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| The pier at Ho Hum RV Park at low tide |
This post is a mishmash of beautiful pictures and memories of a gorgeous place. We spent 20 days on the Forgotten Coast. We stayed the first two weeks at Carrabelle Beach RV Resort across the road from lovely Carrabelle Beach. Our last week was spent at Ho Hum RV Park 6-miles down the road, a laid-back, sandy campground right on the water. It rained a good bit of our time on the Forgotten Coast, and was windy the rest of the time.
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| Ho Hum RV Park |
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| The bottom of the ocean at a very low tide - Carrabelle Beach |
Wakulla Springs State Park
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| Wakulla Springs |
The interior of Florida is punctuated with many fresh water
springs gushing massive quantities of water from cracks in the limestone that covers the water table. We’ve blogged
about several of these over the years (here is the post about Blue Springs).
Wakulla Springs is the largest and deepest of these natural wonders. It has a flow of roughly 400 million gallons
of water per day!
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| Wakulla Springs Lodge |
Like some other Florida State Parks (Weeki Wachee Springs
State Park, Homossasa Springs Wildlife State Park for example - see our blog post about these Springs here),
Wakulla Springs was a tourist destination before becoming part of the state park
system. The stately 1930’s Wakulla Springs Lodge still hosts guests to the
park, with beautiful grounds of flowering azalea bushes and crepe myrtle trees, and genteel, shaded promenades and
benches for watching the Springs. There is a swimming area in the Springs with
a two-level dive platform.
Back in the day, they had a glass bottomed boat tour where
you could see a mastodon skeleton resting on the bottom of the Spring. In the past few decades, the water has become stained brown with tannin
limiting visibility, so the boat tour is now in traditional boats. You need an advanced reservation to go on the
boat tour.
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| View from our bike ride |
We opted instead to take our bicycles on the bike/hiking
trail through hardwood forest, seasonal flood plain, and groves of cypress trees. It was a different take on Florida from our
usual views of water and sand. The ride
was spectacular, though a bit bumpy with tree roots and limestone outcroppings. The forest was quiet with birds calling in
the distance. Compared to the many
people jumping off the high dive at the Spring, we passed only 3 other groups
of people during our 2-hour ride.
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| Another creek that we crossed |
Sunrises and Sunsets
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| Almost simultaneous sunset and |
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| moonrise - Carrabelle Beach |
The Gulf of Mexico provides colorful sunrises and
sunsets. Here are a few more pretty photos.
So Long Forgotten Coast, See You Next Year!
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| Ever wonder what Palm Tree roots look like? |
We didn’t get to everything on our long list of potential adventures,
and we added to the list as we got to know the area better. So, we have done something we’ve NEVER done
before, we have made reservations to return in April 2023.
During our stay in Carrabelle, we became accustomed to the
slow pace and quiet roads. So much so,
that our drive to our next destination through the Tampa and Lakeland area, and
South Florida left us white knuckled in traffic. Our next stop? The sunny, sensational Florida
Keys! Stay tuned!
But first, one last Gulf Sunrise...
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