This park has a small campground of 33 campsites with water and electric.  There are 2 dump stations as you exit the campground, but no sewer hookups at the campsites themselves.  There is 1 bath house serving the campground which is a fairly new structure and well maintained with the help of volunteers.  They also have 1 washer & dryer should you need to do laundry.

There are a LOT of people from up north camping down here in Florida during the winter months.  When we did our reservations at the beginning of the year (January 2025) we were not able to get a campsite for 2 nights - so our first night was campsite #9 and our second night was campsite #29.  After we got there we noticed that campsite 33 was available the whole time, so next time I will probably check just to make sure someone hasn't cancelled.

Campsite #9

Campsite #29

Each campsite came with water hookup, electric hookup, picnic table, campfire ring, campsite grill.  All sites were gravel and all were fairly large in size.  Most of the sites were kinda an "L" shape so you have some privacy in most of the sites.  A few were pull through sites and they didn't have the privacy I saw in the back in sites.

Things I liked about the campground:

1) it's quiet

2) all sites are gravel

3) sites are surrounded by Florida natural plants and grass (yes, grass!)

4) bath house was clean, functional and well located

5) trash cans throughout the campground make it much easier to get the trash 'taken out' like at home (both of our sites were really close to a trash can)

6) wildlife is abundant

7) it's a fairly dark sky unless you're close to the bath house (which is lit up big time)

Things I didn't like about the campground:

Nothing! sorry, there wasn't anything I didn't like - we loved our couple of nights there!

There is a separate area towards the back of the campground that is for tent camping.  By the tent camping is a small parking area for about 6-8 vehicles.  This area looked to be pretty full also during our stay.

Wildlife

Shortly after we arrived (checkin time is 3pm) I took the dogs for a walk around the campground loop.  We (and the dogs) saw a gopher tortoise crossing someone's campsite.  Dogs went nuts barking.  Never saw another one while we were at the park.

Marsh rabbit(s) - campsite #9 has a little trail that goes back to the 'group camp circle'.  A marsh rabbit showed up for dinner (or maybe just to tease our dogs).

Deer - each day we drove around within the park and we saw a lot of deer when we were out at dawn and dusk.  Actually saw a young buck this time too.  Most of the time I see just the does.

This deer was just about outside my window when I took this photograph.  At first, I was using a Nikon 70-200 and photographing through the windshield of the truck because we saw them along side the road when coming back from the ranger station.  This one kept munching on food and walking right towards my side of the truck until I was almost looking straight at it.  I think that's when the deer realized the truck was between her and her buddies on the other side of the road, so she went and joined them.

Shortly after sunrise, we saw this young buck from the truck and stopped to get some photographs.

Alligator - the first day we went to visit one of the lakes off the dirt road near the entrance to the park - there were several large gators hanging out in the lake.

Birds - there are a lot of birds at this park.  It's the time for robins to be in our area.  Also saw other song birds and a few larger water birds (egret, ibis, heron).

Night Skies

During our time camping, there were several planets out that were 'aligned' so we took a few minutes to try and see them.  This is when we found out how much light the bath house actually shines into campsite #9 - so we didn't get the 'dark night skies' we had hoped for.

When we moved over to campsite #29, the bath house wasn't so much an issue - and we had found that the lakes off the dirt road would be a perfect place to go, but the clouds moved in and we couldn't really see the night skies.  So, we retired a little early and decided we would get up for the sunrise on our last morning there.

Trails

Trails - this park has a lot of them!  We walked 2 different trails while we were there.  The first trail that we walked appears to be a small portion of the 'red trail' based on viewing the map provided by the rangers.  This part of the red trail is just before you reach the family campground (if you were coming from the entrance to the park).  We enjoyed this part of the trail because it was shady and had lots of various types of plants - some were flowering.  

Please be aware that this park does allow for equestrain (horses) camping and many (if not all) of the trails could have horses and horse manure.  During our stay we didn't see any one camping with horses so we didn't have to concern ourselves with fresh horse manure. Our second day of hiking we were on trails down by the equestrain campground on the blue and red trails - we walked for about an hour, the dogs loved it. 

Florida State Flower - Tickseed (above) 

Blue Eyed Grass (below)

Sunsets/Sunrises

Sunset by Little Lake (near the butterfly garden where parking and a restroom is available).

Sunset by Little Lake

Ollie enjoying the sunset by Little Lake

The next morning, we were getting up while it was still pretty dark outside.  Here's the dogs thoughts on this! Rue is all snuggled up in the bed, under the blankets. 

Rue looks like she is saying, "What - you want to get up for sunrise? It's dark outside and I'm pretty comfy here."

Not so sure I want to do this, perhaps a little more sleep.

And on the other bed, Ollie looks like she is up and ready - her eyes are wide open.  Abby on the other hand, is still in a sleeping mode (just like Rue).

But, they all did get up once we were closer to getting ready and we did see the sunrise.

This is along the road between the family campground and the Equestrain Campground.  It was a little foggy and beautiful!

It's a wrap, heading home

Soon our stay at this beautiful park was ending and we would be heading home - but it was a great experience.  Hopefully, in the future we can return again since it is close to home. 

One thing to note, none of the family campground sites are shaded except when the sun is lower in the sky. Once the sun is higher in the sky, you will have full sun.  That might be pretty hot during the warmer months here in Florida.

Little Talbot State Park
 

Our first trip out this way we visited Little Talbot State Park - this park was nearly empty when we visited early on the week day.  Dogs are not allowed on the beach, so we took turns going out to see the water - a beach with no one on it.  Ever think you might see that?

Little Talbot State Park has several decking paths through the sand dunes to the beach.  They also have picnic shelters and bathrooms.  When I arrived at the beach, it was empty!  Something that you don't see to often here on the west coast.

Little Talbot State Park was more 'formal' with a ranger station to stop and pay as I have been accustomed to. 

Big Talbot State Park

But I really wanted to see the boneyard beach.  This was a little harder to figure out exactly where to go - we wanted to take a short hike, not the longer one which is several miles.  In reading on a website, I found that we were looking for a sign that said "The Bluffs" (scenic shoreline picnic area).  This was located on the right if you're coming from Jacksonville area.  It's not big, you could miss it.

When I saw the sign, we pulled in to the area and drove around a little bit trying to figure out what the next step was to get to the boneyard.  There is an overlook that you can see from the parking area - so I know I'm in the right area.

 I spotted another sign.  This one said "Shoreline Access Trail" and another brown sign with the details of the trail.

So, based on this sign, we can do the hike with the dogs but they are not supposed to be on the beach.  The trail itself was not a long hike, perhaps a half mile one way.  This is a hike in-hike out trail (not a loop).   We started the hike - the dogs loved going on trails, so they had no issue starting down this path. 

Before we got to to the beach, here's the girls waiting with me.

Abby choose to face the way Jim had gone to the beach.

Rue choose to guard the backpack with the goods! (water/snacks)

Ollie found herself a little patch of shade (and apparently has a wrinkled nose in this photo).

I've seen this tree in photos before, I suspect that it has been there a long time.
 

The beach was pretty wide, only a few other people wandering around (like 4) and it was a quiet atmosphere.  If the dogs were allowed on the beach, we probably would have stayed a lot longer, but we took turns each spending about 30 minutes on the beach while the other hung out at the end of the trail with the dogs.

Boneyard beach is all about the driftwood from trees laying along this part of the ocean.  This is how the beach is naturally, whereas the beach at Little Talbot State Park is clean of any driftwood.

We visited mid day, I'm sure this is beautiful at sunrise!  If you get a chance, drive on out to see this wonderful state park - Big Talbot State Park is located on State Road A1A North, Jacksonville, Florida 32226.  The location we stopped at did not appear to have any park rangers.  If it hadn't been for someone's review of "The Bluffs" online I'm not sure that I would have found it.

Fernandina Beach

We continued on State Road A1A all the way to Fernandina Beach.  Winding through the little islands that are attached by bridges (hate to see a hurricane evacuation for this area!).  Once we got into the downtown area of Fernandina Beach, we found a nice dog friendly place to grab some lunch.  If you're in the area, you might want to check this place out, Timoti's.

The 'twins' hanging out by the outside table with us (Abby was somewhere, but couldn't get a photo of her).

After lunch we headed back to the campground which was a good number of miles back on A1A.  And across that darn bridge that scares me!

I took a lot of photographs of this bridge because I can't stand bridges like this one (too high and reminds me of the Sunshine Skyway).  But when it was my turn to drive across it, that was worse!

That's it for this adventure.  Hope you enjoy following our travels.

Since I last posted about an RV trip, I have joined several different facebook groups and I asked - Any one know good places to camp in Jacksonville, Florida?  A large number of the people mentioned "Hanna Park".  This park is on the east coast located very close to the military base located in Jacksonville.

When we arrived Sunday afternoon, we were greeted with a very nice park!  Our campsite had full hookups (water, electric and sewer).  This park does have a gate to enter the campground and you must have the code (you'll get it when you check in) for the gate in order for the gate to go up when you arrive.  The code changes on Tuesday's - you can get the new code at the front office or the camp store (it looked like a really nice camp store, but we never actually got a chance to visit).  We did find out that the code doesn't change real early, so make sure you don't lose the old code until it is changed.

The entire campground is shaded from what we saw (we didn't see the entire campground because it is large!).

We stayed near the back of the campground (and this is a really big campground). Our campsite, #167, was located on the last row of sites. 
 

The electric hookup includes 30 and 50 amps along with a few plugs if you need to plug in something else directly to the hookup.

Nothing glamourous about this, but it's nice to have!

Rue found her spot!

A short walk to the lake which we checked out just about every day! 

The dogs loved walking down to the lake as they had an open area that was good for taking the pups to explore and do what dogs need to do.

Shortly after sunrise...

There is a dock that goes over the water a short distance.  A sign indicates that it can be used for fishing but I never saw anyone actually fishing in this area.  There are signs for alligators, but didn't see one of those either.

A short trail goes off from this area which the dogs were all for checking it out.

We ended at another part of the campground.  It was a very short walk, but enjoyed it!

They have a lot of biking and hiking trails at this park - we didn't get to explore that much, but if you're into doing either of these - it's a good place to go.  

The beginning of a trail - you can always tell who got stuck with me because they are in the foreground of the photographs (in this case, Abby and Ollie).  Rue is busy running off on the trail with Jim (much to their dismay).

Rue and Abby took a few minutes to pose for me!

And Ollie did too!

Another great feature of this park is the Atlantic Ocean - yep, it's right here waiting to be explored!  After a couple of days we managed to get up early and head over to see the sun rise.  Since we were at the back of the campground, it was a bit more than I would walk when "in a hurry" to catch the sun - but I'm sure our dogs wouldn't have had an issue doing that walk.

Here's a few photographs from the sunrise.

There are a few areas where it says "No dogs allowed on the beach".  However, we did find other areas that just indicated the dogs had to be on a leash - so we checked out those places late one afternoon and let the dogs have some fun just enjoying being in the sand and checking out what the water was.  Abby has been to the beach a few times in the past, but I think this was the first time for our little girls, Rue and Ollie.

Abby didn't appear to really want to get wet, so as the waves came in, she came further onshore.

Rue and Ollie seemed to enjoy the beach sand, but unfortunately we couldn't let them run free.  

What I liked about the campground and park:

1. It was shady!  Lots of beautiful Florida landscaping here
2. The dogs had two areas to walk to when we were at the campground - the lake or the nearby playground areas could be easily reached from our campsite
3. The trails! I wish we had more time to explore those
4. The beach
5. Full hookups

What I didn't like about the campground and park:

1. Ticks - there were a lot of these and I'm sure it was because it was such a wooded area - We did see one armadillo and Jim saw one raccoon after dark (thankfully the dogs were already inside!) - either way, be prepared because they are plentiful and the freeze the week before didn't contain these little pests
2. Low flying helicopters - the active military base provided for a lot of low flying helicopters over the campground and unfortunately the day we were coming home was the same day a military helicopter crashed into a plane in Washington, D.C. 

This park also has several full bath houses with showers and restrooms.  The heat was wonderful in them!  As it was a little chilly in the mornings and evenings.  There is also a laundry room and some visitor parking.

This park and campground is run by the City of Jacksonville.  They do accept reservations online.  Google "Hanna park campground" and you'll be able to find it.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a little about our camping trip to this part of Florida.  I will do another post soon on our visit to Big Talbot Island State Park.

We stayed at a total of 8 different RV Parks during this trip (direct links to blog post are at the bottom).

