Ochlockonee Florida State Park-Day 1

We continued our drive along the beautiful Forgotten Coast on Hwy 98.  At one point, you have the choice to turn off on Hwy 30A which is a smaller road which goes out along the coast when 90 temporarily moves a bit inland.  Just a short drive up another highway led us to our next camping site at Ochlockonee River State Park.  This park was recommended to me by Nancy (Birdie) Hillstromb, a Women's RV Forum friend and author of The Egg and I by Birdie as a really nice place and boy, was she right.  She was here for the birding but it has a lot to recommend it to anyone.

The ranger station is only manned from 3 to 5 pm each day so there is a sign instructing registered campers to go to their assigned site and for other campers to pick any site without a reserved sign and come back from 3 to 5 pm to pay.  At just over $19 dollars including tax, it is a fair price for a site with water and 30 AMP electric.  There is a nice restroom facility with showers in the 30 site camping area.  The whole park is located in a nice forested area so you have plenty of shade.

Most of the sites are a decent size with adequate space in between.  A few have concrete pads near the restroom to allow disabled campers easy access.  There were a couple of pull-through sites but you might need to reserve online ahead of time as those were reserved.  The campground was about 30 percent filled during the weekdays.  There is a campground host on site but they do not collect the fees.

We saw this tiny rented RV parked in one site but there was also a 30 foot motorhome with an attached cargo trailer in another site so you can probably find a site that fits you.

Later in the day, we took a walk further down the main road to check out the rest of the park.

There is a swimming beach between the canoes (which you could rent for a half or whole day) and the dock attached to a float further out.  This is on a smaller river which flows into the Ochlockonee River just around the corner.  Steve and the kids swam here and had a great time.  There is a current flowing through here so kids need to be supervised.  Cameron loved jumping in off the dock.  In the background is a nice picnic area with a pavilion and playground.

Here is a sign talking about black bears and what you should do if you see one.  We never did but there are signs about bear crossings on most of the highways in the area although there never seem to be any problems with humans and bears interacting.

Our next adventure was a nature walk.  The kids love seeing what they can find.  I should mention that while the rangers are only at the station between 3 and 5 pm, they are out working in the park the rest of the time so you will see them here and there cleaning, clearing, and checking on things.  The woods periodically treated to controlled burns which keeps the undergrowth in check and actually seems to make the trees grow better.

We found lots of bright colored grass hoppers that were pretty darn big but you had to pay attention to find them.

Morgan was a little hesitant at holding her first bug but she turned into a real nature girl after about two minutes.

Cameron and Steve where comparing their finds.  There are numerous walking paths winding along the river or out through the woods and lots of birds.  The mosquitoes were not too bad and the gnats not as thick as at the beach.  We had plenty of bug spray and always have lots of sunscreen.

Cameron found a motherload of bugs in the this tree.

A little further along we came to this neat little wooden bridge.  Steve looked down into the shallow stream and got really excited.

Can you see the fairly large crab with the tiny snake clutched in his claw?

This is a close-up.  We never saw another snake anywhere and this was our first big crab although there were lots of tiny hermit crabs along the shoreline.  The kids were pretty excited about this find.

We got caught out in a shower but it was short-lived and there was no thunder or lightning, just one of those numerous Florida afternoon showers.