Ocklockonee River State Park FL Nature Walk

Sunday morning we were off on a nature walk at Ochlockonee.

Gretchen was ready to go and a little tired of waiting for everyone else to get ready.  It always takes a while with the kids.

And we are finally off.  Gretchen and Harley are up front with the kids and Willy is strolling along with me.

Someone donated this beautiful little bench as a memorial along the path.

Harley is into helping with the bug hunt.

Morgan wasn't quite into that particular bug.  On the other hand, Helen is a scientist.

These were some big grasshoppers.

Helen found a little bitty tree frog.

Hey, this is exciting stuff.  Seriously, if you have grandchildren,  visit the Dollar Tree store or Dollar store and pick up a couple of bug boxes for $1 each.  They are great for taking along on a walk.  We always do "catch and release" so all of the bugs get to go home at the end of the walk.

I'm not sure who is having more fun here.  Buy and extra box for your "big kids".

Look Grandma!

Big grasshoppers.

We also saw this "wildlife".  This is a closeup as he was only about 3 inches long but he had a neon blue tail.

We also saw these white squirrels.  They don't have pink eyes so I don't think they are albinos.

They were watching us too.

They were mixed right in with the other gray squirrels.  The tails of all the squirrels are not as bushy as those we see in Texas.  they almost look more like feathers.

Anyway, it was another successful nature walk.

Day Trip to Wakulla Springs State Park, FL

Saturday afternoon had us heading north from Ochlockonee up to Wakulla Springs State Park.  This has to be a day trip unless you stay at the lodge because there is no campground.  There is a $6 carload fee to get in.

Here we are ready to enjoy our time at Wakulla Springs.

Wakulla Springs is the home of one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.  Swimming is a popular activity during the hot summer months.  That water is really cold!  Take a look at Helen trying to pretend it isn't cold.  She is a professional triathlete so has to do the swim portion in some pretty cold water at times.  I waded in up to my knees and that was enough for me but Steve, Helen, Cameron, and Morgan all swam.  Steve and Helen went off the two story diving platform.

This is a view of the swimming area from the boat dock.

The park has daily guided riverboat tours where you are pretty much guaranteed to see alligators, turtles, and dozens of different kinds of birds.  Sometimes you also see manatees.  The area is blocked off so other boats cannot come in through the wildlife sanctuary and even the park's boats do not go beyond into that area although the wildlife can move freely from the spring right on out through the other end of the river.  Here we are on the boat heading up the river.  It is so quiet and beautiful.

I cannot remember the name of these birds but they are very large.  They stand with their wings all spread out to dry them after swimming and fishing in the river.

This was the first gator that we saw.  He was sunning on the bank.

Lots of beautiful birds.

These turtles were all lined up in a row sunning themselves.

This little guy was relaxing in the water.

All that white you can see is a large manatee just under the water.  It is so neat to see them.  They are very friendly so you usually see a number of them together but this guy seemed to be alone.

Here he is floating along the top.  The boats have guards on the propellers so there is no way they can get hurt when they swim around the tour boats.

Looks like some sort of lost land.  The Creature of the Black Lagoon was filmed here years ago along with a couple of the very early Tarzan films.

See the bird?  We watched him catch and eat a fish.  It was really neat.

We are back up at the spring.  Do you see the shapes in the water?  There were about 7 manatees swimming around there.  The swimmers out on the rafts were easily able to see them.

This is the diving platform with people lined up to jump off.  It is very deep out in front of that platform.

This is the lodge taken from the boat.  It is back behind the swimming area.  It is very old so it is a unique experience for those that stay there.  No TV, etc.  They have a dining room that is open during mealtimes and appeared to be quite fancy.  Anyone can go in the lounge area where they have huge checker games set up.  They also have a huge stuffed alligator named Old Joe.  He lived near the springs for years and never bothered anyone.  One night some poachers snuck in and shot him.  He was wily even at the end and dived to the bottom of the spring before he died so they didn't get him.  The rangers found him the next morning and brought him to the surface but it was too late.  They had him preserved as he was very famous and so he still presides over the spring.