1. Falling Waters State Park, Chipley, Florida - Campsite #15
2. River's Edge Campground, Holt, Florida (private) - front of office
3. Natchez State Park, Natchez, Mississippi - Campsite #39
4. Magnolia Hill RV Park, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana (private) - they only have 6 total, we were in the middle
5. Cloud 9 RV Park, Hot Springs, Arkansas (private) - Campsite #B4
6. Whitewater RV Park, Mountain View, Arkansas (private) - Campsite #16
7. William Bankhead National Forest, Corinth Recreation Area, Yellow Hammer, Double Springs, Alabama - Campsite #10
8. Florence Marina State Park, Omaha, Georgia - Campsite #39

I learned that a campsite comes in many different forms.  Some have a concrete slab, some have small gravel, some have dirt - but they all seem to have electric and water.  Some have sewer connections, some don't.  I sometimes felt like Forest Gump and his box of chocolates - never know exactly what you're going to get, until you get there.

We travelled no more than 380 miles per day (and that was a rough stretch for us).  A more comfortable number of miles for us is probably 250-300 for future planning of our trips.  This would be especially important when we are not on daylight savings time because we might be more likely to arrive when it is just about dark at a given campground.

On our trip, we travelled over 2,500 miles total.

The cost for all reservations (made in advance) was $468.95 with an average of $33.50 per night.

We met several really nice people at many of these campsites.  The people you meet are what makes RVing the most fun - seeing new sights, doing things each day and talking with people from everywhere.

Tips/Things we learned along the way:

1) The dogs were all pretty good in the back seat of the truck without dog beds. They wanted water at almost every stop (every 2-3 hours) - and food was good too.

2) One person had a new Sonic 2023 RV and the black water tank on her RV was not secured well and it 'fell down'.  Jim checked the one our Bushwhacker and it is very well secured with brackets (thankfully).

3) Westlake tires will dry rot long before the tread will go bad.  Change those tires before 3 years or you are likely to have a blowout.

4) If you are planning to leave your RV for any period of time while camping, turn off the water to your RV before leaving.  This will prevent any chance of your RV flooding while you are away.

5) Having tools to fix issues while on the road is a great idea.  There are mobile RV businesses that will come fix your RV, but you may be waiting a while (not days, could be weeks).

6) Sometimes someone may be in your campsite even if you reserved a specific site (this happened for 2 of the 8 stops we made).  This isn't good in my opinion, but it was resolved by giving us another campsite - what happens if one isn't available?

7) The weight distribution system for our trailer definitely made a difference in a positive way on the bumping along of the trailer.  However, a friend mentioned that this does put more stress on the nose of the trailer, so be mindful of this.

8) Quiet times are ok - enjoy the sunrises and sunsets.

Sunrise, yellow river, Holt, Florida Sunrise on the Yellow River in Holt, Florida - River's Edge RV Campground (Jim's photo)

Sunrise, Natchez State Park, Mississippi (Jim's Photo)

Sunrise at Whitewater RV Park, Mountain View, Arkansas (Jim's Photo)

Sunset (Jim's photo)

Sunset, William Bankhead National Forest, Corinth Recreation Area, Double Springs, Alabama

Dog Friendly-our dogs, etc...

1) All of the things we did were dog friendly with one exception.  The cavern tour at Blanchard Springs Caverns.  For this, Jim bought a ticket to do the tour at noon, I bought a ticket to do the tour at 1:20 and we switched off on who had the dogs.

2) Only one campground, River's Edge in Holt, Florida, had restrictions on the dogs and this was specifically related to "dog breed".  Bully breeds were not allowed.  There may be other breeds not allowed, so definitely check before booking.  River's Edge also does not allow refunds so be sure before you book!

3) Our dogs, especially Rue and Ollie, prefer to be tied/leashed up outside our camper at the campgrounds.  Abby did sometimes but often prefer to hang out in the camper on the bed and catch a snooze.

4) Our dogs LOVE going on these trips - I think they love spending all the time with us and having the adventures.

The Mighty Mississippi River, Natchez, Mississippi - looking north (Jim's photo)

The Ritz Movie Theatre, downtown Natchez, Mississippi (Jim's Photo)

Would I go to any of these places again?

Yes, I might - but there are so many places to see - it's possible we may not.

One thing to note, Natchez, Mississippi has a Hot Air Balloon festival along with music the 3rd weekend of October every year.

Natchitoches, Louisiana has some wonderful Christmas light displays that are very pretty (so I hear from my cousin).

The cost host at Florence Marina State Park strongly encouraged Jim to come back - they had lots of stories to share, but not enough time!

Only time will tell if we go back to any of these places.

What Next?

Several people have asked, "Where will your next trip be to?".  

It is my hope that we can do some shorter trips in Florida while it is "winter" (at least cooler and not 90+ degrees).  

The next longer trip we are in very early stages of planning, and we are currently thinking of trying to head to North Carolina (not the mountains) and potentially into Virginia.  There are a few people we would like to visit in those areas - as well as new places!

No dates, no specifics, for our next longer trip, but it will be after concerns of freezing weather.

I have since joined a few facebook groups that are specific to RVing to learn tips from others such as winterizing our camper (should we be somewhere with freezing temps), favorite campgrounds for areas we are thinking of visiting, tools for planning trips and fun stuff like that.

I have also been exploring the possibility of trying to do more night photography with the hopes of getting some 'great shots'.

Last, Yes - we did love doing this trip!

Sunset - Almost home now

And down the sun goes....

And with this last sunset photograph just before we got off the interstate just 15 minutes away from home, we will close this blog post series and wait for more adventures to come soon.  It's been one month now that we have been home from this trip, can't wait to head out for some more adventures soon!

Blog Post Links (in order)

Falling Waters State Park, Chipley, Florida

River's Edge, Holt, Florida

Natchez, Mississippi

Pleasant Hill & Natchitoches, Louisiana

Hot Springs, Arkansas

Mountain View, Arkansas - Day 1

Mountain View, Arkansas - Day 2

William Bankhead National Forest, Corinth Recreation Area, Double Springs, Alabama

Florence Marina State Park

This is our last stop on this trip – we arrived here at Florence Marina State Park on the west side of Georgia around 5pm (seems to be our arrival time most of the days).  We have travelled from northern Alabama to Georgia.  This park we visited about 10 years ago when we had Jimbo (and no other dogs).  We brought our cat, Torie, home from this park on that trip – this time we didn’t see any stray cats thank goodness!

This leg of our trip was 273 miles.

A good portion of it was on the interstate, but once we got off the interstate, seems like we were travelling a good amount of road that was in the ‘middle of nowhere’. 

Along the way we stopped for gas and I saw this big peach!

My concern was that we needed to ensure we had a full tank of gas when we arrived at this park because I didn’t recall there being much nearby.  Just before we crossed the water, going into Georgia we found a small store with a gas station (pumps from the 1970s!).  After getting gas and an ice cream sandwich, we cross the water into Georgia and back to Eastern time zone. After setting up our camp, we walked across the field to watch the sun set.

That night we searched for a ‘dark place’ in this park.  Needless to say, they have lights everywhere!  We did find a place that was somewhat dark, and I took some photographs of the night sky.  A quick Google search indicates that this is the milky way which is visible in Georgia in October from about 8pm till 10pm (the timeframe we were out there).

We stayed here for 2 nights – I wanted a day to go back and visit the Providence Canyon State Park which is about 8 miles up the road from Florence Marina.  Providence Canyon doesn’t have rv camping, so this is the place most people camp.  We had gone there our first trip to this park.

Early the next morning, I got up and started walking the dogs.  My original intent was to take them out in this field, but it was pretty early and I could see deer were over there (and the dogs started to notice also).  So, we walked around the campground area by the miniature golf course and back to our campsite instead.

The Campground

I really liked this campground.  It was nice to have the little golf course, but we didn’t get a chance to rent the clubs from the ranger station and play a round – hopefully we will get a chance to come back here and camp in the future – and maybe play that round.

Why I liked the campground:

1. The entire campground has trees making it shady
2. There are several big open areas to enjoy. Also great for walking the dogs
3. They have electric, water and sewer hookups
4. The campsites were well taken care of and we had a nice site with a picnic table (I think most of the campsites have a picnic table – especially state parks)
5. Friendly neighbors and a friendly camp host
6. Ranger station was nice as well as the staff
7. The bath house was nice.  Appeared relatively new and included laundry area

Our campsite.  We were on the curve, so our campsite was a little different.  Very close to the people that were behind us (you see in this photo) but not so close to anyone on the left of the truck.

The big field was directly in front of our campsite.

The bath house is centrally located to most of the campsites in the campground.  This is looking from our campsite.  There is parking in front which I used when I was taking the laundry over there.

They have a fairly new gazabo nearby as well as benches where you can sit and see the sunset.

Providence Canyon State Park

The beginning of the hike is by the visitor center at this park.  It is a good walk down hill and probably isn't for those that aren't used to hiking.  We didn't have any issues with it but there are signs to caution people before starting out on the trail.

After a short hike, you will be at the canyon floor and can view several of the canyons from the bottom.  Abby and Ollie were with me while Jim had Rue.  The girls are looking out....so what's next?

I noticed that there appear to be a lot more signs telling people to stay off the canyons than I remembered from a number of years ago.  The entire canyon was created by bad farming practices back in the 1800s.  Over time, water has eroded a good portion of the stone and left the canyons behind.  This particular park has been referred to as "Little Grand Canyon" by many - I originally found this park when it was featured in a copy of the Outdoor Photographer magazine (which is no longer in publication).

I asked Abby to pose because I had asked Jimbo to do the same so many years ago.

Below we got all three of the girls to sit in front of the 'slot canyon' that you can walk inside and look up in.

Rue couldn't hold her pose anymore - she is almost always the first to break away and come running back!

We did another trail while we were there, the 3 mile white trail - this took you to some of the other canyons.  We walked that trail hoping to get another view of the canyons from the top.  Interesting enough, we did run into some old cars that were rusted out, but we didn't see another view of the canyons until we were back at the day use area.  In other words, if you just want to view the canyons from the top, stop at the day use area - don't take the hike with that expectation.

We returned back mid-afternoon after enjoying a day of hiking at Providence Canyon.

The next morning, the dogs and I took our final walk at this park and enjoyed the quiet of the early morning hours.  Soon, we would be heading home.  

For more photographs from our stay at Florence Marina State Park, click here.

I will have one more blog post from this trip which will show a few photographs from the drive home and give some insights into the trip overall.

I hope that those of you viewing the photographs and reading the posts have enjoyed them - there will be more as we are already planning some additional trips!

We headed out taking Highway 14 east/25 north for a good number of miles - heading towards Memphis, Tennessee.  It's Sunday, so some of the smaller towns don't have anything open at this time.  We stopped for gas in a small town called Newport, population 4000.  The store wasn't open, but the gas pumps were on - so we took a quick potty break and continued on our path.

How did I find this place?  Honestly, I was looking at the route that Google was sending us to get home first.  Then I was looking at the number of miles we were driving.  I kind of appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. Go figure.  So, I started searching around and finally found a place that looked interesting.  Then checked out the campground and said that looks like a winner!

This was quite a drive to get from Arkansas back to northern Alabama.  What did I see along that path?

Cotton Fields.....

Farm equipment.....

Water towers (man, every town has one within viewing distance of the road we were on)

Detour sign ....hmmm, guess we are probably taking the long way to get across the Mississippi River.

Welcome to Tennessee? Um, Memphis? I guess I had no clue how we were getting from Arkansas back to Alabama.

Bass Pro has a big pyramid building by the interstate in Memphis.

Oh, and now we are in Alabama.  We should be getting closer to our destination now.

Eventually we got off the interstate system and had some more country roads getting to our destination.  One of those roads where you really don't know what's on the other side?  This doesn't happen much in Florida, so it's still weird to me to have the road appear to 'end'.

By this time in our trip, I had done no planning on what we might want to do while we stayed here.  This was totally not started because of all the hurricanes and loss of power the week prior to our trip.  We arrived and got our paperwork (there was no ranger at the check in station).  When we went to what was supposed to be our campsite, well, someone was in it.  Yes, this again (just like Cloud 9 in Hot Springs).  So luckily, we had cell service (We have Verizon) and I called the number posted at the ranger station.  She got a hold of the camp host.  And we ended up moving from campsite #6 to #10.  There were a lot of really nice campsites that were vacant, but we took the closest one to the one we had actually reserved.

I wanted to catch the sunset, so we did quick setup, let the dogs go potty and then tried to scramble to the lake view and catch the sunset.

