Salt Springs Recreation Area - Ocala National Forest

We started off very cold here . . . record low temperatures in fact!  Below freezing for 3 of the 4 nights we were here.  Back up in the 70s the last couple of days though so no complaints.  The campground is pretty nice.  If you have a Nat'l Parks Pass, then it's ridiculously inexpensive to stay here.

We did go for a hike on the Salt Springs Observation Trail.  Short trail, soft sand most of the way, didn't see a lot of wildlife but nice shot of the moon and good exercise when it's 45 degrees!

Another slightly warmer day we walked the Yearling Trail.  It's about a 6 mile hike with some sections of trail difficult to determine where to go.  We did see 1 deer springing across the trail right at the site where Calvin Long's house once stood - the place where "The Yearling" was filmed.  This deer moved way too quickly to catch any shots (probably because it's also hunting season here).  That seemed to be a theme with all the deer we saw here this week.

Another day we rented a canoe and sailed from Juniper Springs Recreational Area for 7 miles down river.  What an awesome (but very challenging) trip!  This is no canoe ride for an inexperienced canoeist!  Very narrow, strong current, sharp turns and all kinds of trees as obstacles lying in the water - it's a blast!  Here's a couple shots of the river:

To give you an idea of how challenging the river was, here's a video:

Note the rapids, the fish & the otters in this video:

Along the way we spooked several flocks of ducks but they flew away much too fast to catch them on the camera.  Here's a couple of shots of 2 otters we saw playing and feeding on the fish:

We also saw many large turtles basking in the sun but I was only able to catch this little guy before he too went under:

And then there is the park where we're staying.  They call it Salt Springs because there are natural salt springs rising in the park which feed into the lake there.  Here's a view of the park on your way down to the water:

And here a view of the Salt Springs from the Park:

You can't sit here for more than 10 seconds without seeing or hearing some kind of wildlife in action. One of the 1st things we saw were my Big Mouth buddies (aka Turkeys) from the mid-west:

There are many different types of birds which we'll try to identify here.  1st a Little Blue Heron:

Here's a Anhinga, these guys were everywhere:

Another one in an awkward position made it look like a different bird at 1st glance:

The Little Blue Heron up close:

An Anhinga drying his wings in the sun:

A Great  Blue Heron:

I caught this Heron in flight on it's way for a landing:

This White Ibis was doing some fishing:

And these guys (Osprey & Anhinga we believe) would fill up the trees:

Here's one of many Osprey in the air together:

And the Moorhens & American Coots (ducks) were everywhere you looked too:

Caught one in flight here:

The birds were every where and they didn't seem to be bothered by each other for the most part:

One of the coolest but not welcomed by other birds was a Coopers Hawk (we believe) that flew in under the Spanish moss to hide from the osprey & turkey vultures overhead that were not happy about it's presence:

Here's one of the Turkey Vultures overhead keeping an eye on the hawk:

Now making our transition from birds to the sea life in the springs, here's one last Great Egret having a little fish snack:

As your standing on the walkway that surround the springs, you can look down and watch all kinds of sea life basking in the warm salt springs:

Still pics don't do this justice so here's a little video with some of the fish in the springs:

We also saw turtles & blue crabs making there way around here.  Here's one of the turtles coming up for sun:

And here's one of thee Blue Crab hiding under the rocks:

Back to the osprey and the moon above the lake:

We mentioned before how we saw many fish jumping at the same time in St Joe SP.  Well they seem to have the jumping fish here in the Salt Springs too:

Another crazy thing the fish do here is the lay on their side and flap their fins on the surface:

Here's one with several fish jumping one after another:

While here we were lucky to catch glimpses of several manatee who had just arrived for the winter.  Our view was obstructed as they appeared to be playing in the lake:

We departed Salt Springs and are now camping at Long Point Park in Melbourne Beach, FL  for the next 2.5 weeks.  More to come . . .