Florida - Moving Westward

On December 4 we moved north and west to Paynes Prairie State Park south of Gainesville. We camped here before and found the birding very good and this time we found the birding the best on the La Chua trail. We can’t remember when we saw so many alligators in one place and the birds were very numerous including Roseate Spoonbills, Egrets, Ibis, Snail Kites, Limpkins and Wood Storks. We saw Limpkins eatings snails, and Snail Kites eating snails and also trying to steal them from the Limpkins and many of the other birds were catching lots of fish. We went there two different days because it was so much fun. Another day we went to the Sweetwater Wetlands Park which is actually 3 wastewater treatment ponds which attract lots of birds, alligators and snakes!

Anhinga

Wood Stork

Limpkin eating a snail

Egrets

Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret

 

Great Blue Heron eating a fish

Tree full of Roseate Spoonbills

Snail Kite with a snail

Payne Prairie

Hike at Payne Prairie State Park

We spent a couple of hours at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. They were very beautiful and it was nice seeing Camellias blooming. We took a nice 12 mile bike ride on the Gainesville-Hawthorne bike trail which is on an old railroad right of way between those 2 towns.

We left Gainesville and moved westward to the Florida Panhandle. We followed the Gulf of Mexico most of the way to St Andrews State Park on the edge of Panama City Beach. The campground recently reopened after being devastated by Hurricane Michael in October 2018 and is very nice. We had a campsite right on the lagoon. Unfortunately we did not have the best weather while we were there with one day of torrential rain and lots of wind. We did fit in a hike on a nature trail and a walk on the beach. The morning we left we took a ferry to Sea Shell Island which is an uninhabited island near the park. We were 2 of only 4 people on the whole island and spent 2 hours walking down the beautiful beach.

Seashell Island Beach

Our Campsite

Our next stop was 3 nights at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park near Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. We did a lot of biking there taking the Timpoochee Trail along Rt 30A which goes through many seaside communities along the beach. We also rode our bikes along many nice state parks trails. The beaches along the gulf coast here are very beautiful with fine white sand.

Boardwalk to Topsail Beach

Timpoochee Trail Covered Bridge

Bike Trail in the Park

On December 14 we moved west again just a couple of hours crossing into Alabama and ending up at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We will be here for 2 weeks and are about half way through our stay. This park is great. There are over 20 miles of bike trails and we go biking daily. There are almost 500 campsites, cottages, hotel and restaurants and a lovely white sand beach. We mostly hang out at the park, but yesterday we drove to Foley and went to the Foley Railroad Museum. They have a very nice restored train station and a really cool model train layout. They had a scavenger hunt for spotting items in the layout, so we spent quite a while looking for the things on the list. Afterwards we went out to lunch at Lambert’s cafe, “the throwed rolls place”. Besides the huge helpings of country food, there was also a guy who walked up and down the rows throwing hot rolls at people who wanted them. It was weird but fun!

Model Train Layout

Foley Railroad Museum

Lambert's Meal with Throwed Roll

Beach at Gulf Shores State Park

Bike Trail at Gulf Shores State Park

Our Campsite from the Bike Trail

That’s about it for now. Have a happy holiday season.

Georgia and Florida

On November 18, we moved south into Georgia and spent a week at Jekyll Island State Park. The island was a private club owned by a group of wealthy people who spent just 4 months here from December to March from the 1890’s to 1940’s. They lived in in either the clubhouse or huge cottages. Members had to be approved and it was quite an elite group. 

Jeckyll Island Clubhouse

The state bought the island in 1947. Only 35 % of the island is developed. The other 65% remains in its natural state. From what we were told, the houses on the island are privately owned, but the owners lease the property from the state. Besides a campground and houses there are also motels and condos. The island is beautiful with 22 miles of bikes trails. Over the course of the week, we think that we rode on most of them. We also walked the beaches and trails, saw alligators and lots of birds and played miniature golf one morning.

We took a tour of the historic area and were lucky to see the area decorated with Holiday Lights and went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where we learned about how they rescue and rehabilitate turtles. It was a very nice place to spend a week.

Our next stop was Crooked River State Park near St. Marys, Georgia just above the Florida border. We have camped here once before, and it has one of the nicest campgrounds we have seen with huge campsites and the park has lots of nice trails and we saw our first armadillo of the trip here. 

One of the main reasons that we wanted to camp here again was because of nearby Cumberland Island National Seashore. This trip, we were able to spend an entire day there. It is a 45 minute boat ride to the island. We decided to take the 6 hours Land and Leisure van tour of the island. It was a very interesting day. We saw so much of the island and learned much about its history. In the 1880’s Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy bought property on Cumberland Island and built their home Dungeness. They eventually owned about 90% of the island. After Thomas’s death, shortly after their home was built, Lucy stayed most of the year on the island with her children and eventually built other mansions for her many children. We were able to tour one of them, Plum Creek. The family had over 300 people working for them on the island from Head Butler to Dairymen. The island was acquired by the National Park Service in 1972 and some Carnegie family members still retain use of some of the houses. It was a great day and a very beautiful and interesting island.

Cumberland Island Ferry

Wild Horses Roam the Island

Plum Creek Mansion 

Dungeness Mansion Burned in 1957

On November 29, we moved south and crossed into Florida and went south to Titusville, Florida. We wanted to come here because we really like Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. We saw about 50 different bird species, including Painted Buntings, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks and Bald Eagles. Just driving along the different wildlife roads with all the different birds was amazing. We also saw a rabbit, a feral pig, turtles, manatees and dolphins.

Painted Bunting

 Roseate Spoonbills

Green Heron

 Roseate Spoonbills

Nature Center Boardwalk

Sunrise at Merritt Island NWR

We drove a little bit north to Ponce Inlet and visited the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. The lighthouse which was constructed in 1887 is the third tallest lighthouse in the United States at 175 feet. There are several out buildings and even a museum with many different lighthouse lenses. It is a very nice complex and a beautiful lighthouse. We also ate lunch at a restaurant on the lagoon across from the lighthouse. It was a beautiful day and it was nice sitting outside on the deck.

On December 2, we moved inland and a little north to Blue Spring State Park. About 102 million gallons of water flow out of the spring and into the St. Johns River every day at a constant 72 degrees and this warm temperature attracts manatees in the winter. The first day we were there, 192 manatees were in the spring run because the weather had been cool. It is so neat to see them. The next morning, we took a 2 hour nature cruise on the St John’s River. We saw lots of birds including Purple Gallinules, Limpkins, Roseate Spoonbills and lots more along with manatees, alligators and turtles.  It was a nice cruise.

Purple Gallinules

Limpkin

Snowy Egret

Manatees

Manatees

After our boat ride, we drove into nearby Deland and met my library school friend Deborah Dubois and her husband Tom for lunch at a really neat Latin Fusion restaurant. After lunch, Deborah and Tom showed us around downtown Deland and we walked around a neat craft market. It is a really nice town.

One of the murals in Deland

Now we have moved a little more north to Paynes Prairie State Park near Gainesville, but more about that next time.