour plays many of Foster’s tunes. The base of the tower also houses a small museum with many historical pieces.

A section of the Florida Trail runs through the park. We attempted to hike a short part of it as it follows the Suwannee River. Unfortunately, the water level of the river is high at this time and we had to turn around. Below is the track of a short hikes we took around the park and the camping area,  We did find a good number of nice campsites here, so we marked them down and plan on returning sometime to do some camping.

Stephen Foster Culture Center State Park at EveryTrail

 

Just outside of the State Park entrance is the remains of a hotel and spa that was built around a larger spring on the river. This area was very popular back in the 1800’s as it was believed that soaking in the spring was good for your health. The hotel offered all kinds of “packages” that guaranteed to solve whatever ailed you. Here is all the remains of the old hotel and spa. The water doesn’t look so enticing now as it flooded by the tannic water of the Suwannee river.

 

As you can see below, downtown White Springs is a bustling area!!

 

About five miles north of White Springs is the other park we wanted to check out today. This was Big Shoals State park and is also on the Suwannee River. This is the location of the only white water in Florida. There’s two sections of the river, Big Shoals and Little Shoals, where if the water is just right you will be able to canoe or kayak some class III rapids. The parks kayak launch area was closed today because of the high water. We saw a few sections of rapids, but for the most part the water was too high and totally covered the rocks and shoals.

We did do a hike along the river which had some nice overlooks to check out the shoals.

Here is the GPS track or our hike.

Big Shoals State Park at EveryTrail

 

 

This gopher tortoise was blocking the road as we were trying to leave the park. It was a stare down, and we finally had to relocate him to a safer location on the side of the road,

 

 

Camping at Anastasia State Park

 

Date: 5/9 – 5/12/2014

Location: St. Augustine, Fl

Campground: Anastasia State Park, Site 108

 

Back in July of last year we made a reservation for a campsite at Anastasia State Park just south of St. Augustine for a four day stay. Sometime we actually do plan ahead which we are finding is required to secure a spot at any of the popular campgrounds in the state.

A year ago we attended the Players Championship golf tournament in Ponte Vedra, which is a 30 minute ride north on A1A. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again this year. Even though we are camping in the area for four days, we’ve decided to only attend on Sunday which is the last day of the tournament. 

This year Julie’s sister Lucy and her husband Gery decided to join us for the weekend. They are from Iowa and are trying to thaw out from a long hard winter up in those parts. So, our stay at Anastasia being right on the beach was a perfect location. Gery is also a big golf fan, so he was more than ready to attend the Players Championship.

Gery and Lucy on the boardwalk leading to the beach at Anastasia.

 

A few evenings we did a little walking on the beach. It was a little overcast and breezy, but still nice.

 

On Saturday we did some of the touristy things in downtime St. Augustine. Our first stop was the old fort Castillo De San Marcos which is right on the water and close the the Bridge Of Lions. This is a national monument managed by the National park Service. If you are into history, then this is a good stop to make. Gery, who enjoys history, was always way behind Julie, Lucy and myself. He was reading every display throughout the fort as we walked around both levels. The three of us didn’t have the same attention span, we kind of skimmed over things! I think Gery finally gave up and bypassed several of the areas of the fort.

Several time per day they have a reenactment of a firing of the cannon. The fort has a large selection of old cannons and I believe they said they used the 6 pound cannon for the demonstration. I’m not sure where the name “6 pound” comes from, maybe the size of the cannon ball, but the cannon itself must weigh in the thousand of pounds.  The soldiers start their march from down in the grassy common area and then climb the stairs to the second level. They go through the lengthy routine of loading, firing and cleaning the cannon. For obvious reasons they don’t really fire a cannon ball, but instead use a gun powder charge mixed with bread crumbs. The  volunteer ranger says many of the birds get used to the demonstration and then swoop in as soon as the cannon goes off to feed on the crumbs. That didn’t happen the time we watched, the birds must we getting lazy.

   

 

Here’s a picture of Julie and her sister Lucy taken from the fort with the historic downtime St. Augustine in the background.