Well, it was pretty!  But to many dog potty stops and we didn't make it before the sun went behind the trees.  Oh well, we have 2 more nights to try this again.

This area is really dark at night - and the stars were great.  But, the first night I was to tired to stay up and try to capture any photos, so I just looked at the skies and said "Wow"!

The next morning, we didn't have any real plans, so first we cooked breakfast while the dogs hung out outside.

Corinth Recreation Area

Our campsite is located in the Yellow Hammer area of the National Forest.  Within that, we are in the Corinth Recreation Area.  First up, let's take a look around the area that we are actually staying at just in case there might be something right here that we might want to check out today or tomorrow.  The trees were really beautiful - some were changing colors, others not yet.

We wondered down near where one of the boat ramps is located.

We noticed that the water levels area really low.  Later in our trip we found out from on of the other campers that they lower the level of this lake in the winter months - it is dam controlled.  It's a really large lake with lots of 'fingers' coming off of it.  The maple trees did have red leaves.

Just hanging out - sometimes we did stop to just lay around.

The dogs really liked the 'sandy beach' which is actually the bottom of the lake exposed due to low water levels.

Per the website for this area:

The Corinth Recreation Area is a state-of-the art campground located on the on the shores of the upper part of Lewis Smith Lake in Winston County. Initially built in the 1960s and renovated in 1998 it offers facilities for individual and group camping, picnicking, swimming, and boat launching. 

We stayed in the Yellow Hammer section of the campground.  After driving around and looking at the two areas, I found that the area we choose seems to be a little prettier.  Plus, this area is very close to the lake and some of the camp sites actually have a view of the lake.  Access to the lake requires you to walk or drive down to other areas to get to the water.

There are several bath houses in the campground.  The one that I used is nice, clean and everything (bathrooms and showers) were functional!  Always a plus.  I didn't do laundry here so not sure whether or not they have those facilities.  Some of the camp sites are drive through and some are really big!  To think we could have chosen one of those.....oh well.

Natural Bridge Recreation Area

So, next up I found an area that looked like it would have some hiking that we could do with the dogs.  It is within the National Forest and is called the Natural Bridge Recreation Area.

We are the only ones here - no other cars around.  So we parked, tried to find a map (nope).  They did have an outhouse (at least this one isn't on wheels!).

So, we found the trail and started walking.

It's pretty.  The trail is small stones or gravel - so at least we know that we are on the right path.

I have no idea what Jim is doing, but Ollie is looking straight at me - Rue is off somewhere else.  Abby is with me, so she isn't in this photo.

Ok - let's get goofy!  These leaves are in the area of a foot long!

Natural Bridge

Long ago, this area was a shallow sea that deposited sands and other sediments. These deposits formed the sandstone rocks you see around you and limestone and shale in other areas of the forest. During that time, the tectonic plates that comprise today’s North America and Africa collided, causing the formation of the Appalachian Mountains and the rise of the Appalachian Plateau.  Here in the Southern Appalachians, the plateau known as the Cumberland Plateau.

As precipitation fell and vegetation grew, the rocks broke down and formed soil. Because some stones weather faster than others, canyons, rock outcrops, overhangs (rockhouses), gladed, and natural bridges were formed. The result is the landscape you see today – the Black Warrior Mountains.  The ridges are the remaining flat plateau land, while the natural erosion of rock forms everything else.

Natural bridges are stone archways spanning an “erosion valley” like a stream bed. Water flowing through the feature erodes the rock creating a natural “bridge” over the erosion valley. While a water source forms natural bridges they do not always continue to have water flowing beneath them.

The above is from the sign outside of this area.

We eventually ended up back where we had parked the truck - so this trail is a loop.  It is a nice walk and isn't very long.  Probably took us about 30 minutes or so to walk, but it's nice and quiet here - nothing else around anywhere!

Longest Natural Bridge - East of the Rockies!

We noticed this particular 'attraction' while we were driving to our campsite the day before.  This park opened in 1954. Since we now knew what a natural bridge was, and it looked like a nice place to hike - we decided to back track to this place and see what it was all about.  First, since it is 'an attraction' it does have a fee to go do the hike.  Second, the attraction is dog friendly - so I paid the entrance fee and we started hiking.

We started off on the hike - and soon we got to the "Indian Face".

Then we continued a short walk and found this natural bridge.

Can you tell that Jim is standing just outside of the frame?  Abby is giving a side ways glance to see what exactly it is she should be doing.....

The old church

This old church is located very close to the campground area.  It appears to still be in use as I looked inside the windows, but unfortunately it was locked so I couldn't go inside and look around (take photos, whatever).

Night Skies

The night skies here do not have any issues with light pollution!  The only light pollution is from your neighbors camping in the various sites.  I decided to take the camera out and take a few photographs without leaving our campsite (it's really dark here and Jim wasn't up to going down to the lake).

Our little guy with some of the lights on.  The white lights are obviously from inside the camper.  The green light, wow, who knew it was 'so bright'.  It is coming from the gadget that we put on the electric hookup to make sure that all is good for the camper (meaning, no shorts, issues with the electric hookup).

Double Springs Veterinary Clinic

 This evening, Ollie started having 'potty troubles'.  At first, I just thought she needed to go potty - so I put the leash on her and took her out.  Thankfully there was no wildlife out at the time because that would have been a totally new and not so good experience.  A few hours later, Ollie did the potty dance again and woke me up.  This time I took a flashlight with me to see what might be going on.  Ugh, looks like Ollie has a UTI - we got to find a vet.

It was good that we had cell phone service - and actually Verizon service here was very good.  I looked up to find the closest vet - 20 minutes away in Double Springs (in the town, not the forest we were in).  We decided the next morning to drive over to the clinic and see if they could take Ollie in. 

Our luck, the decided to repave the main road into this campground and recreation area.  So we had to take a dirt road. We did get a little lost on the dirt roads.

The horses weren't about to tell us which way to go....and coming back was even trickier but we did finally make it back to our campsite.

It hasn't rained here in a while.  The dirt was dirty!  And my white truck was caked with dirt all over it - don't touch it, you'll be really dirty if you do.  They don't want you to wash your vehicle at the campground.... but I wonder if anyone would have really noticed - there isn't any staff there and the campground host was gone for the afternoon.... but we didn't.

The vet was not too busy (unlike here in Tampa) and within a few minutes they were able to take us in.  I've been through this before with other animals, so I knew to capture some of the doggie urine and bring the sample in with me.  Good to have 'throw away tupperware' containers with you :) The vet confirmed Ollie had a UTI, gave me the medication to make her get better.  Also, advised that Ollie might appreciate a 'day of rest'.  So we grabbed some fast food on the way back to the campground.  

The rest of the day we relaxed and then eventually did walk some of the trails at Corinth Recreation Area which was nice.  Abby got to play in the water a bit and we enjoyed the time not being too busy.

Ollie made a complete recovery by the time we got home.

The Sunset

So, each night I wanted to go try and capture the sunset over the lake.  The first day, we just missed the sun going behind the trees, but the colors from the clouds were good so we took photographs.  The second day, we started out a little earlier, but the darn dogs went potty to much and dang it if the sun didn't disappear behind the trees before we got there again!  Apparently, the people that had the campsite right next to the lake view noticed our attempts to get the sunset!  As we headed back to our campsite, we stopped to talk with them for a few minutes.  They said, you need to try and be there by 5pm.  So, the third day, we got there at 5pm and of course we had to wait for the sun to set - we were at least 15 minutes to early. But, unfortunately, there were not clouds for this sunset, so it wasn't as pretty.  Another group of people from another campsite showed up and we spent a good amount of time talking with them before heading back to our campsite.

Our Campsite

#10 in Yellow Hammer area of the campgrounds

The campgrounds - what I liked:

1. The campground itself was very pretty - lots of trees, good size sites
2. Water (that dripped a bit), electric, and sewer hookups at the site
3. Trails within the campground
4. Bath houses were clean and functional.  They have several bath houses in the yellow hammer section of the campground
5. Very little light pollution
6. Very little noise overall
7. Remote from town(s)

The campgrounds - what I didn't like:

1. One thing I did not like - we had to do the camp site shuffle again.  What would have happened if there wasn't another site available?
2. The ranger was not there so you couldn't purchase any ice, firewood, etc nor could you ask about 'things to do' in the area

Overall, our experience was good, and I would return to this campground if I were in this area of the country in the future.

For more photographs from this campground stop, click here.

After we finished spending the majority of our day at Blanchard Springs Caverns, we came back to Whitewater RV Park and relaxed for a little while.  Once rest time was over, we took the dogs walking in the city park.  We found a stream that had enough water for the dogs to have a little fun.

This RV Park is surrounded by city park space.  Walking thru the campground to the back, we found the beautiful stone amphitheater.  It isn't used that much anymore, but it sure looked like a great place to spend some time with the dogs.  There is a trail back there, but we only walked a short distance since it was getting late, and we had no clue how long it would take us to hike (I know, the sign said 45 minutes).

City Park (to the west of RV park)

On Saturday morning, we decided to take the dogs walking over in the city park to the west of the RV park.  Mostly, I wanted to make sure they had a chance to do whatever they might need to before I took them into an area that probably wasn't the best dog bathroom areas.

Abby always wants to get into the water!

I looked at the number of trees....and then saw this sign...and wondered if my 'flying disc' would end up coming back at me every time I threw it?  But, if you wanted to play Disc Golf, hey go for it!

Ollie hanging out in the stream - I think she is munching on grass (maybe part cow).

42nd Annual Bean Festival

I was asked when I arrived to check in if I was coming to town to attend the "Bean Festival".  Having no clue what he was talking about, I asked about it.  It's a really big thing for this small town!  And since we were about 4 blocks away from downtown, I knew we would have some time on Saturday to go attend and check it out.  

Saturday, we went to the bean festival. First, what is a "Bean Festival"? This particular festival is about:

1) A cookoff of pinto beans - people enter the contest to cook the best recipe using pinto beans

2) Someone judges them to see who's the best is

3) Art vendors (like an arts and craft festival)

4) Live mountain music

5) Food vendors

All outdoors, all dog friendly.  So seemed like a good way to spend part of the day.

We walked around quite a bit of the area to see the various sights.

Mountain music played in front of the courthouse. Soon, we settled down in a nice spot to watch the "Outhouse races" (this I had to see just to find out exactly what it was!).  I think the dogs were ready to relax a bit, but I was told by others there at this festival that 20,000 people were there!  If that is the case, then there were a lot of people there.

Ollie says, "Did you say outhouse race?"

Ugh, I better get comfortable!

Many of these don't look much like outhouses to me - but they were much easier to push!  This looks like an outhouse to me!Outhouse races, "Go #2"

These last two look like traditional outhouses to me!

The dogs enjoyed being in the crowd as much as a dog can!  Good thing is they were on their best behavior. Eventually, we stopped at a vendor to grab some corn dogs (Abby loves corn dogs).  There were a few people that were laughing because the dogs were so good at following the corn dogs.

On the walk back to the RV park, Abby spotted - What is it?  You can tell she isn't sure.

Abby started to figure out it wasn't real.  But still wasn't sure.

So that pretty much wraps up our time in Mountain View - the rest of the day was mostly relaxing time.
 

Whitewater RV Park

This is probably one of my favorite places we stayed along this trip.  Why?

• The park had friendly neighbors
• Electric, water, sewer hookups at the campsite
• WiFi (all the private RV parks we visited had WiFi)
• Green space on our campsite
• Picnic table
• Clean bathrooms, showers
• Washer and dryer available (and I used them for 1 load of laundry)
• Friendly RV staff
• Close to town, walking distance if you don't have issues walking uphill a few blocks
• Beautiful areas to walk our dogs adjoining the RV park (this park is surrounded by city park spaces)

For more photographs of Mountain View, Arkansas, click Here!

On Sunday morning we rose early and headed out about 9am to our next stop.  Taking highway 14 east and 25 north most of the way out towards Memphis, TN.  Stopped for gas in a small town called Newport with a population of 4000.

We are now starting our trek back home.  Our next stop will be in Alabama – join me for my next blog post coming soon!

We arrived October 24^th, stayed the nights of 24, 25 and 26.  Headed out on the 27^th (Sunday).

On the morning of October 24^th, we packed up and left Cloud 9 RV Park east of downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Since we didn’t have a lot of miles to travel (about 140 miles), we decided to take a ‘longer’ path that would take us near Little Rock, Arkansas and then head on up to Mountain View.  Looking at the Google map, that seemed to be the way with the least little squiggly lines!

Wow, these interstate systems in both Louisiana and Arkansas have a lot of ‘fly overs’ (and I hate those!).

