From Spring to Spring.....

We needed to change our itinerary, staying on the Florida Natural Spring tour.  Originally we planned to catch some sun & sand on the Gulf of Mexico, but unfortunately (much more unfortunate for the residents), hurricane Michael wreaked havoc destroying much of the gulf coast towns near Mexico Beach.  So last minute, we made plans to stay in central Florida.


On the way to our new destination, we stopped at Paynes Praire to check out this unique part of Florida.  There is a small bison herd (which we didn't spot) and lots of alligators swimming in the marsh lands (which we did spot).

We headed to Juniper Springs, originally developed by the CCC, Juniper has a nice campground, a spring fed pool for swimming, and canoe trips through the tropical vegetation.  We barely got a reservation, as it was Veterans weekend, and then discovered that due to the new online Recreation.gov, there were many empty sites (although the campground thought they were totally full.)  We sure hope the new online reservation company gets there system working properly before we need to start booking our next fall's plans.  It's currently a mess!

At Juniper Springs, we hiked seven miles along the Florida trail, traveling through a government designated Wilderness area of pines, palmettos, and marsh areas.  No hills here!  We also hung out at our very nice camp site which included a roaring camp fire one evening.

Next to Blue Springs State Park, where we have visited at least twice before.  This visit we only spotted a few Manatees as the weather was in the high 80s, so no need for them to duck into the spring area to stay warm in its constant 72 degrees.  To stay cool, we should have jumped in the spring waters.



We also biked on the local bike trail which is now ten miles long and in construction to connect to another trail further south.  We look forward to being back to Blue Springs in the spring to ride the additional miles of the trail.