Hoping to find a campsite at Manatee Springs State Park, we were turned away for the first time on this trip. Even this early in the season, you need to make reservations at popular parks on the weekend.
Crystal River State Park mentioned boat tours to see Manatees so we stopped there. They only run on specific days and this wasn’t one of them. It was still a quiet place to eat lunch with a great view of an active waterway.
Being nearby, we stopped in at the Crystal River Archeological State Park. Indian Shell Mounds along the river were interesting and had good signage describing what little is known of their history. This one has been dated to about 600 CE.
Still wanting to see manatees, we stopped at Homosassa Springs State Park. Arriving just in time to catch a boat ride to the main park entrance we enjoyed watching turtles and ducks along the relaxing ride.
Colorful wood ducks were the highlight of the ride into the park.
The resident manatees were swimming around their lagoon. These four stay here year-round as they are not healthy enough to leave the park. Later in the season, wild manatees will migrate up here for the warmth of the springs.
We were disappointed in the condition of the underwater viewing pavilion. Windows were clouded and and dirty making it difficult to see the manatees underwater.
One well fed alligator was in the same position when we arrived and an hour later when we left.
The park is a good place to view birds up close. This burrowing owl reminded us of “Hoot” one of our son’s favorite childhood books.
The flexibility in the neck of a flamingo always amazes me.
We enjoyed a ranger-led talk on bobcats and then headed south to spend a few days with my parents in the Tampa Bay area.
Parking Sadness Rant
This leads to one of the few disappointments in owning the camper. It has nothing to do with the van, it is about local rules. We have relatives in four different condominiums in Florida. None of them will allow the van to be parked overnight. Only one of the four lets us park at the condominium during the day. This really makes it hard to visit relatives while exploring in the camper. Thankfully, for this visit, a local church is letting us leave the van in their parking lot. I’d much rather have the van outside the condo where we could keep an eye on it and have access to all the things we bring along.