We arrived at Whitewater RV Park midafternoon Thursday.

After getting settled in, I took the dogs over to the city park next door.  It is very nice!  It has an old stone amphitheater build around 1969.  Lots of steps and very photographic.  That's our little patch of 'heaven' for the next 3 nights.  The dogs really liked having a little bit of green on the campsite as most all the others did not.

I had asked the RV park manager what things were good to do with dogs?  Where might we take them for some hiking?  He suggested Blanchard Springs Caverns and Mirror Lake.  I did some research and found that they had cavern tours here that were still open for the season.  I bought a ticket for Jim to take the tour at 12 noon when I would take the dogs, and we would go off hiking.  Then I bought a ticket for me at 1:20 so he could take the dogs while I went and did the tour.  That worked out great, so we both got to do the tour, and the dogs were happy too!

Blanchard Springs Caverns

When we arrived at Blanchard Springs Caverns, we were treated to some really nice fall colors on the trees along the entrance road.

We arrived early enough that we could do a little hiking and exploring before the cavern tour.  The path to the spring (waterfall) was very short and had been set up for people that might have physical disabilities. It was a short walk, but I think this is the only waterfall we saw this entire trip.  Arkansas is in a dry season – they had not had any rain at all for the entire month of October.

Blanchard Springs

This beautiful stone bridge is part of the parking area for Blanchard Springs.

The sign in front of the springs says:

Rainwater falling on the Ozarks has soaked into the ground for millions of years. As it moved thru cracks in the limestone bedrock, it dissolved the stone and slowly widened the cracks to form Blachard Springs Caverns. The water remained in the caverns until surface erosion curved valley now. As this valley cut deeper and deeper, lower sections of the cave were drained. New springs then developed below older dried-up springs. Blanchard Springs probably came out of the holes high on the bluff above us many years ago when the streambed lay 20-30 feet above it’s present level.

This stream flows thru bat sanctuaries on its way thru Blanchard Springs Caverns. The water is enriched because of bat wastes and the decaying remains of those that died. Although this does not affect the appearance the water, it does make it UNSAFE TO DRINK.

After seeing the springs, we took a short drive back up the road to take the trail and see Mirror Lake and the remnants of the old mill down by the water.

Mirror Lake and the Old Mill

The first few photographs are Mirror Lake and the dam associated with Mirror Lake.

Mirror Lake, a three-acre rainbow trout haven, is constantly fed by the 58-degree water flowing from Blanchard Springs Caverns, 14 miles north of Mountain View, off Ark. 14. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the stone and concrete dam that created the lake during the 1930s. The lake is restocked periodically. SOURCE: Mirror Lake | Mountain View, AR | Arkansas.com

 

Sign posted by this mill says: Mitchell mill, originally a two-story structure built of oak and walnut. With the mill, Steve Mitchell provided ground corn and ginned cotton from 1900 until 1928.  Mr. Mitchell died, and his family sold the property to the Forest Service. The rock foundation and walls were added by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1942. Exquisite rock work is the hallmark of the CCC, a post-Depression program to put young men to work.  Their plan was to restore the mill to an operational condition, but the work was interrupted when the CCC was disbanded at the onset of World War II.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to take the trail down to the bottom where the water is flowing over the stone dam and see a different view of the old mill stone work.  There is a trail that goes along the water if you are visiting and want to take the trail down.

Dripstone Trail tour, Caverns

I loved seeing the caverns.    The only tour that is open at this time of year is called the “Dripstone tour”. The cost per ticket was $16 and they request that you get your tickets in advance online. I don’t think I have actually seen any since we went out to Carlsbad Caverns back when Matthew was a teenager.  That’s a long time!  The tour starts at the visitor center. 

Anyway, we got into the elevator that takes you down about the depth of 22 stories (216 feet below the surface).  Pretty far down.  Once you arrive the elevator doors open and you’re in a very large room at 58 degrees and close to 100% humidity (didn't feel that cold to me).

"The first professional exploration was in 1960 by Hugh Shell and Hail Bryant. In 1971, scuba divers entered through the spring entrance and followed its course. The divers followed 4,000 feet of underwater passages and also mapped five caverns filled with air but inaccessible at that time. They photographed the awesome cave formations and noted forms of cave life. They estimated that it takes about twenty-four hours for water to flow through the cave, a journey of less than a mile." Blanchard History and Culture - Blanchard Springs Caverns

They did create a shaft (kind of like a mining shaft) that was blasted through the mountain to get to another room that was not accessible otherwise.  Once we emerged back into the daylight a bus (looks like a school bus) is waiting to take us back to the visitor's center.  We have walked about .4 miles underground.

The first photograph below is what you see when you first emerge from the elevator - this big room!  Here you will have the opportunity to sit down while the ranger gives you some information on what you are seeing.

The blue colored areas are exits from the cave (or entrance depending on how you view it).  Below, do you see the ship (boat) in the cave walls?

Oak Pine Woodlands Trail

While Jim was taking the caverns tour, the dogs and I hiked the Oak Pine Woodlands trail.  This trail can be reached from the visitor center parking lot which made it easy to get the dogs over to and get walking - plus they had some really pretty colors in the trees along the trail.  The trail has 2 loops - the inner loop is about .3 miles and the outer loop is about .67 miles.  We had plenty of time so we kind of mixed up the inner and outer loop and not exactly sure how much we walked but the plan was to wear the dogs out!

After spending a good portion of the day out we headed back to the campground to rest.  Since we spent multiple days here and did a lot while we were here, I will close this blog post and start another for the rest of our time in Mountain View, Arkans

To view more photographs from Mountain View, Arkansas and our time there, click Mountain View, Arkansas

We made it to Arkansas!

Our destination is the Cloud 9 Campground located east of Hot Springs downtown area.  This is a private campground that is part of the “Good Sam” campgrounds associated with Camping World which Jim joined earlier this year.  The drive to this camping stop is about 259 miles (from Pleasant Hill, Louisiana to Hot Springs, Arkansas).

What I liked about this campground:

1. Water, electricity and dump stations at each campsite
2. Nice club house which has a big screen tv, pool table, small gym area and plenty of room to hang out if you have a big group. Air conditioned as well
3. Bath house – very nice with lots of homey touches to it
4. Laundry area with several washers and dryers; quarters are available at the office – I have now found a new reason that one must have quarters!
5. Trail to walk the dogs – there was a nice, wooded trail to take the dogs for a walk each day
6. WiFi – this was welcome as we were able to get a few channels on our tv and also use the apps that we had downloaded like we do at home.  Keep in mind that before we left on this trip we had been without electricity for a week – so just being able to watch tv was a novelty

What I wasn’t crazy about:

1. The campground was primarily rock, shells; Since it had not rain in over 3 weeks in Arkansas it was dry and very dusty
2. Campsites were very close together without much privacy; not like what we were used to in the state parks

NOTE: later on in our trip we did learn that there are several really pretty campgrounds to the west of where we were staying.  Perhaps if we are in this area again, we might try one of those.   I don’t know the names of them but a Google search shows: Gulpha Gorge Campground or Lake Catherine State Park.  Of course, neither of these would have WiFi.  My experience thus far is that state parks don’t have WiFi at the campsites.  Private campgrounds do.

We arrived around 5pm at the campgrounds.  There was a mix up on our campsite and we had to get in touch with the office to see about getting a different campsite (someone had an RV in our spot already).  Once this was resolved, we were able to setup for the 3 nights that we were planning to stay.  I decided 3 nights was a good amount because if the weather was bad, then we would still have one day (hopefully) that we could explore the location.

It's Monday evening and with WiFi at the park, we decided to relax and watch the Bucs play on our small RV television.

On our first full day there in Hot Springs, we weren’t all that sure what to do.  Unfortunately, we booked our trip back in August, so I knew where we were going and how long we were going to be at each location.  But, I thought that I would have plenty of time to get some potential things to do at each location.  I had not banked on what we were dealt.

• On Thursday, September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene was bearing down on us (and of course the week before we were busy getting ready).
• For a few days after this, we had cleanup work to do from the storm and were without power for 18 hours.
• So, in about 3 days we were back to normal (September 29^th)
• However, now Hurricane Milton was coming, and this one was going to be bad….so we now went into a bigger scrabble to get ready for the next storm because I knew we would lose power – but for how long?  (and hopefully that was the only thing that happened).
• On Wednesday, October 9^th we were finally hit by Milton (seems to me that storm was a little later than we originally thought, so we were in wait mode for getting slammed).
• Our power went out that night and it didn’t come back before we left on the 15^th to start our trip…so I had no time nor internet (except my phone) to do any research on things to do at each location…
• So we winged it!

The funny thing was, I was trying to figure out exactly what the Hot Springs National Park was and where it was – but we finally found it!  And we also found the famous ‘bath houses’ and then we figured out where to spend the day.

This was a long day – first we drove around in circles (literally) because I was a poor navigator, and Jim was trying to do what Google was saying.  Anyway, we finally found one of those brown signs that says, “Hot Springs National Park” and pointed us in the correct direction!

Next challenge was, what do we do now?  Having little clue, we decided to head up a path that was a driving tour up to the top of the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.  When we arrived, the dogs wanted out for a walk – it was potty time and then let’s explore.

There is a fee to go up to the top of the tower, we decided not to do it - but it's an option if you want to.

After spending some time here and grabbing an ice cream at the shop, we headed back towards the downtown area.  We needed somewhere to park, so we found a place, fed the meter and started walking.  Found the bath house row – kinda cool. 

They had an area where you could see a ‘natural hot spring’ that was not changed.  We went to see that – Abby found out real quick this water wasn’t for swimming – she got up close and then backed off almost immediately – I believe that water is about 120 degrees.  Glad she is smart.

I went into the visitor center which is also a museum and got a map – and saw a little of the inside of the museum (free) and what the bath houses were like.

Now it was time for some food, lunch. I googled to find dog friendly places to eat.  The closest place to our current location was a burger place Bubbalu’s.  Jim went in to figure out whether they were indeed pet friendly and where did we go with the dogs.  Apparently, yes, they are pet friendly and sit anywhere you want (inside) – that’s a first.  We ordered our food at the counter, then found a table to sit down at. 

Abby

Rue (between my feet again! and under the table)

Ollie

The one thing I remember is that I thought the place was a lot larger than it is because they have the back wall as a mirror – so it looked that way, but it wasn’t (good joke – they said they have had a lot of people and kids run right into that mirror before they realize it!).

We are heading back to our car; it is about 3 in the afternoon.  Stopped in front of the wax museum and there was a woman asking if we wanted to take the ‘duck tour’ – the next one was at 4pm.  Dogs were allowed.  Ok – I will give it a try.  While we waited, she said we could buy a combo ticket to see the wax museum, or we could do a wine tasting.  Any idea what we did? Did you need 2 guesses?

Patience little girls, it's air conditioned in here - a narrow walkway to where the wine tasting was happening.

Wine tasting it is!  They said when remodeling they found a recipe for the “southern pour” and created it.  Then they created combinations added fruit (peach, blackberry, etc) for different flavors.  Jim bought several bottles.

That's the duck vehicle on the left - and the wax museum where we did the wine tasting.

We had to wait a little while before the next tour started, so here the dogs are either sacked out or at least resting for a bit.

Wow, she actually let the hat stay on long enough to get a quick photo!

Eventually it was time to start our duck tour.  The dogs hated it.  They were scared, freaked out and just plain couldn’t handle what I had gotten them into (they wanted off this duck bad).  Needless to say, I spent all my time with the dogs trying to keep them from jumping off and didn’t see much and didn’t take any photos.  Put that on the list of “do not do again!” with the dogs.

It's late now and we are heading back to the campground to chill.  We had a simple dinner, I don’t recall what though.  It had been a long day – remember that photo from the previous blog post of the dogs passed out? That same thing occurs just about every evening of this trip - the dogs were both physically and mentally maxed out.

The next day was a ‘chill day’.  I did a load of laundry after getting enough quarters from the office.  We went to a local place to grab some ice cream (Jim loves ice cream).  They told us about a local city park in Lonsdale, Arkansas (about 10 minutes from the campground) that had a stream the dogs could go play in – Abby loves to play in the water.  So we hung out at the park and let them play – no one else was around. 

Nice chill way to spend some time.   Eventually we headed back to the campground and relaxed.  Photos of the campground. Starting with the women's bath house (it was empty except me).

The club house

Our campsite and hookup (I didn't get the entire truck because the spaces were pretty much right next to each other).