This is a great place to visit.  Even if you don't want to swim, the boat ride and the nature trails are wonderful.

Camping at Ochlockonee River State Park

We have arrived!  This is our second visit to Ochlockonee.  We were here last summer after it was recommended by my friend Birdie and we all really enjoyed it plus the drive here is great!

We obviously aren't the only ones who like this park although we were here on the weekend and there were still some open spots.  There were a lot more tent campers here this summer but it was still nice and quiet.

There are numerous parks in this region of Florida and most of them are nestled in among state forests and refuges.  Of course one of our prerequisites with the kids is a place to swim and, water in the state of Florida, does not always mean a place for people to swim.

It is a little drive in to the park from the main road.

The rangers are only at the gate between 3 and 5 pm so, if you have a reservation, you go to your site and come back to get your tag OR if you are a drive in, you find an unreserved site, and go back and check in between 3 and 5 pm.  Check in time is 3 pm and check out time is 1 pm.  There is a campground host and nice flush toilets and showers in the campground.  The kids got to walk the dogs while Steve and I parked the RV.  I apologized to the very quiet tenters down from us for the noise while we were parking and sending the kids away from the site with the dogs.  The lady said "think nothing of it, they were hilarious, and my kids aren't here at our site right now so that is why it is so quiet!"  Once settled in, all was quiet again.

I debated when reserving because these sites on the outside of the loop looked a little closer together than the ones on the inside.  Steve thought the ones on the outside would be better and he was sooooo right.  You could barely see the neighbors on each side while the other site would have placed the back of my RV looking right out onto the next sites which both had tenters at least one night.  This is our oh so beautiful site.  Helen drove in Friday evening after going to school in Tallahassee.

This is the view out of the back picture window of the RV.  Fabulous!

And this is a look into our site from the path along the river.

Here is another site also very nice.  Most of the sites are very nice and have at least some shade.  The only thing I found unusual is that the hookups seemed to be on the wrong side in many of the sites (like ours) and some would have been much easier to get into if you were going the other direction on the one way loop.  I always carry an extra water hose and electric cord so no problem. Most sites were 30 amp although there may have been a couple with 50.  Check the online site.  There are also 2 or 3 concrete handicap sites right near the restroom.

This path a couple of sites down from us led back towards the river and.....

...the campfire circle off behind us.  It was set up for nature programs but they didn't seem to have anything going on there last year or this year.  Still a pretty place to sit and look at the river.

Looks like a glass of tea, doesn't it?

This is the other side of the river.

Another spot along the river down near the boat launch area.  It is actually just off the Ochlockonee.

This is the swimming area which is just off the Ocklockonee as well but not anywhere near the boat launch area.  I asked the ranger about alligators.  He said they saw one after Tropical Storm Debbie a few weeks ago but otherwise no problem.  He said you could actually swim anywhere along the Ocklochonee River in the campground area but they set up this swim area here because it allowed for more of a beach.  The current is strong so you do have to watch for that and it is different depending on whether the tide is going in or out of the river.  Fortunately, our two kiddos can swim so we just had to keep a close watch on them.

The kids, doxies, and I took a walk while Steve and Helen were out running on Saturday morning.

We enjoyed the path through the woods.

Took a break down by the boat dock and watched a jet ski being unloaded.

So what else can you do in the evening after showers have been taken?  Well, you can read.

Or you can watch a movie....

When you wake up in the morning and Dad and Helen are still sleeping, you can put together puzzles.  (Grandma comes prepared.)

You can have a campfire and you can do it during the day when there mosquitoes are not out.

And once the campfire is ready....

You can cook hot dogs for lunch!

And after a hot dog lunch....you can fix s'mores!  Good, right?

Of course, one of the things enjoyed the most is the swimming.  The water is plenty deep for jumping and diving of the swimming pier.

This is Cameron "practicing" a dive.  He is actually in the air not laying on the pier but I think it was more of a falling into the water type dive.

Everyone was having a lot of fun at Ocklockonee.