Trip 35: Tomoka State Park

State Parks visited:  30

Tomoka State Park is one of our local parks in the city of Ormond Beach.  It has many different things to do, and I think we got the most out of our time there, with the exception of camping. We did so much, in fact, that we broke it up into two different visits!  The first time included me, Rob, Olivia, Chris, and Danielle, on a surprise visit from Philadelphia.

The first visit took us to Tomoka in our kayaks, and we launched from this tiny little park.  We made a stop at a nearby island for some geocaching and almost had to cut the trip short when Olivia cut her toe open in an oyster bed.  Thankfully we were able to doctor her toe from our first aid kit, and we moved on.  A few highlights:

The hunt for the geocache was unsuccessful, but we did manage to find something else:  a freshly abandoned camp, complete with burning campfire.  Rob saved the day and doused the fire before we left.  Remember, if it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave.  Thanks, Chris!

From the island, we paddled across the Halifax River and entered the outer limits of Tomoka.  The weather was beautiful and we had fun relaxing on our first day on the water this year!

All those little spots on the shore are crabs!

A few other photos:

Pretty soon we rounded a turn and found ourselves at the boat launch for the park.  We stopped here and explored the park on foot.

There were a few geocaches to be found, and we were successful in all of them.  We also found a random stop sign in the middle of the road:

Apparently someone has a sense of humor...

From here we walked a little trail, saw a gopher tortoise out for a stroll, and had a picnic lunch. 

We saw this guy, too:

Chris put Olivia to work and we all paddled back to the park we launched from. 

Crossing the Halifax was very rough on the return trip, but it was a good experience for us.  Also, we were fortunate enough to see a bald eagle soaring overhead while we paddled.  Awesome!

Our second trip to Tomoka was a couple of weeks later.  We arrived by car this time, and by 'we' I mean me, Rob, Olivia, and Chris.  There are several historic markers and a huge statue in the park that we missed on our first visit:

We watched this tortoise from a distance:

Then we walked down to the shoreline and explored a bit.

Pretty soon we made our way back to the statue of Chief Tomokie and, eventually, home.

Our two trips to the park were great!  It was nice visiting something local.  It gave us the freedom to take our time and not worry about missing anything.  If we didn't see something the first time, we came back and saw it later.  Gotta love that!

Trip 34: Blue Spring State Park

State Parks visited:  29

Olivia had the day off of school for Presidents' Day, so I took my own day off and spent the day with my little girl.  The Boys had to work, and I knew just what do for our day together.  While I listed Blue Spring State Park...which is only about a mile from our home...as our first official state park, I never took the time to showcase what makes it so special.  And so, Olivia and I spent a wonderful afternoon wandering around, taking pictures, and getting to know our nearest state park.  I must say, it is one of my favorites as well!

We wandered into the gift shop, which was a first for me!  On the wall was this beautiful portrait of a manatee family.  You see, that's one thing that makes Blue Spring so special.  In cold weather, manatees come in droves to frolic in the warm waters of the headspring and spring run.  And I love manatees!

Right outside the gift shop is the Blue Spring Trail, which is a boardwalk that meanders all the way to the headspring.  A few photos:

Hello there!

When our weather is coldest and the manatees are in the spring run, the swimming area (read: from the headspring all the way down to the St. Johns River) is closed.  After the first of March, however, the run fills with swimmers, SCUBA divers, cave divers, floaters, sunworshippers...yeah, it gets pretty packed.  Mind you, this is still wild Florida, and there are several varieties of fish, turtles, birds, and yes...alligators, that call the run home.

We continued down the boardwalk until we got to the headspring:

If you look around the boil you'll see lots of fish.  They would occasionally surface and then dart back down to their resting spots on the bottom.  I believe this is one of the invasive types of fish that has become a nuisance to the manatees.  They're similar to the plecostomus catfish, only instead of eating the algae off your fish tank, they try to eat it off the skin of the manatees.  While it would seem like a symbiotic relationship, unfortunately the fish leave marks on the manatees similar to bee stings.  Not cool.  So, scientists and students from the local university are working on a way to eradicate this fish.

I just wish I could remember what it's called!

Every time I see the root in this next picture, I'm reminded of a snake:

After we left the headspring we returned to the gift shop area, and then walked down the other direction on the trail.  There are a couple of observation decks set up to make manatee viewing easier for the crowds that come out to see them.  Here are a few pictures:

Pretty soon someone pointed out an alligator!  I was small, only 4 feet or so, and seemed really content sunning itself on a tree.  There is a turtle nearby as well:

At this point I'm sure you're wondering where the manatees are, right?  The truth is, the end of February this year meant warm weather for us, with temperatures close to 80 degrees.  The warm weather sends the manatees out into open water instead of the constant 72 degrees of the spring, so there weren't many to be seen.  This guy was there, though:

He's trailing around a radio transmitter, and scientists track movements and learn a lot about manatees this way.

So, we saw this one manatee on this particular day.  On very cold days they number into the 300s, and I've heard as many as 500 in this tiny little area!  We stopped by a few months ago, and here's what that looks like:

Some poor soul lost his hat in a gust of wind, and it flew down into the water:

This ranger and her 'grabber' came to the rescue!

We walked all the way down to the end of the boardwalk, which is something I had never done before.  There's a place to rent kayaks and canoes, plus a few historic markers telling about the area.

It's also a beautiful spot for a photo:

In this picture there are 4 different animals, with a 5th hidden behind a tree.  Can you see them?

There is a cormorant (the black bird just right of center, in the water), a manatee (the white radio transmitter in the water), a Great Blue Heron (directly above the manatee on the bank), an alligator (on the palm tree), and the turtle is hidden by the palm fronds.

This is from the end of the spring run (St. Johns River) looking up toward the headspring:

Olivia was such a great kid this particular day, and a visit to the playground was in order:

Finally we headed up the hill to take a walk around the Thursby House:

Our day ended in relaxation, enjoying the rocking chairs on the front porch of the house.  We were shaded from the afternoon sun by the huge oak tree in the yard, and things couldn't have been better.  We took the time to get to know our most local state park in many new ways.  It reminded me not to take anything for granted, you know?