Today we ventured to another state park, Silver Springs. This state park is known for its glass bottom boats. The entry way feels very commercial, I would definitely say this park is more touristy. I had gone back and forth about the glass bottom boats versus kayaking. Being the Frugal Freda I am...kayaking won out. Plus I wanted to be close to the water and on our own time table to see what we could see.

First, we paid the $2.00 a person to get into the park. We ventured into the Discovery center and walked some of the trails. I saw some of the most gigantic cypress trees ever. They were so pretty.

While on our walk we were often along the Silver River and we did spy a river otter in the water. This was our only river otter for the day so I am glad we saw it when we did.

After walking a few of the paved trails we were ready to venture out onto the water. Today we opted for the double kayak. I also ran to the vehicle to get our sandwiches. We paid for the two hours to be out so we might as well enjoy lunch on the water.

You can choose your route but they recommend you begin on the canal side then when you reach the river you take a left and paddle back up the river.

We really had a lovely adventure. We saw a lot of fish in the clear water, so many turtles in the water and out. Insert turtle photos

We also saw so many birds. Great blue herons I can identify. But we saw so much more....

Hummingbird

Yellow crowned night heron (we also saw these nesting)

Little Blue Heron

Multiple pairs of wood ducks

Red shouldered hawk

White Ibis

Anhingas

Northern parula

After we paddled the canal at a leisurely pace we pulled into an alcove to eat our lunch. We were hanging out near the shore. We saw some really cool fish in the water. Gary backed us up and I saw something in the water sort of behind us. I started watching it, hoping it was a river otter. Nope. Up comes the snout of a really large alligator.

I said, Gary, we need to paddle there is an alligator coming towards us. He saw it too and we both put some muscle behind rowing.

It's kinda funny....people have been talking about alligators for two days...even longer, Jane from Gainesville (back at Hucks) was talking about not liking kayaking because of the alligators. And we were like...we lived in South Carolina five years...we don't have a little dog ...we're good. But when you are sitting in a kayak just inches out of the water it's a whole other vantage point. We had seen two really small alligators this same day and we were fine. But this big dude was not cool. We left the alcove rather rapidly. I did not get any photos of him!!!

The rest of the trip was pretty cool. There were two herons – a Great Blue and a Little Blue - fishing in the same shallow water and they were not happy about sharing the space. They were squawking and flapping their wings at each other,!!!

We got back under the two hours but we were ready for a change in position! Sitting that long that still is longer than you think.

Silver Springs definitely caters more toward the tourists. It feels more amusement park than State Park.

We did not see any manatees, it is too late in April. Neither did we see any monkeys. But we saw some super cool nature up close and personal!!

Silver Springs

Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

Star Gazing

Journey with Jesus