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 . . .

Grayton Beach State Park - 2nd time around

So we’re back to Grayton Beach for a couple more weeks – can’t get enough of this area!  We were doing some Xmas shopping at Pier Park in Panama City Beach when a nasty storm rolled through:

Temp dropped a good 40 degrees after this storm came through.  Cooler weather seemed to be the theme of the next couple of weeks here.   40s & 50s (some 60s) - still beats 20s & 30s back home (:

We went to McTighs (our favorite local Irish sports pub) to watch the Pats blowout the Jets on Monday night!  Great place to catch a game, good food, drink and friendly owner & wait staff! 

This visit to Grayton we saw Eagles every other day.  I had my best view while working on the trailer roof as 1 flew over quite low - but without a camera.  Here’s one of a pair of Eagles we observed flying wing to wing for several mins while biking – tough to catch a good pic of them:

We've been on the lookout for bobcat as there are signs indicating they are in the area.  We've been checking out all different animal tracks and thought we were on to something with these:

but learned later that these are most likely canine as the bobcat walks with it's nails retracted.

We’ve been doing a lot of biking here again.  The trails are great for hybrid bikes (except for the spiny spurs that have caused 5 flat tires so far):

Every day we explore new trails through the town of Water Color.  Nice packed sand trails with these elaborate bridges in between:

Many of the trails have markers to point out (and educate) interesting nature facts (if you stop to read them) – Deer moss here looks like mold on the forest floor:

Not bad for over the shoulder picture taking . . .

Going to try uploading a couple videos of these wonderful trails weaving there way through the town of Water Color:

While staying here, we hit a couple of the local State Parks nearby.  Falling Waters SP boast sinkholes and the longest waterfall in FL.  The trails were mostly railed boardwalks (protecting us from falling in):

Here’s a shot of one of the many sink holes here:

And then there’s the longest waterfall in Fl . . . not much water and what makes it the longest waterfall is that it flows into a sinkhole:

OK, I can't figure out how to upload this picture without losing the rotation 90 degrees to the left (so turn your head to the right or your computer to the left)!

The other State Park we visited Rocky Bayou SP.   Nice park but nothing exciting to see so no pics.  Both parks look like nice places to camp but I wouldn’t go out of the way just to visit.

We did see what looked like an oil slick just off the shoreline but it turned out to be a massive school of tiny fish.  This picture shows the “least terns” (seagull like birds) diving for these fish.  The pelicans seemed to be waiting for the larger fish to show up:

I'll try another video here of these birds in action:

We also saw several rays cruising by close to shore (you have to look close and you'll see the dark spots - they'd travel in groups of 3-4):

This last week here was birthday week for me.  We went to Bass Pro Shops in Destin where Suze & the Taylors (thanks for the gift cert!) bought me all the fishing gear I need to look like I know what I’m doing.  After several no nibble outings, I decided to go fishing at high tide for a change (which happened to be at 10pm) where I caught my 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd fish.  I believe they are all catfish (nasty finned fish):

Although they may have been keepers, I threw them all back in looking for bigger.  Next time!

The Pats delivered a wonderful birthday present with a blowout of the Bears this week . . .  and for a bonus, the Jets lose ugly to Miami!

We’re now at Salt Springs in Ocala National Forest.  No cell or internet here (but the local library has free wifi and comfy seats) - the park looks nice so far.  We're only here a few days before heading over toward Melbourne . . . more to come!

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We decided we're going to hang at Grayton Beach State Park instead of moving to Topsail this week.  We're now planning to stay at Grayton until Dec 13th at which time we'll make our way to Silver Springs Camp in the Ocala National Park for 4 days before heading to Micco, Fl  for the Holidays.

More updates to come soon . . .