State Park Week

For the past week, I have stayed in two Florida State Parks and visited a Wildlife Refuge Center.

St Marks Wildlife Refuge Center and Lighthouse is along the Gulf Coast of Florida in the Big Bend area. I spent a few hours there, hiking the trails and photographing the lighthouse and other wildlife in the area, including the cute critter below, who refused to sit and pose for me.

　

The next day I was settled in at Florida Caverns State Park. As soon as I learned this park had cavern tours, I knew I wanted to see them, so I reserved a spot for a few nights. I love caves and caverns and Florida has so very few of them, this was a real treat. For the tour, I was fortunate to be one of a group of three, so I was able to take lots of photos without people being in them. After the tour, I spent a few hours hiking the trails and watching the wildlife, including one squirrel who wanted to have a conversation.

　

I left after a couple days and headed a few miles west to see Falling Waters State Park, so named for an actual waterfall in the park - in Florida - very rare, since this state is so flat! The park itself has a high elevation of 324 feet above sea level, but that's not where the waterfall is. The waterfall is a short hike to a sinkhole in the woods where the water comes off the edge of the sinkhole to disappear further into the sinkhole 73 feet down. There is a wooden platform built down into the sinkhole so you can get closer to the waterfall and see it hit bottom and disappear into a cave. I visited the waterfall the first day and then the second day after a heavy rainstorm. The second day, there was about twice as much water (and noise) with mist rising from the force of the water falling.
　

From there, I went to a more populated area at Mexico Beach, still on the Florida Panhandle coast. There is a get together here of several solo RVers, most of them seem to be women. It will be fun to compare notes with other women who have the same wanderlust as I do.