For more photographs, click on the link Hot Springs, Arkansas

The next morning, we were headed to Mountain View, Arkansas.  Why you ask?  Because Jim saw some photographs that he thought were really nice and so I booked us 3 nights at a campground there.

^{Before leaving Natchez behind, Jim saw a small plane and wanted to grab a photo - so we stopped for a few minutes.}

So we left behind Natchez, crossing the bridge over the Mississippi River and entering the state of Louisiana. 

No, we aren’t headed to New Orleans which is probably what most people think of when they hear “Louisiana” (or maybe you think of hurricanes or LSU?).  Anyway, my maternal grandmother grew up in a small community called Pelican, Louisiana (the middle of nowhere, trust me!).  I have a cousin who lives in another very small community called Pleasant Hill near Pelican.  This cousin, "Cousin Jim”, (yes another Jim), and his wife were instrumental in making this trip happen.  So, to my cousin Jim, thank you!  We enjoyed this trip and look forward to doing more in the coming year(s).

Cousin Jim told us about a small RV park that is owned by his friend, Ray – called Magnolia Hill RV Park.  This little RV park has about 6 hookups for RVs.  There is electric (50amp service), water and sewer – all the basic things that one needs for an RV. 

The normal fee for this RV park is $10 a night, but Ray said that he and cousin Jim were such good friends that we could stay for the 3 nights free.  Thank you Ray!!!

The RV Park is on the northeast corner of Highway 174 (Oak Street) and Main Street in Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.

The dogs were happy because there was a large open field to explore right behind where we parked the RV – just doesn’t take that much to make them happy!

This little community does not have much left except for:

1. People – a small community of people living here
2. Churches – every small community has churches
3. Cemetery – every small community has at least one cemetery, often associated with the church
4. Family Dollar – yeah! Finally, a store that is 1 block from my cousin’s house
5. Small grocery store
6. Post office that is open till noon

And maybe a few other things that I don’t actually recall.  Our view from this RV park wasn’t great, but hey it was all about spending time with Cousin Jim and his wife. If you like to look at old brick buildings that look like they came out of the early 1900s, then it’s perfect!

 I also got to meet his dogs – very friendly to us, but we kept our dogs separated.

I can always find his house because it’s right next to the water tower for the community.  And while I don’t often think about taking photographs of that water tower, Jim did.  Cousin Jim says “He will take a photograph of anything won’t he?” (probably).  I did take a couple of photos of that same water tower when I noticed the sunlight reflecting off the bottom of it (kinda cool).

We met up with Cousin Jim and his wife for dinner as Melinda was kind enough to cook up some spaghetti for all of us – enjoyed seeing each other because it’s been a LONG time (we had Dolly when we last visited). 

Our first full day in Louisiana, we headed down to Natchitoches, Louisiana and spent a good portion of the day.  For all of you that recall, this is where:

1. Steel Magnolias (the movie was filmed)

Filming took place from July 12, 1988, to early September 1988 in Natchitoches, Louisiana,^[1] with historian Robert DeBlieux, a former Natchitoches mayor, as the local advisor.^[6] The house where much of the film was shot is now a six-suite bed and breakfast, available for rent.^[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Magnolias#:~:text=Filming%20took%20place%20from%20July,and%20breakfast%2C%20available%20for%20rent.

2. Jim Croce (a musician) died from an airplane accident

On the night of Thursday, September 20, 1973, during Croce's Life and Times tour, which had been scheduled for 45 dates, and the day before his ABC single "I Got a Name" was released, Croce and five others were killed when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree shortly after takeoff from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana.^[25] Croce was 30 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Croce#:~:text=On%20the%20night%20of%20Thursday,after%20takeoff%20from%20the%20Natchitoches

I am sure that a lot of movies have been filmed in this town.  It is a very nice historic area with lots of old homes, buildings, and scenery.

We took the dogs for a short walk on the east side of the “Cane river lake” since they had been in the truck for a bit driving down to Natchitoches.  After that, we headed back to the west side and did some walking around and finally found a nice place with a nice outdoor patio to eat lunch.

The food was extremely good - Jim loved his meal!  He got salmon.  I got a burger, but it wasn't just a plain ole burger - it was really good!  This was our first stop where we were staying several nights - so Jim got a break in driving so much - what better way to celebrate than to have a glass of wine (and the wine was so good, he bought the entire bottle!).

After lunch, we were walking back towards where the car was and decided to take an electric carriage ride through downtown Natchitoches.  She said the dogs were free, question was did the dogs want to do it?  With every bunch there has to be some that are more comfortable than others.

• Abby – I got Abby in the front row with me.  She wasn’t very comfortable with this whole idea.  It took a good while before we got off the bumpy roads and onto smoother roads and finally she laid down and didn’t appear ready to back off and fall down a good 4 feet (which would have been a disaster!)
• Rue – This girl is just all for adventure – she laid down on the seat and was enjoying the breeze going thru her ears and fur
• Ollie – She was somewhere between Abby and Rue on the comfort scale but was in the back with Jim and did lay down on the floor and appeared to enjoy the ride.

We all managed to get loaded onto the electric carriage!

Abby laying between my feet on the carriage.

Rue sitting next to me on the seat of the carriage.  Ollie was behind me with Jim, so I couldn't manage to get a photograph of her.

This is now a bed and breakfast (above). Below from the east side of the waterway where we initially took the dogs for a little walk to potty.

After we got back from Natchitoches, we got together with Cousin Jim and did some family things.  We are both researching our family history and since it is in this area, we headed off to see where they moved the historical marker for our oldest ancestor in the Lafitte family.  It is now over at the Carmel Cemetery located in Carmel, Louisiana. 

After taking a few minutes to read the sign again, we wondered into the cemetery where Cousin Jim told me Alice had been buried.  I meet Alice back when we had family reunions out in Louisiana. She was a wealth of information for the Lafitte surname.

Our next stop was to the historic Rock Chapel which is maybe ½ mile (probably less) from where we currently were.  It was nice to visit again – I have visited it before, but don’t recall whether Jim had before or not. The road to the Rock Chapel was very pretty in the late afternoon.

If you want more information, I found this link: https://64parishes.org/chapel-in-the-woods - apparently people come from all over the world to visit this Rock Chapel per cousin Jim.

Linda, cousin Jim and Ollie relaxing at Rock Chapel, Carmel, Louisiana
 

After visiting these places, we decided to stop in Mansfield, Louisiana and grab some Pop eye’s fried chicken for dinner.  I think the dogs smelled it and decided they were really hungry!!!

Enjoyed visiting with my cousins and we headed back to the RV to crash for the night.

The next day, our last full day in Pleasant Hill, we decided to take an easier day.  I did a load of laundry at their house.  We went out and visited a couple more cemeteries where family is buried.  My great-grandparents are buried in a small community cemetery called “Wallace Cemetery”.  Several other relatives are also there.  One more cemetery visit and then we called in lunch at the local grocery store – fried catfish, a local food for sure.

The girls (Ollie, Rue and Abby) are happy as long as they are with us - doesn't seem to matter to them where we are.

After a big lunch, we headed back to the RV to take a nap – it’s been a long 6 days and we haven’t done much just chillin.  With the big lunch, there wasn’t any desire for dinner, so we went over and visited again – watching football for a while before saying our goodbyes.

Ever wonder what the dogs do when we get back to the RV?

Yep, pass out!  I think on this particular evening the dogs were passed out on the queen size bed and Jim and I were sharing the twin bed while watching some tv.

We will be headed to Arkansas for our next stop – neither Jim or I (and of course the girls) have ever been to this state.

For more photographs from Natchitoches, Louisiana - click Natchitoches, Louisiana

For photographs from Louisiana (general and cemetery) - click Louisiana photographs

The dogs are loaded up and ready to go (whether they are happy about it, who knows....)

Along the way, when we stop - they dogs get a water break, along with a potty and sometimes food break.

Abby and Ollie got first dibs!

Then Abby let Rue in - I got bigger collapsible bowls for the next journey - but it's nice they that are willing to share.

The drive to Natchez took us through the rest of the pan handle of Florida, Alabama and the majority of Mississippi!  We drove a lot of miles on this particular day (after a short day the day before).  Per a Google map look, it appears this drive today was about 318 miles.  That of course doesn’t count the potty breaks, lunch break or gas breaks (we tried to lump as many of these things together as we could into a single stop).

Along the way I did take some photographs which I will include with this particular blog post since it was things we saw but didn’t stop in any of these given locations along the way.  Soon we will be leaving Florida - this is one of the bridges that is on Interstate 10 along the way (actually we stopped for gas, and this was the view from the gas station!).

So long Florida!  I can't tell you how much Florida has been beaten this year with Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.  The number of trees we saw down was incredible.  Since we were on the road just one week after Hurricane Milton came through, there were a lot of out-of-town electric trucks leaving Florida.  Also, some trucks carrying "portable lodging" (as shown in this photo).

After arriving in Alabama, we began to see some 'swampy' areas along Interstate 10.  Overall, a lot of Interstate 10 is a really boring drive!!

We stayed at a state park located outside of the city deep into the wooded areas (at least that is what I thought at first).  It seems that if you are arriving to this park from the south, that you will go down a pretty long road to get to the state park and there isn't much along that road except trees.  Hence the feeling that I thought we might have to drive a good way just to get to town - but just to the north of this park, less than 10 minutes away is a pretty major 4 lane highway that will take you into the downtown area of Natchez.
We arrived!  Thankfully we did make it around 5pm and it was about an hour before dark.

The entrance to this park is very nice - with a beautiful sign. I always take photographs of the signs to help separate all the photographs out when I finally start working on the photos when I return home.

Why did we stop here?

Well, if you recall earlier in the blog series our friends had all mentioned that you probably don't want to drive more than 350 miles in a given day, so I was looking for something that met some basic criteria:

1) Less than 350 miles from our previous stop

2) Nice looking campground based on internet searching

3) Something to do nearby that might be dog friendly, photographic and interesting

This stop here is definitely one that I would consider going to again - we did have a good time here and the campground was really nice!  One thing that I did find out, unfortunately a bit late in the game is that the 3rd weekend of October they have a big hot air balloon and music festival.  Since our trip was pretty much set, we didn't get to enjoy those festivities, but we did get to see some of the 'setup' that was happening downtown.

Stayed at Natchez Mississippi State Park

Immediately when we pulled into this campground area, it was very pretty!  I knew I had done a good job picking this campground out.
 

Things we liked about this campground:

1. Lots of beautiful trees and shade
2. A concrete slab for the RV
3. Nice bath house including a laundry area
4. Friendly neighbors in campsites (and friendly dogs!)
5. Pet friendly
6. Lake view (yep, we got a lake front campsite here)

Campsite #39 at Natchez State Park

Our dogs were ready to get out and check out this new stop - they saw some very interesting trees? Maybe they just had to go potty.  We did get there just in time to catch some beautiful late afternoon, sunset lighting on the lake so once we did the initial setup, it was time to check it out before it was gone.

I didn't take any photographs inside, but the bath house was a pretty nice looking building here too. They had a nice, clean facility and also had laundry area available.  I didn't check out the laundry since we had only been on the road a couple of days.

Sunrise the next morning found some beautiful scenes next to the lake with a crisp 42 degrees!  It was wonderful to have a nice, wooded area the dogs could enjoy just feet away from our camper.

We headed into downtown Natchez shortly after we had breakfast so we could enjoy a few of the sights along the Mississippi River before heading out to our next stop on our trip.  I had read that they had a nice riverwalk called Bluff Park (101 S. Broadway Natchez Mississippi, 39120) that was dog friendly to walk the kiddos.  We were able to park in a public, no fee, parking lot right by this area.  The view looking to the left shows the bridge over the Mississippi River.

Walkway over the street along the Mississippi River.

Grand Hotel - this particular photograph I turned to black and white - the hotel faces to the west, so in the morning hours I was shooting into the sun which is totally not ideal.  Since we were heading onward in a few hours it was shoot into the sun or don't do it at all.

Natchez Bandstand

Part of the festival setup I'm sure, but it makes for a nice photograph!

My goal on this particular walk was to get closer to the bridge crossing the Mississippi River which we went over later today and to get a bit closer to the paddle boat.  To get to this point, we had to walk down a bit of a hill and of course, eventually walk back up that hill!

The paddle boat on the Mississippi River.

The dogs hanging with Jim while he checks his phone.  We had several people that we were trying to send cell phone photographs to along our way as well as take photos with our digital cameras.  I suspect that the dogs were getting the hang of what was going on, but they did get worn out and slept really well whenever they got a chance.

This particular place is said to be where Mark Twain actually stayed for at least a night back during his lifetime.

