O'Leno State Park in High Springs Florida

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Seems like the 8 nights at Crooked River went quickly and now it's time to move further south. The next stop is in our home state of Florida. O'Leno State Park is in the town of High Springs. The closest big city would be Gainesville to the southeast. We will spend a week at O'Leno which will start a nearly five month stay in Florida. The drive is a reasonably easy 150 miles. We skirt around the outer loop of Jacksonville and don't run into much traffic. The campground is a couple miles into the park and while the park road is paved and in fine shape, the campground road was surprisingly "rustic". The dirt road is a loop and somewhat rutted. I guess I could look at the ruts as a way to slow down which was required since there were a lot of trees close to the road with many low hanging branches. I was glad to find that our spot was one of the few pull through sites and better yet, it had 50 amp electric when were were only expecting 30 amp. Our spot did have a downfall associated with it. It was situated directly under a hickory tree. This time of year, the tree was dropping the hickory nuts which are about the size of walnuts. Let's just say that we never got used to those nuts dropping at random times on the roof of the rig!

Our first full day was going to be a very rainy one, but it wasn't supposed to start until around noon so we figured we could at least get out for a short walk on one of the many trails in the park. One of the interesting features of the area is the Santa Fe River which runs through the park. Our trail took us over the river on a very interesting suspension bridge. The bridge deck is suspended from cables and is free to sway back and forth as we walk across with the river below. As the trail follows the river, we get to a point where the river ends - at least above ground. The river disappears underground for roughly three miles only to surface again at the aptly named River Rise Preserve. I was hoping to see the water swirling around much like a sink or toilet, but there wasn't any real evidence other than it is clear that the water was flowing into the area at a rather fast pace only to disappear. We managed to get back to camp just as the distant thunder could be heard and sprinkles were starting. For awhile during the peak of the rain, we had a nice little swimming area outside the rig, but it seems to drain pretty quickly once the rain stopped given the sandy soil conditions of the area.

Why Did the Turtle Cross the Trail?

The Disappearing Santa Fe River

Neat Old Pavillion

Heading Onto Suspension Bridge

Side View of Bridge

Tortoise Takes Shelter

Given we have our Florida State Park Pass, we take off the next day to check out Ichetucknee Springs State Park. It's only a dozen miles away so it isn't a big deal getting there. There is both a north and south entrance to the park but surprisingly the two are not connected within the park, not even via hiking trails. We pick the northern entrance because it has interesting sounding springs plus that's where the geocaches are hidden in the park. Being midweek, there was no attendant to check our pass but we were able to fill out the self-service envelope and accomplish the same thing. We first head along the boardwalk that leads to the Blue Hole Spring. It's a nice 1/3 mile walk that brings us to a deck overlooking the spring. There are steps leading into the incredibly clear blue water. It is possible to see the actual spring opening near the center of the pond and you can clearly see the disturbance on the surface caused by the water flowing out of the spring. The water comes out at roughly 71 degrees Fahrenheit at a rate of 70 cubic feet per second. That figure didn't mean a lot but with some unit conversions, that equates to 31,000 gallons per minute! Scuba divers come here to explore the underwater caves although none were here during our visit.

Stairs Leading Down for Scuba Divers

Actual Spring at Blue Hole

 Heading back closer to the parking area is the swimming area at Head Spring. Workers are putting in a larger deck to accomodate more people although no swimmers were there on this chilly but sunny morning. We head out on some of the hiking trails to see the area and grab the few geocaches along the way. When we get to the kayak and canoe launch area, we are greeted by a dog tied up near the top of the launch while his owners prep their kayaks. We stick around and watch the boarding process. This dog was extremely excited to be going for a ride. He nearly pulled the owner over as he bounded down the stairs to the awaiting tandem kayak. He seemed to be a pro at entering the boat. Chris and I could only think about how fearful our dog Shelby would have been at such an outing. 

Incredibly Blue Water at Head Spring

Another View of Head Spring

Interesting Fungus?

Dog Going for Kayak Ride

The next day was a trip to another state park. The destination being San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park. This is a large (7300 acre!) park adjacent to I-75 between Alachua and Gainesville. The southern section of the park has miles of hiking trails and more than 50 geocaches along the way. We go early in the day with plans to stay until we find them all. After crossing the street from the parking are to the trailhead, we see the sign about a trail closure because of a southern pine beetle infestation. Of course the trail closed has about 25 or so of the geocaches along it. We don't hear any tree cutting going on but figure it doesn't make sense to risk getting hurt or getting caught on the closed trails. We still had a pleasant 7 or 8 mile hike and managed to find nearly 20 geocaches. I guess the others will have to wait for a future visit when the trails are reopened.

Our Plans Dashed by a Beetle

We discovered the Saarinen Preserve by investigating the geocaching map. There were a dozen caches clustered together near Newberry Florida. From the description of the property, it sounded like it might be a fun place to check out. There are several miles of trails that run through the 70'ish acres of land on the preserve. We did reasonably well finding the geocaches and found the trails to be nice. The only downside was when we ran into one of the monster spiders they seem to have in Florida.

Top View

Bottom View

We headed back to San Felasco the next day but this time we came with the mountain bikes. On the north side of the park are about 35 miles of singletrack trails that wander through the park. It also happens to have miles of equestrian trails. Several trucks with horse trailers were there when we arrived but we didn't see any horses during our ride. I thought the "horse washing station" was an interesting addition. There were a handful of geocaches along the trails and none of these trails were closed because of southern pine beetle. In fact, the trails here are excellent. There are some sandy spots but not too soft to make the riding challenging. One exception was when I went down one of the horse trails to look for a cache while Chris waited at the top of the hill. Yes, there are a few hills but they really aren't too steep. I really wish we would have checked out this section San Felasco sooner in our stay. I likely would have come back here several times to explore more of the trail.

Horse Washing Station

We knew our last day at O'Leno was going to be another rainy one, so when we got back to camp from our bike ride, I went out for another one here in the park. It turns out there is some pretty decent biking to be had in this park. Most of the trails here are closed service roads, but the surroundings are pretty and the ride was fun. There are even more trails on the far south side of the park but I didn't have the time or energy left to explore them. We made the most of our weeklong stay here especially given the couple of rainy days that were forced into the mix. One feature of this campground that I neglected to mention were the showers. These are possible the best showers we have run across so far in our travels. The only thing that seemed rather strange was the placement of the water valve with respect to the shower head. The two non-handicap shower stalls were plenty big, but the valve was a good 8 feet from the shower head which made for difficult temperature adjustments. I'd be curious as to how such a design came to be implemented.