 

On our way into town we noticed several large old sailing ships at the marina on the south side of the Bridge of Lions. After our tour of the fort, we walked along the water front and headed in that direction. We found that they were offering tours of the boats for a reasonable price (actually free for us since Gery and Lucy paid!!), so we decided to view both ships. These two boats are replicas built by the Spain government and sail the world crewed by mostly young volunteers. The smaller ship was a replica of the Nao Victoria which was the first boat to sail around the world. This ship has also done an around the world voyage from 2004 – 2006. The larger of the two boats was the El Galeon which is a replica of a ship that traveled the coasts of Florida between the 16 and 18 century.

  

 

And of course, whenever Lucy comes to Florida she must have some seafood and in this case a few “small” orders of oysters.

 

One Sunday was the TPC golf tournament and main reason for our trip to the area. We arrived somewhat early and planned on spending the day until the very end. We did spend a good amount of time walking the front nine and trying to view a few of the popular twosomes that were playing the course. All four of us had also bought tickets to the Blue Room which was an area with lots of seating areas, both outdoors and an air conditioned inside area. It also included food from several local restaurants as well as all your care to drink beer and wine. Later in the day it was beginning to get a little rowdy as the crowd was partaking in quit a few of the included drinks, At times it seems like to many the TPC tournament is just a good reason to party and just happens to have some golf going on. My guess is many spent the entire day in the Blue Room and never ventured out onto the course.  The Blue Room was fun and made for some really good people watching!!

Later in the day Julie and I walked most of the back nine which included many golf holes we had never seen. On two occasions (consecutive twosomes) drove their golf balls way outside the fairway and almost hit Julie. We were beginning to think she was a ball magnet.

 

We had planned on staying to the very end and found some good seats in the bleachers overlooking the 16 and famous 17th hole. Usually near the end of the tournament this gets to be a wild location as all the fans congregate around the finish holes and it can get a little loud. Unfortunately, storms were building in the west as you can see with the dark skies in the picture below. After several strikes of lightening off in the distance, they finally blew the horn and halted the tournament. We decided to hit the road instead of sticking around for the weather to clear. They did restart the tournament about an hour later and were able to  finish the tournament. Martin Kaymer, a 29 year old golfer from Germany, was the winner and took home a nice $1,800,000 check. Not a bad payday for four days of playing golf!

Hiking Watermelon Pond Wildlife Area

 

Location: Archer, Fl

Date: April 13, 2014

Today’s outdoor adventure was a trip to Watermelon Pond which is a wildlife management area about 15 miles west of our house. So, it was a relatively short ride to get to the trail head and begin our hike. This property is about 4,000+ acres that was purchased by the state of Florida back in 2007 and incorporated into the Goethe State Forest,

This hike follows the banks of former ponds and lakes that dot the area. Many are now dried up or have very little water with the lowering of the water levels in the area. The series of trails also travel through some of the oak hammocks in the area and we appreciated the shade on this warm day. The picture below shows some of the picnic shelters that we built along the trail. We also found some old building materials and wondered if this was part of the ranch that used to be located on this land before it became part of the state forest.

There are several trails that wind their way around this large wildlife area and they are all well marked with signs and blazes on the trees. But the path are not well worn, so it looks like this area does not get a lot of activity. We never saw another person all day long and we had this entire area to ourselves.

Below is a panoramic view of one of the vast open areas we hiked through today. In years past this would have been a shallow pond or lake, but now pretty much dried up, except for a few small areas here and there. 

This area with its’ oak hammocks, wide open areas and scattered wetlands kind of reminds us of Hopkins Prairie and Farles Prairie down in the Ocala National Forest. Many years ago we used to do a lot of camping in the Ocala forest and used to canoe in these shallow ponds and lakes among the prairies.

 

It was a warm day and we didn’t see any wildlife (except one lone turkey) and very little bird activity. But we did see many deer, raccoon, turkey and other tracks in the sandy trails. The picture below is of a fairly fresh track from what we think was a passing coyote. From the size of the print it appears that it was a good sized one.

