It’s the holiday season. There is family time and cooler weather to enjoy eco adventures outdoors. Make this fall the time to get back to nature and show the kids parts of Florida that are still unpaved and unplugged; where the only lines are the ants marching across your picnic table. If you’re into camping you are probably going to have a hard time finding a spot. Florida State Park campgrounds book up far in advance this time of year. But some diligent searching may prove successful.
Best of all, but don’t tell the kids this, eco vacations are cheap!!!
Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park, Citrus County
Is it a zoo? Is it a park? Whatever you want to call it, Homosassa Springs is a place to see hundreds of native Florida animals and critters that have been injured and can’t be returned to the wild. They are all easily visible from boardwalks that wander through the park, making it a great place for kids in strollers and wheelchairs.
Homosassa Springs is the only place in Florida where you can be sure to find manatees year round. The permanent residents are joined during the colder months by other manatees that migrate into the warm spring waters. There is an underwater observatory where kids can get a close up look as the manatees drift slowly by.
Homosassa Springs became a state park in 1989. Since then the animal inhabitants have been restricted to native species in need of a place to recover from injuries. They include Key Deer, orphaned Florida Black Bear cubs, and pink Flamingos.
When still in private ownership in the 70’s and 80’s, the park was home to retired television stars like Flipper, Gentle Ben and Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion. The only remaining exotic animal is “Lu”, a 50-year-old African Hippo, who was granted honorary Florida citizenship and permanent park residency by the late Governor Lawton Chiles.
Silver River State Park, Marion County
If you like the idea of the natural vacation experience, but the thought of packing the whole family into a tent for a couple of days causes nightmares and cold sweats, here’s another approach…cabins!
Many state parks have cabins for rent, but none are more modern than those at Silver River State Park near Ocala. There are only ten cabins, so reservations may be tough to come by, but you may find there are still some weekdays available. Each has a large screened porch, two bedrooms, a fireplace, and air conditioning.
No trip here is complete without canoeing or kayaking on the sparkling Silver River, one of Florida’s most picturesque paddle trips. You can rent kayaks and conoes at the park, and there are private outfitters nearby. If you’re lucky you will spot monkeys along the river bank. Legend has it their ancestors starred in Tarzan films that were made at Silver Springs decades ago, and were simply released into the wilds when the filming was done.
Silver River is a small park in a growing urban area, but there is plenty of wildlife. We saw white tail deer, a Bald Eagle, red shouldered hawk, and wading birds in abundance. Along the river we spotted a family of monkeys, river otter, and gators.
DeLeon Springs State Park, Volusia County
Pancakes and a refreshing dip in a crystal clear spring fed pool make for a hard-to-beat combination on a hot summer day.
The most unique attraction at DeLeon Springs State Park is the Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant where you and the kids cook your own pancakes on a griddle built into the center of the table. The whole grain flour is made from an actual working mill at the restaurant.
Located north of DeLand on U.S. Highway 17, the park has three hiking trails, a large freshwater spring for swimming, and rentals for canoes and kayaks. The swimming area has steps leading into the water, making easy access for children. The paddle trips on the spring run are in slow moving, shallow water, which is good for novice paddlers and nervous parents.
Blue Spring State Park, Volusia County
Blue Spring State Park is the home of the herd. More than 700 manatees pack themselves into the spring run from about Thanksgiving until April. It is the largest concentration of manatees in Florida. The herd size has grown nearly every year for the past decade, and the park is packed with families bringing children to watch the gentle mammals frolic clear warm water. There is a boardwalk and viewing platforms all along the spring run.
The Park sits along the St. Johns River, so the fishing is good. The spring is crystal clear and drops to a depth of about 90 feet. There are hiking and mountain bike trails in the nearby St. Francis Wilderness area of the Ocala National Forest. The uncrowded back roads of western Volusia County offer some of the best road biking in Florida.
Corkscrew Swamp, Collier County.
This isn’t a State Park, but too good to pass up on our eco list for kids. The National Audubon Society’s Corkscrew Swamp is home to the largest Bald Cypress forest in North America.
These huge trees, some of which are more than 600-years-old, soar 130 feet high, and some of the oldest are 25 feet around. They were barely sprouts of cypress knees when Columbus sailed to the new world, and just beginning to develop limbs when Spanish explorers first mapped Florida.
Visitors tour the swamp on a 2.25-mile boardwalk that leads around trees and across wetlands dominated by what park workers call “lettuce lakes”. These are shallow ponds choked with vegetation that serve as wildlife cafeterias. Large alligators dominate the food chain, but Florida Black Bears and even the nearly extinct Florida Panther are occasionally spotted in Corkscrew. This is a great bird watching spot with more than 200 species recorded, many of them year-round residents. Bring binoculars and a camera with a good telephoto lens.
Much of the boardwalk trail is in the shade, making it tolerable even in the hot summer months. Strangely there is an absence of mosquitoes due to an abundance of fish in the lettuce lakes that eat the mosquito larvae.
The boardwalk makes this a great hike for families with kids in strollers, and you don’t have to worry about youngsters wandering off on their own. There is a shorter boardwalk that runs less than a mile.
Bahia Honda State Park, Monroe County, The Keys.
When Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad construction crews got to sun bathed Bahia Honda Key in the early years of the last century, they stopped. Officially they were trying to figure out how to span the deepest channel in the Keys. In truth they just wanted to spend some time hanging out on the Keys’ best beach.
Bahia Honda State Park is an entire island in the middle Keys, just south of the famed “Seven-Mile-Bridge”. The beaches aren’t very wide or very long. The sand was replenished after several hurricanes washed away the old beach a few years ago. But because of the remoteness in the Keys, Bahia Honda is rarely crowded, even on weekends. Most everyone you run into is a camper, and the campgrounds are a tough ticket. They fill up far in advance, especially in the winter.
In a way, small makes it perfect for a family with small children. The slope of the beach is indiscernible for nearly a hundred yards into the Atlantic, where the water is barely knee high on an adult. And there is no pounding surf or tugging currents, thanks to the protection of the off-shore reef. Even in the shallows where the white sand meets the sea grasses, the snorkeling is great and youngsters can watch fish and other small sea critters scurry for cover.
Florida Caverns State Park, Jackson County
OK, here’s our opportunity to impress the kids. Remember this: stalactites grow from the ceiling, stalagmites grow from the floor.
Florida Caverns is the only place in Florida where you can walk through an underground limestone cavern that dates back 38-million years. The limestone formations grow at the rate of one cubic inch a year, which is roughly equivalent to the speed the kids do their chores around the house. The tour is a gentle walk of about a quarter-mile underground, and goes to a depth of 60 feet beneath the surface. The ranger-guided tour lasts 30-40 minutes. No strollers are allowed in the cave, so infants and toddlers have to be carried. Kids have an advantage here. They don’t bump their heads nearly as much as adults do.
Payne’s Prairie State Park, Alachua County
What kid doesn’t want to see buffalo and wild horses? There’s only one place in Florida where you can make that happen…Payne’s Prairie State Park, south of Gainesville. The park is a vast prairie and both the buffalo and horses roam free. It is hit or miss that you will see them, but there are observation towers that improve your chances. The hiking trails into the prairie are often muddy and covered in manure, so don’t wear your best hiking boots. The trails are probably too difficult for youngsters, but kids 10 and up should be fine.
Pack the car, it’s time for a road trip. Make this the holiday season for some Florida adventures that offer unique eco experiences for the whole family. Just remember to plan ahead and make camping reservations if you want to be sure you get the parks and dates you want.