Decorations for the Halloween season outside the stores near the Mark Twain place pictured above.

We spent some time driving around and looking at some of the old houses and buildings in downtown Natchez (click on the link to see those photographs).  Jim found a small local place for us to grab some lunch that allowed us to sit outside with the dogs.  Then we headed back to the campground to get ready and head out - moving on to our next stop on our trip.

Stay tuned to see the next blog post soon!  For additional photographs from this camping stop, click Photographs from Natchez, Mississippi

Our second stop on our road trip took us to visit a friend from my teenage years.  We stopped in Miramar Beach to eat at a dog friendly restaurant called Grimaldi’s Pizzeria.  This particular restaurant is located at 780 Grand Blvd #100 in Miramar Beach.  We enjoyed our lunch, great company and great food.  The dogs loved it and were very good!  At first, it was a little chilly on the outside patio, but once we got to a table that was in the sun and some of the wind was blocked all was great.

Here is a quick Google Map of our travels thus far.

River's Edge Campground, Holt, Florida

The office of this campground.

River’s Edge Campground was a good stop from the perspective of driving time and is located on the beautiful banks of the Yellow River in Okaloosa County in Florida.  We arrived about 5pm and had time to setup our camping site before taking the dogs for a walk down to the river.  The river was low which created some nice beach areas for us to walk around on and the dogs loved rolling in the sand (thankfully, the sand falls off all of them since they are short haired).

Our campsite was across from the office of the River’s Edge campground.  Things we liked:

1. Lots of beautiful trees to provide shade
2. Water and electrical hookup
3. Picnic table
4. Pet friendly
5. Wifi (yeah!!)

Other things to note:

1. The site was dirt/sand
2. Small bath house with shower and restroom
3. No dump station

It should be noted that ALL of the campgrounds that we stayed at were pet friendly since we had our 3 dogs, Abby, Ollie and Rue travelling with us. That's our kids waiting for us to be ready - we always kept our dogs on harness and leash when outside 'tied up'.  I personally didn't want to spend my vacation trying to find my dog because they thought it was a good idea to chase that squirrel.

They did have a small bath house but we did not use it.  Instead used our little wet bath in the Bushwhacker.

This was our first experience camping in a privately owned campground.  Since we completed our trip, I found that all 3 of the private campgrounds did offer wifi whereas the state parks did not.

One thing I did not like, our site did not have a sewer hookup nor did they have a dump station.  I have now learned that if they indicate there is not sewer hookup at the campsite, I should ensure they have a dump station!

By the time we arrived at this location, we had driven approximately 474 miles.  In discussion with many of our friends that have done a good bit of RV travelling, they all indicated that we should not travel more than 350 miles per day.  After completing this trip, I know why they say that!  Because you

1. don’t want to set up your campsite in the dark
2. you probably don’t want to find the campground in the dark
3. the offices close by 6pm
4. you’ll get tired from riding or driving each day and want time to relax

Here's some photographs of the Yellow River that we enjoyed walking to the evening we arrived and the morning before we headed out on the road again.

The banks of the Yellow River reminded me of the Hillsborough River here by our home - cypress trees, cypress knees, and probably some wildlife (like gators) but we didn't see any (just squirrels).

OLLIE - 7 years old as of summer 2024.  She is a litter mate of Rue's.

RUE - for the curious, per Dog DNA, Rue and Ollie are mostly Australian Shepard, Miniature American Shepard, tiny bit of Chiwawa and the rest is 'terrier' (no specific breed).  She is Ollie's 'big sister' (they are litter mates).  Often people say "Look at the twins!"

ABBY - She is our oldest dog, at 8 1/2 years of age.  Abby went gray at a fairly young age as she has anxiety issues but loves being with us.  Abby is mostly beagle mixed with coon hound.  She does have a few other breeds, but nothing dominant.

Sunrise the next morning found the temperature at 41 degrees - very nice and cool.  I was loving it after the hot summer we had here in Tampa.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay here.  Most of the people camping at this campground appeared to be 'long termers' so we didn't have the opportunity to talk with any of them.

Here are a few general campground photographs to get a feel for this campground.

Look close and you can see our white truck and little camper at the last one in this line of RVs!

We are all packed up now and about ready to take off for our next stop!  Stay tuned to see the next blog post soon!  For additional photographs from this camping site, click Photographs from River's Edge Campground and on the road.
 

We left our house to begin our adventure shortly after 9am.

We left behind our house without power, the tree debris stacked high and hoped to have a small amount of normalcy in taking our first “long RV trip” with our 2024 Bushwhacker Plus camper.

After asking questions of our friends that have done this before, I had planned out a trip for us to take and our departure date was October 15^th, less than 1 week since Hurricane Milton came through our area and caused a lot of damage.  Our friends said, don’t plan to drive more than 350 miles a day – you’ll be driving slower and you’ll want to set up camp in the daylight.  I tried hard to stay within those boundaries to see how we did with our first trip.

Our first stop was at Falling Waters State Park located in Chipley, Florida.  It’s west of Tallahassee which is probably the biggest town that many may have heard of.   This park is located 355 miles from our house.

We arrived around 5pm with enough time to set up camp, walk the dogs and eat before dark fell.

As I write this upon returning home, I realize just how much we have done since this first night of camping!

Campsite #15 at Falling Waters State Park

We were pleasantly surprised to see how lovely our campsite was.  Things we liked:

1. Lots of beautiful trees to provide shade
2. The site was gravel
3. Water and electrical hookup
4. Picnic table
5. A friendly campsite neighbor
6. Bathhouse close by – clean and functional

Our kids - Ollie (red harness), Abby (teal harness), Rue (blue/black harness)

Overall a great first experience as this was the 1^st of many stops on our journey.  I found that these are the ‘normal’ things that I expect at a Florida state park.  I have not found that they have wifi at the state parks, and many do not have a dump connection at the campsite but rather have a dump station (and with our little camper, either is actually fine for us).

In the morning, we decided to take the dogs hiking.  There is a trail that starts in the campground just a few sites from where we were staying and the dogs were definitely ready to go!  The fall is not an active time for the swimming area that the park provides and on this cool morning (it was 41 degrees), there was no one else out yet on the trails or the swimming area.

I try to always take a photograph of the trails just in case we get messed up and are 'off trail'.  There were some flowers blooming at this time of year.

Our first look at the lake.  During the summer, I am sure that there are a lot of people swimming here, but today it's just peaceful!

There are lots of very tall, slender pine trees here at this park.  I have to say that I looked at trees a lot differently after seeing the destruction from Hurricane Milton at home.  They were gently swaying in the wind as we walked along the trail.

The bridge that takes you over to the lake side.

Jim took the dogs across a portion of the bridge and then told them to run back to me - can you see the pure joy in their hearts of freedom and having fun?  I am sure, just like us, they have been stressed by the last month of hurricane prep, hurricane storm, hurricane cleanup (twice!).

Like I said, lots of pine trees!!!

Apparently we didn't take the proper trail to get down to the bottom of this platform.  We took the way that we thought, but ended up with a 'road block' on the boardwalk.  This is what you'll see if you do this.  

A platform that you can't get to!  On our way out, I asked the ranger if you could get down to the bottom and he said yes.  That you have 2 choices.

1) You can park in the day use area and it's a very short walk to the waterfall (perhaps 10 minutes) and it is all paved

2) If we had taken the upper level trail when we got to the day use area near the lake we would have hooked up with the trail that would take us down to the waterfall.

As luck would have it, I asked Jim if we could go to the day use area and walk down to the waterfall - so we did even though it was putting us a little later on our plans for the rest of the day.

That's the waterfall!  At this time of year, it's just a little water falling over into the sinkhole.  This isn't a typical waterfall since this water does indeed fall down but it's into a sinkhole.  This is the highest waterfall in Florida - 73 feet.  The sign at this site says that over thousands of years, water containing a weak, natural acid seeped through cracks in the soft limestone.  Below the surface the rock dissolved, forming underground cavities.  Eventually the roof collapsed, and this sinkhole was created.

We are all packed up now and about ready to take off for our next stop!  Stay tuned to see the next blog post soon!  For additional photographs from this camping site, click Photographs from Falling Waters State Park.

After many days of preparing for the impending hurricane, I wonder if we have done enough? Or maybe too much – but time has run out and the storm is coming in.  What will tomorrow look like? Only time will tell.

As the wind picks up, and the rain roars down we watch tv and Milton is coming.  The trusted meteorologist Denis Phillips and his team on ABC Action News.  I have previously downloaded their app to my phone for when we are away or no longer have electricity (power). As night falls, we wait, and wait and wait.  Surprised that the electricity is still on, but I have turned the air conditioner down to high 60s.  We know it’s coming, just when?

And eventually the power goes out and its dark. It’s quiet. It’s eerie.

Jim is in the family room; the dogs and I are in the hallway.  We had received the high winds alert earlier in the evening.  Denis had said to take it seriously – I did.  I grabbed all the dog beds and lined the hallway – closing all the doors to other rooms.

Our dog, Rue, shakes and trembles as the rain falls and the wind howls.  The other dogs and cats appear to be ok – not as affected by what’s happening outside.  Those are the only sounds as the house has grown so quiet – none of the normal sounds of a house with various things running.

I must have fallen asleep for a couple of hours. Eventually it grows quieter outside.  The rain isn’t as hard, the wind isn’t howling.

 It’s about 3am Thursday morning and it sounds like it is almost over.  We have been without power for 6 hours now, but it’s the beginning. 

The dogs and I venture out so they can go potty – just a quick out as we have no idea what state everything is in.  The house appears to be ok – no trees fallen on the roof – our biggest concern.

We go back to sleep.

When the sun rises, you begin to see how bad the debris is – it’s everywhere.  Much of it appears to be smaller leaves and branches.  It’s very quiet outside.  Most of our neighbors have not yet ventured outside.  It’s quiet, no sounds till the generators start.  It’s cool outside thankfully.

The rain has stopped.

Soon we and our neighbors start cleaning up all the moss and smaller debris.  It will take a while.

As the hours tick with no power, we begin to see how many trees in the neighborhood have fallen.  And more are falling due to all the rain.  They just can’t hold on, stressed from the storms this year.  They begin to uproot. 

The water pressure was low when I turned on the facet.  Apparently, we are now under a boil water notice until some time in the future.  Unfortunately, our little city, Temple Terrace, needs a better way to communicate this information as I was cut off from social media.  Every one was asked to stay home so I didn’t see the sign at the library until a few days later.  Fortunately a neighbor told us and we have plenty of water that we had put into containers before the storm.

We had over 12 inches of rain from Milton, maybe as much as 20 inches of rain.  No real idea.  Over ½ million people that have TECO (Tampa Electric Company) for electrical/power service are now dark.  This was in Hillsborough County.  We are in Hillsborough County.  It’s bad. 

The more we venture away from our property the more trees we see fell.  Pine trees did poorly – many have fallen.  Some of the big live oaks are down also.  We heard of some trees coming down on houses – thankful that didn’t happen to us.  We see power lines snapped and tangled with the trees.  It’s going to be a while.

As the days continue, we still have no power. 

We had to cut one of our beautiful oak trees down, it was too close to the patio and house now.  A victim of too much abuse over the years from storms.  I am very sad.  My heart is heavy.  The tree was here long before me, long before this house, having been here at least 130 years.   With each storm it got closer to our house.  It just couldn't hold on anymore.

This year alone we have had Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene and now Hurricane Milton.  The last 2 storms being 2 weeks apart.  $7500 dollars later and my beautiful oak tree is now a stump.  A huge pile of oak wood on the front lawn to die.  My gardens are a mess, my yard is largely trashed.  I have no heart or desire to fix it.  Why? It will never be the same.  All I see is beauty gone. Maybe in time that will change.

After a week with generators, no power, life is really tough. 

I am thankful that we have a generator. 

I am thankful that we have gas for the generator. 

I am thankful that we were actually pretty well prepared for this. 

I have learned a lot from all the storms we have endured.

I am thankful that we still have a home – but I am sad that mother nature is giving us so much grief.  I am sad for all those that are worse off than us – hopefully we will all rise again above this in time.

We have done all we can.  We have cleaned up a lot of yard debris, helped neighbors, talked with our neighbors daily and gotten to know each other much better.

On Tuesday, just 6 days after Milton came through, we decided to go ahead and take our planned long RV trip.  Why stay?  It’s a mess.   Maybe it will be better in a few weeks.  We emptied our fridge and freezer putting most of it into coolers.  Nothing left but water.

We will start over when we get home.