After our 6+ mile hike we drove down to the south trailhead into the park. Here there was a boat ramp which leads to Watermelon pond and there were a good number of trucks with boat trailers parked. We ate lunch here and then walked out towards the “lake” to see if this would be a possible kayaking area for another weekend trip. The boat ramp leads to a short canal but we found that there was a long section of land between the canal and the more open water of Watermelon pond. All the “boats” using this area were airboats and were able to travel from the canal, over the 100+ yards of dry land and then back into the water. We don’t like to kayak in areas with airboats since they are so loud and obnoxious. So, if we do attempt to kayak in Watermelon pond, we’ll probably do it on some weekday and hope that the airboats stay away!

 

Here’s the GPS track from the hike we did on this day.  

Watermellon Pond Hike at EveryTrail

Biking the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge

 

Date: 3/23/2014

Location: Suwannee, Fl

Julie and I decided to do something outdoors today since the weather has been so nice. She had a brochure covering the Suwannee River area and noticed a bike ride on the Dixie Mainline trail which is in the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. So, we decided to load up our bikes and take the 45 minute drive to check it out. Along with the bike ride we are also on the lookout for potential kayaking areas and campgrounds.

The Dixie Mainline was constructed in the 1920's as a tram road (narrow gauge railroad) to transport timber out of the swamps and forests. After logging ended around 1940, the road was not maintained until the 1960's, when another timber company refurbished the road and wooden bridges. These bridges later deteriorated and the road again became impassable. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the land in 1979 to establish Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. In 1998 the bridges were replaced and the road was opened to the public.

The road/trail is a one lane dirt road, but it is hard packed and very easy to ride. There’s no loose sand areas to worry about. It is open to car traffic, but we probably only had about 10 cars and truck pass us the entire ride and everyone was very courteous, with some pulling over as we passed or at least slowed down,

We started from the south end of the trail with begins at County Road 349 just north of Suwannee, Florida. We had our doubts about this ride when we got on the trail as the first several miles are not very scenic and the road is bordered by a high fence surrounding land which is not part of the preserve. But then the road enters a wetland, swampy area and the the views improve. We drove past the area that was fenced and found a parking area where we unloaded the bikes and began our ride. The trail crosses several bridges where the tidal creeks make their way to the Gulf of Mexico. 

After about 4 miles on the Dixie Trail crosses County Road 357 and we took this road to check out a park and campground at Shired Island. This campground is at a county park maintained by Dixie county. The campground is in a beautiful location overlooking the gulf, but probably one that we won’t camp it. The campground was kind of a random selection or parking areas and looks like some long term tenants. Not the kind of place that we like to visit.

The first place we stopped at was an overlook at the Salt Creek. It was a nice quiet area,  but the no-see-ums were swarming. This is something that we noticed during the day whenever we got near  the tidal marshes.

 

There are several canoe trails mentioned in the brochure of the Suwannee Wildlife Refuge. Here is one that we found as we crossed one of the many bridges on the Dixie Trail. We’re thinking that we may come back here sometime in the future and do some paddling.

 

During today’s ride we passed a lot of tidal areas. This one was another kayaking trail starting point.

 

This is what the Dixie Mainline trail looked like for most of the ride. It’s a one lane road with very few hills, so the pedaling was easy!!!

 

 

it took us awhile to notice this little gator hanging out near the water. With so much water around I’m surprised we didn’t see more. But we did see plenty of birds and an otter ran across the road in front of our truck as we were leaving the area.

 

We road for a total of about 22 miles today, but my GPS batteries died early on in the trip. But here’s the track showing the early part of our ride.

Biking the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge at EveryTrail

 

A weekend camping trip to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park

 

Date: 2/28/14 – 3/2/14

Location: Okeechobee, Florida

 

It had been a few months since Julie and I have had a chance to do any camping. Luckily we had made reservations a few months ago for Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park which us just north of Lake Okeechobee is south Florida. We were not quite sure about this park as it was very much out in the boondocks and has not been a part of the State Park system for very long (about 10 years), but we were excited about my brother and sister-in-law joining us for the weekend camping trip.

We found this in front of the Kissimmee Prairie visitors center. This is a promising sign that this park is special and we’d enjoy our time here.

 

There’s two camping loops, one being the equestrian area just west of the visitors center and the main camping area (with about 20 sites) about a 1/4 mile away.  The sites don’t have a lot of vegetation between them, but they are fairly well spaced. Most are shaded which makes it nice in the heat of the day. Below are a few pictures of our site and the my brother’s next door. It was a great set-up for us and we had plenty of room.

