Exploring Wekiwa Springs

The past 2 days we have been exploring this park. We had never been here before. The campsites are nicely spread out and shady (so no DISH TV). About half the sites are local Florideans, while the rest are from mostly northern states like Maine, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. We have seen one or two Canadians, but that's all. That may change when we move further south. Yesterday we checked out the actual springs, where swimming is allowed. The water temp is about 70-72 degrees, still too cold for me. The area around the Spring head is rather touristy, with lots of concrete, making it look more like a swimming pool.  

A short distance downstream is a kayak launch but we would have to haul our kayaks more than a quarter of a mile to get there over not so smooth terrain.  They rent kayaks for $35 per hour per person for a single and $40/hr for a tandem. 

There is a great place to launch kayaks downstream except that they charge $25 parking and $10 per kayak to launch. Ridiculous but that may be the weekend rate. We decided to pass on that. The other place to put in kayaks nearby closes at Noon and we arrived at 12:15 today, so we missed that opportunity. 

We visited Sand Lake, a small lake within the park and walked all the way around the lake, a distance of about a mile. 

Today we took a longer walk on one of the trails, to Prevott Lake and back, a distance of over 2 miles round trip. There are lots of trails through the park, up to about 14 miles for a few for those who want to do more extensive hiking. 

They do a lot of controlled burns in the park to help the wildlife, including the Scrub Jay, an endangered bird. We see a lot of charred trees and some very dead trees interspersed throughout the park. 

Tomorrow the forecast is for a good deal of rain, so we will hang out inside most of the time and read a good book or watch old movies on TV. Monday we travel to Lake Okeechobee and our next stop for a week.