Tuesday late afternoon we arrived at Falling Waters State Park in Chipley, Florida.  We camped out for the night and enjoyed not being in the stress of all that was going on back home.  We immediately were greeted by our campsite neighbor, Jim (yes, same name as my partner).  Life will be simpler on the road and best of all we will have electricity and water.

This is the first of many blog posts that I will be writing over the next few weeks sharing our first long RV trip in our Bushwhacker Plus teardrop camper.

So, what is a Microgreen?

• young vegetable greens that are approximately 1-3 inches in height (per a Google search) - ours were a bit taller when we did our first harvest
• are considered baby plants that fall between a sprout and baby green
• are also a great source of beneficial plant compounds like antioxidants

Kirk and Zach are "KIZA" and provided us with some great information and simple instructions on how to grow our own microgreens.  We happily paid for the class which provided us with all the supplies to give it a try.  The supplies we got are:

• 3 different black trays
• a special prepackaged blend of soil
• seeds of our choice to plant (broccoli, radish, pea, or sunflower)
• printed instructions 
• a business card to reach them

Our first batch of microgreens was broccoli and radish.  Here's my break down of the steps we took to grow these microgreens (please note these are based on the KIZA steps, but broken down into more steps).

Step 1 - get the 'short' tray with holes in the bottom and fill it with the prepackaged soil.  Put the other short tray without holes, underneath the tray with the soil (you'll need it later in this process).

Step 2 - spread the soil out evenly in the tray

Step 3 - lightly press the soil down to ensure it is even with the top of the tray

Step 4 - spread you 'weighed' seeds across the tray.

Step 5 - gently press the soil and seeds down so that it is firm  
 

Step 6 - water (spray) the seeds to ensure they will be moist for sprouting

Step 7 - put the taller of the trays on top of all the seeds

Step 8 - move (if necessary) your tray to where you are planning to grow your microgreens

Step 9 - place 3 bricks in the top tray

Step 10 - leave the plants for about 3 days, we checked on ours every 24 hours (roughly) to ensure they were sprouting. Once you reach the 3 days, you will start a 'black out' period of 24 hours.  Remove the bricks and flip the tray over your plants to put them in darkness for 24 hours.  This forces the plants to stretch and grow taller (searching for light).

Step 11 - Uncover your plants!  The plants are a little 'yellow' as they haven't been exposed to light yet.  They have spent 4 days sprouting and then living in the dark.  Don't worry, they will green up fast (less than 24 hours for us).

Step 12 - give them light - whether that is window light, a grow light, some form of light (but keep them out of areas where rain can get to them).  You want them in a protected area.  In our case, since we already have a grow light setup, we placed them under a grow light (purchased from Grace's).

Step 13 - It's time to start watering.  This is why you have 2 short trays.  Lift up the tray your seedlings are planted in and pour water into the bottom tray.  The water will be absorbed from the lower tray into the top tray through the holes in the top tray.

Step 15 - Check the water levels for your plants daily.  Water each day if needed (we watered each day).  Ensure that the corners are getting water by touching the soil.  After 24 hours, you can see how much greener the broccoli plants on the right are.

Broccoli

Radish with a few broccoli mixed in (oops!).  The purple color plants are radish.

Harvest time!  They are getting a little leggy.  We planted these on a Wednesday mid-day.  Then 10 days later we have salad greens for the next week or so.

After the 10 days of watching our little seeds turn into little plants, we harvested a lot of microgreens.  (tired of that word yet???).  We are eating salad daily that is made with this and a few other ingredients.  The best part of this for us is:

1) We are getting some great nutrients by eating these

2) We know they are organic

3) We now have a way to grow some ingredients for salad during the summer months here in Florida!

4) It grows fast!

A quick Google search shows the following information related to nutrients in these two microgreens.

Broccoli microgreens provide:

• vitamins A, B, C, E and K
• large amounts of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus
• small amounts of iron, copper and zinc

Radish microgreens provide:

• high levels of vitamin A, B
• calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, iron and manganese minerals

As we continue to explore growing microgreens, a few additional points to keep in mind.

1) You will need a large quantity of seeds in order to grow a lot of microgreens.  They sell packages of seeds at Graces to grow some microgreens.  I have also found a few places online that I will be trying.

2) When you group different types of seeds on the same tray, be aware of the number of days needed for the seeds to germinate.  Our second round of microgreens is a combination of broccoli and peas - guess what? Broccoli sprouts much faster than peas - so we are doing a little 'improvising' on how we are growing this batch.

There is a lot of information on the internet about growing microgreens and the benefits of eating these small plants.  After learning about them from KIZA, I started doing a lot more reading online at various sites to see how this all works.  If you'd like more information, and prefer to talk to a real human being, I definitely suggest heading over to Grace's Garden center and asking for Kirk or Zach.   I believe the microgreen world is primarily there adventure although all the staff at Grace's are wonderful and have been helping us grow our vegetable gardens for the last 10 years. 

KIZA

Located in Dover, Florida - they are Microgreens Grower Consulting.

Phone: 813 355 9757

Email: [email protected]

Here's the contact information for Grace's:

Grace's Hydro Organic Garden Center

Located at 8739 Temple Terrace Highway, Temple Terrace, Florida 33637

Phone: 813 - 514 - 9376

First, as you travel down the main road (Kelly's Creek Road), you'll eventually have to decide which fork in the road to take.

Here's your clue.  The right side goes up to "private property" as that's a subdivision called Chestnut Mountain Estates.  The left side looked a lot like it was a driveway to someone's house with the mailbox posted and a building almost out of view.  Take the left side!  It's actually a road and you can take it on past the house and continue onward.

I think Mark said it correctly "to a confusing fork with three roads" although we saw two and were confused.  You'll drive over Darnell Creek on a bridge in about .1 miles.  I am betting this area is stunning when the fall colors come...

So now we are sitting here - yet another fork in the road - which way?  Well, this was our Google map.

This doesn't show a fork in the road and we could hear water running, so we decided to park and explore.

This is a bad picture (hand held and the shutter speed was in the gutter).  But, I think you can get the idea that this sign is nailed to a tree, this is where we parked.

This is the road that we saw - after walking down this a short path, we realized that there is a small parking area at the end for a few cars.  But hey, the dogs were ready to get out of the car, so we parked and headed down this path.

Yes, that's Jim with the dogs out front, Rue, Abby and Ollie.  This is a short walk down to the Lower Darnell Creek waterfall - we were there during the week and not another soul was around - we had it all to ourselves.

So, now we have gotten to the actual parking lot, oh well - it was definitely less than a half mile to get to this point.  If you park here, then you probably only have a few hundred yards to the waterfall.

This is the lower Darnell Creek waterfall.  A huge log in front of it - well, thankfully it was an easy fix using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to remove that log (much easier than getting in the water and attempting to move it!).  However, this is what the waterfall looked like when we arrived (for the other photograph click on the link at the bottom of this post). This has an excellent swimming hole should you want to take a dip in this cool water.

As we started taking photographs, Abby, our big black dog was fine and then in distress over something with one of her paws.  We checked everywhere to see if there was anything that could have bit her and finally determined that she most likely was stung by a wasp, hornet - her paw bothered her for a little bit but did not swell up.  Thankfully she was fine within 15 minutes - but that cut this hike short.

We didn't know about the upper Darnell Creek falls which apparently was the other fork in the road to the left - so that will wait for us on another day.

A visit to the Rabun County visitor center gave us a bit more information on what this trail was all about as well as the book I mentioned in the previous post which has lots of wonderful information on waterfalls in this area.

To view all of the photographs from this hike, click here - Darnell Creek Falls, Rabun County, Georgia

Once we got situated and our friends arrived, we started the hike to Mud Creek Falls. At the beginning of this trail you are walking next to the main road separated by the guard rail (this soon changes).  It's approximately a mile each way (in and out trail). If you're using Alltrails.com, it looks like this particular trail is listed as "Mud Creek Trail from GA 246".  Alltrails lists this as being an elevation gain of 239 feet and a length of 2.3 miles.
 

For those that might not be able to do the hike, you can drive just about to this waterfall - with just a short walk down to the waterfall.  Interesting comment that one of our friends noticed is eventually you find that you are hiking uphill to get to a waterfall.  Seems most of the time you hike downhill to get to a waterfall.

The trail is dog friendly, we had 4 people and 4 dogs hiking on this particular hike. You will see the remains of a wooden bridge near the beginning of the hike as well.  When we visited at the end of July 2024, a good portion of the ground was washed out and while you can get to this bridge, you will need to scramble a bit to get there.

This hike is not difficult, but there is a slight incline along the way.  Lots of rain had recently created some puddles and muddy spots along the way but not to bad.  There is a small bridge that goes over a water way. Course you have the options to walk through the water or step on the stones across the water way.

A large portion of the trail looks like this.  Not a hard trail and eventually towards the end I did see a few benches for the weary.

A short distance before you reach the waterfall is an access point that allows you to walk to the water and see this little waterfall.  A refreshing break if you or your dog(s) want to get wet.  Abby loves the water, so she is all in whenever she gets a chance.

Abby sitting by the creek while we take photographs.

Mud Creek Falls - this is what the hike was all about!  

This water fall is about 85 feet in height and faces Northwest.  We arrived at the waterfall about 11:30am and the sun was just starting to come over the top of the trees.

For more photographs from this hike, please visit https://www.vpshoots.com/MudCreekFalls

If you use the internet you will get several different links that will tell you about this particular waterfall located in Rabun County, Georgia.  We visited the Chamber of Commerce for Rabun County while we were in the area on a hike and found that it has a good amount of information.  One item they mentioned is that a local young man, Mark Oleg Ozboyd, recently published a book called "Waterfalls of Georgia - A comprehensive guide with over 700 waterfalls".  I went to a store called Wander in downtown Clayton, Georgia and purchased this book.  While I have only used the sections that are for East Clayton and West Clayton - I did find it very helpful.  The most notable thing, Mark took the time to tell you which way the waterfall is facing - that's so helpful for those of you that want to photograph the waterfall without sunlight on the water!  I wanted to give a little shout out to Mark for working over the last 7 years to compile the information in this book.  I also found this website https://www.hikingtheappalachians.com/ very helpful which Mark is associated with. Thank you Mark!  (No, I don't get anything for this, just think it's a great resource).

They are located at 81 Bennett Road, Franklin, North Carolina 28734.  We rented single kayaks (sit on top) and a double canoe.  They didn't have any double kayaks, hence the reason part of our group choose the double canoe.  This was the first time I have used a sit on top kayak and I think they are pretty nice (we have the sit inside kind).  Please note: You must pay in Cash or Check - they do not accept credit cards or other forms of payment at the time we visited (August 2024).  They are open from 9am till 4pm, 7 days a week, April 1st through November 1st.  The website is http://fishcamp.biz/  (please note this is not a secure website, aka http not https).

The building just outside this photograph on the right is where you will find the owners to get setup with your rentals.  They also rent tubes and do have a few double tubes as well.  The place has lots of beautiful landscaping, given enough time I would probably spend several hours taking photographs of plants, flowers, etc.

There are a few campsites for RVs or tents if you're interested, but I didn't get any details on them.  Lots of canoes, kayaks and tubes!!!  They also provided us with life jackets.

Once you arrive in your vehicle:
     1) Pay for your vessel of choice

     2) Driver of vehicle will follow their vehicle to the 'take out' point down river

     3) Drivers get a ride back to the launch point

This allows you to leave from the place you get out.  They request that you pull your vessel out of the water and call the phone number posted on the tree where you get out.  They will come get the vessels.

After getting our life jackets, we headed down to the launch point where our kayaks and canoe were waiting for us at the river's edge. Little bit of a walk down to the water's edge.  They assisted us in getting into our water vessel of choice.  (Note: This photograph was taken later in our vacation therefore there is not anything waiting at the water's edge).

The river is very scenic and we enjoyed our ride down the river.  We choose the approximately 1.5 hours of kayaking because the weather was expected to start raining in about 2 hours.

And we are ready to start....

The Little Tennessee River is a light brown color, assume that is because of the clay bottoms in this part of the country - but overall, in many places the river was pretty shallow.  At first, as this photo shows, it's smooth sailing....but what fun would that be?  Soon, it becomes more challenging and more fun!  Let's try to get through this without getting stuck - whether it's because the water was shallow (inches) or there are rocks - some visible and some just under the surface.

Well, I can say, that if you stop to take photographs like that above, you're going to most likely get stuck!  I highly recommend anything you want to take along you put in a dry bag (that big yellow thing is my dry bag with snacks, water, towels, keys).  We all had cell phone protectors as well - if you don't have one, they sell them at the shop where we rented the kayaks for a reasonable price.