 

 

The park is very large with about 54,000 acres and over 100 miles of hiking/biking trails. The first morning we were there we took our bikes and headed west on some of the trails. We (or at least one person in our group!) really wanted to make our way to the Kissimmee River which makes up the west boundary of the park. Most of the trails are very bike friendly, but there are some areas which are sandy and the biking gets difficult.

 

Here’s a good pic of Jim and Jo on our bike ride with the vast expanse of the prairie in the background.

 

After a few miles of pedaling we got to a part of the trail that was covered with water which forced us to turn around. We through we must be close to the Kissimmee River, but later found out that we were nowhere near where we thought (or hoped) we were. The river was actually a few more miles west and we would never get to see it during this weekends trip. Maybe next time!!

 

This is our GPS track for the morning bike ride.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park Biking the trails at EveryTrail

On weekends and some holidays the park offers a ranger led Swamp Buggy ride into the prairie which they charge $17 per person. I had called several weeks ago to make reservations for this trip since I thought it would be something fun and interesting to do.

Here’s a picture of the buggy that we would use for this tour.

 

Along with the  ranger (Jenn) we were joined by a couple from Canada and a few of the interns working at the state park. This is a picture of most of us in front of the buggy.

And here is the track that the Swamp Buggy took on this outing.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park Swamp Buggy Ride at EveryTrail

 

There was an amazing amount of wildlife viewing available for anyone visiting this park. We saw a wide variety of birds and other critters in just the very short time that we were there.

 

Another interesting thing about this park is that it is a designated dark skies location and is one of the darkest areas within the state of Florida. It’s right in the middle of the state and most of the population resides on the coasts. So, the light pollution is much less than most other parts of the state. For this reason many astronomers enjoy coming here to view and photograph the night sky. We were lucky enough to visit on a weekend were the moon was new and the weather was  cooperating (no clouds) for checking out the stars. The park was also offering an evening astronomy (or astrology…inside joke)program where we had the opportunity to view some stars and planets through some “large” telescopes.  A great experience!! There was also another group that specialized on photographing different objects in the sky. The equipment and expertise that these guys have is amazing. One of the gentlemen there whom we spent some time with is Dave Holko. If you want to see some of his work and be totally blown away, then check out his website. This looks like a fun hobby, but probably one that is way too expensive for most of us to get into.

 

I did get out late on Saturday night and attempted to get a few pictures with my Nikon DSLR. I would really like to get into night sky photography, but I think I have a long way to go and a lot to learn. I took a bunch of pictures and a few actually came out ok. 

 

 

  

 

On Sunday before we packed up to head back home, we took one last bike ride heading east and found a few of the hiking trails leading into the prairie. One spot had a small wetland area where we found some gators warming in the sun. Most splashed back into the water as we got near, but this guy didn’t want to get off the warm culvert and just kept a watchful eye on us as we observed and photographed him and the other gators. 

 

Jen, the park ranger we had met the day before, mentioned that there was a nesting burrowing owl just north of the main road leading into the park. We rode our bikes in this area and we were lucky enough to spot this owl and the hole where he lives. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the correct lens on my camera for getting close up shots, but was able to get a few of this amazing bird. He stayed in one place long enough for me to get a few half way decent photos.

  

 

And of course being a prairie, there’s bound to be lots of water. Nearing the end our our ride we came across another section of trail covered. It would have been too long of a ride to retrace our steps, so we all took off our shoes and waded through. Luckily there were no snakes or gators around (or at least not that we saw!).

Here’s the GPS track from our Sunday morning ride.

 

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park Biking the trails at EveryTrail

On our way home, about a four hour drive, Julie and I talked about our weekend camping trip and this state park. We both felt that it was one of the best parks that we had been to in the state. I think Julie has ranked this #1 on her list. It’s very remote, quiet and gives you a good taste of what Florida was like many years ago. It’s about the exact opposite of the tourist traps like Disney and others that have taken over much of Florida. I think this is a park that we will want to visit again sometime soon. Just not in the summer as I sure the heat would be brutal.

 

And a link to all the pictures I took this weekend.