I got stuck - so why not photograph everyone else trying to get through?  I suspect that this is much easier in a kayak than a double canoe.  The depth of the water where I am currently stuck is only inches, but the water is flowing through this area pretty fast which pinned me against a rock. Again, what fun would it have been if it was just floating down the river the entire time?

Eventually you will get past the rocks and the flow of the river is such that you could probably just steer and eventually get to the take out point.  Clouds are moving in....yes, I am already wet but do I want to be drenched? (No).

They told us that we are to be on the lookout for a couple of very nice wood houses on the right.  This is our clue that we are getting close to the take out point.  

Soon after the two nice wood houses (cabins), you should ensure you are on the right side of the river.  You will see a stop sign - this is where you exit the river.  Keep in mind that there is a good flow to this river, so paddling back up river if you miss this will definitely be harder.  This is a bit of a steep incline to get to these steps and get out - and pulling your vessel out can take some strength.  Kayaks are much easier than the double canoe.

Just as we managed to get to the take out point, it started to drizzle rain.  By the time our entire party got out of the water, it was starting to rain pretty hard!  They have a pavilion there to protect you from rain.  If you want to have a picnic or a bbq - there are grills.  You can stay in the river as long as you would like and enjoy the area for a picnic - next time we will be a little better prepared.

If you're curious, sure we would do this again.  It was a fun and cool way to spend the morning.

We have been to this park many times, but never stayed over night because until recently we didn't have a camper and the thought of trying to tent camp with 3 dogs which are very scent driven was definitely not appealing.  Our campsite of choice was in the River section of the campground, campsite #60.  Plenty of shade in this campsite and in most all of the campground.  Warning - there are a few sites that are sunny! And I wouldn't recommend that you have one of those sites if you want to relax outside in nature's sauna.  Actually, I kinda thought it was going to rain and we would experience that in the camper for the first time - but nope, we had great weather all 3 days.

Our particular campsite had 30amp and 50amp service along with 'traditional' water hookups. For the curious, this is the electric hookup. 

Most of the time the breakers are off when we arrive, so first those have to be turned on, then I plug in our little gadget to check and make sure the power is safe before plugging in our camper.
 

We also use a water filter on the water hookup.  Hopefully that keeps all the little stuff out of our camper's water system - at least that is the point. I'm not actually trying to advertise for any of these products.  The power hookup came from Amazon and the water filter came from Walmart.  Seems to be the places we end up getting a lot of the smaller things.

Once we got things set up - we were good to go.  A screen room is always a good idea if you want some relief from bugs.  Fortunately for us the mosquitos were not bad - very surprised.  Little gnats did get bothersome at times, but at least they don't bite.  The campground wasn't full, in fact I suspect that only about a third of the sites were rented when we were there.  We checked in on Sunday and checked out on Tuesday.  One thing that I really liked is the check out time is 1pm - actually gives you plenty of time to enjoy your morning. Check in is 3pm which thus far has been the same at all of the Florida state parks.

This is our campsite - pretty big - in fact a lot of them are nice sizes such that you don't have people right next to you.  Our two smaller dogs (Ollie and Rue) prefer to spend the majority of their time outside.  They are inside the screen room.  Abby, well so is all for sleeping in the A/C on a bed given a choice.

River Rapids Trail

Since we were local (about 30 minutes from home) we actually had a lot of friends and family coming out while we were there to spend time with us.  As each of them came to visit we would do a different trail in the park.  First up was the River Rapids trail - probably the most popular trail in the park.  The Hillsborough River actually has some small rapids that you can view but not get down to any longer.  It's all fenced off now - I guess after years of people climbing down to the river (myself included) they now have a viewing area along with benches to sit and relax.  If you see this sign, you are at the River Rapids trail.

The rapids are pretty nice - usually I see them in the early morning hours, but this time we did it in the evening about 7pm.  The lighting is different at this time of day. I used the fence they provided as a stable surface to allow for slowing down the shutter speed on my camera and providing some nice blur to the water.

Baynard Trail

The next morning another friend came and spent a good portion of the day with us.  This time we did the Baynard trail.  In order to get to this trail, you must cross the suspension bridge.

It's pretty and the entire park was quiet - not a lot of people.  The temperatures have been pretty warm, guessing that is why it wasn't crowded.  Ollie, one of our small dogs, doesn't particularly like this bridge because it moves.  Do you know what this is?  If not, you should.

Poison Ivy - and the trails have quite a bit of this, so if you are one to itch from it - beware.

Overall, we didn't see a lot of wildlife.  Perhaps they are being affected by the higher temperatures also.  Usually there are turtles out sunning (maybe to early for them) and then the occasional gator.  I don't see a lot of water birds here - there are birds in the trees that you will hear but often don't see them.

We did see a good amount of mushrooms of various types.

And a golden orb spider....

We went back to the campsite for a while and the dogs laid around in the dirt.

All dogs are supposed to be restrained in some way - I see a lot of people that have little fences to keep their dogs in - we haven't yet invested in one of those.  We use a basic tie down for the dogs or put them in the screen room (and yes, they do know how to escape from it!).  In general our dogs are happy to hang with us and they have been really good with the whole idea of camping.

Seminole Trail

Our last morning at the campground we decided to go on the Seminole trail - back across the suspension bridge and then off on the other side of the river going away from the Baynard trail.  This hike required a little going over logs and what not - our dogs are use to this from our treks up to western North Carolina for the last 5 years.

This is the map you will see when you are starting out on the trail - we were trying to find the Primitive Campground area but I have to say we didn't find it.  I have no clue where we were because the trail was indicated to be blazed orange and the trail we were on was blazed yellow.  Eventually we just turned around and came back - there was no one else out there!

Ollie and Rue hanging in the tent room....this is where they spent a good portion of their time when we were in the campsite.

We did see one alligator sunning on a rock that could be viewed from the suspension bridge.  He wasn't a big guy, maybe 4-5 feet in size.

Overall our experience was very good.  Couple of things that I didn't mention earlier.

Other items to note

• They do have a concession stand by the pool area in the day use area. Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday - we didn't get a chance to visit due to the limited hours.
• Firewood is available at the ranger station where you enter the park along with ice. You must pay cash and have exact change.  Ice is $4 a bag. That's pricey, but keep in mind that you are 9 miles away from any real 'civilization' regardless of whether you turn left or right on US 301.
• Firewood can not be brought in from other areas and they don't want you to collect wood within the park to burn either
• There are campground cats - I saw at least 3 different cats and our campsite was visited by the orange tabby.  After I saw the cat twice, I figured I would give it some food to keep it out of the area the dogs were in.  No issues, they don't really want to interact with you (or maybe it was the dogs).
• They do have bath houses - they are functional, bathrooms and showers.  Since the campground loops are fairly large, the walk to the bath house was a little longer than the other parks we have stayed at thus far.  I did see sinks for washing dishes in addition to washing machines and dryers.  Although it appears from the notes on the dryers that they might not be working.  I hate to think about having an entire load of wet laundry and now I need to figure out how I am going to dry it.  I guess you could do the old clotheslines but I am not sure they want you to do that.
• I didn't see much in terms of rangers driving through the campground - which we did at Manatee Springs.  We did see a police car, but it wasn't a big deal - not sure what was going on but it was several campsites away.
• They do rent kayaks/canoes/bicycles but since we had the dogs we didn't partake.
• The pool is closed indefinitely at this point due to funding.  Hurricanes are causing damage to state parks, which in turn has taken the funding that is available.
• Maximum number of dogs per campsite is 3
• The other bridge that was damaged during Hurricane Irma has not been repaired and is still closed.  You must use the suspension bridge.
  
   

More photographs
 

For more photographs from Hillsborough River State Park, please click here, Hillsborough River State Park.

Map of Park (handout from Ranger station)

Map of Campground (handout from Ranger station)

The Magnolia 2 loop is very shaded - we loved it.  As we began the process of setting up our RV and camp I noticed that in the empty campsite next to ours deer had wandered in.  Wow, forget camp, let's grab the camera.  Our dogs were tied to their 'dog post' and watched these deer probably in bewilderment that the deer were so close.  Jim kept saying, the dogs are thinking...."Don't they know we are dogs?"...I think the deer did, but they also knew that the dogs are not loose and couldn't get to them.

Deer at our campgroundManatee Springs State park campground has deer visiting in mornings and evenings.

Our first campsite on the Magnolia 2 loop was #52.  This is considered to be an X-large campsite that allows for up to a 35' RV.  Since our Bushwhacker is about half that size, we had plenty of room which made it nice to have some space and not be right next to those camping in the next campsite.  Also, our dogs had a little more space to lay around while at camp.

Magnolia 2 Loop, campsite number 52Magnolia 2 Loop, campsite number 52 - our campsite

This time we had a piece of outdoor carpet by the door step - although, I saw a lot of other campers have a much larger one (maybe next time!).

Here's a map of the campground for those that might be interested - you will get a copy of this when you check in.  Important phone numbers are also provided for contacting the ranger should you have an issue requiring their attention (no water, no electricity, noisy neighbors).  Quiet hours at this campground are from 11pm - 7am.

We decided to stay an extra night, but had to move to another campsite within Magnolia 2 loop.  We moved to #46 because it allowed us to be at the end of the loop next to the 'swamp'.

Magnolia 2 - campsite #46Magnolia 2 - campsite #46

This campsite is 'large' but you can see it is still a nice size.  Just beyond our site is the swampy area that is currently holding water from the river flooding.  This campsite is a very short walk to the bath house (closer than our previous site).  We also had more deer visiting because it was at the end and quieter.

Just a note, in case you are curious.  We have Verizon for our cell phone service and we did have service through out most of the park and campground.  Using the internet was pretty slow but mostly worked for us.

The bath house for this loop was a short walk away and has 2 showers and 2 restrooms (at least in the women's side!).  

Magnolia 2 bath houseMagnolia 2 bath house  

One neat little thing they have that I really liked!  A "Pet hitchin post" - works great for when I was out walking the dogs and needed to make a stop. Rue and Abby hanging out while I took this photograph to show the hitchin post.

Dogs at the Pet Hitchin PostDogs at the Pet Hitchin Post

I don't know what the cleaning schedule is for the bath houses at this park as they aren't posted like they were at Highlands Hammock State Park - but it appears to be in the afternoon hours because they had been cleaned when I stopped by in the early afternoon.  Considering the size of this campground and the size of the bath house I was surprised to find that it was not busy.  If you want to see a few photographs of the inside of the bath house make sure you click on the link at the end of the blog to see the additional photographs from our trip that aren't in this blog post.

If you are looking for a campsite that has it's own dump station, check out the Magnolia 1 loop.  When we took a quick look at those, they all appeared to have their own hookups.  There is a dump station that you can drive to (or take you portable holding tank) to between the campgrounds and the ranger station.  All of the dumpsters for other trash are located at the dump station.  If you want to take a short walk, head down the trail called "Deer Run" and it's a short cut, not along the road, to the dump station/trash bins.

Manatee Springs State Park - what is there to do?

• Hiking on the trails
• Biking on the trails
• Swimming in the spring
• rent a kayak
• playground for the young at the day use area
• Relax

As many of you know, we travel with our 3 dogs - Abby, Ollie and Rue so we didn't do some of the things that you can do.  We did hike the trails while Jim road his bicycle on the trails.  One thing to be careful of - there are ticks!  And they are small and plentiful at least at this time of year.  So beware, they warn you on the park information as well.

Hiking the trails

The dogs love walking on the trails - I think it ranks as their #1 thing to do when we go to the 'great outdoors'.  We drove a short distance to the "North End Trail" nature walk within the park.  There is a parking area off the main road at the trail head.  If you get the green brochure from the rangers office it shows you the various trails.  They have 8.5 miles of trails based on the trail map. 

The girls are ready to start their hike.

Rue, Ollie, Abby - Our DogsOur dogs, ready to start their hike for the day.

We hiked about 2 miles on our first venture.  Our hike consisted of these trails, all connecting to each other to form a big loop.

• Scenic Trail (.20 miles)
• Loop Trail (.52 miles)
• Scenic Trail (.42 miles)
• Clay Trail (slightly over .21 miles)
• Shacklefoot Trail (.86 miles) - make sure you turn left if you want to go back to the parking area

We didn't get a chance to do some of the other trails this trip, but hopefully we will be able to on a future trip.

Seminole Chickee HutSeminole Chickee Hut is a replica of a Seminole dwelling that is part of the park's history per the trail map.

We only saw a couple of people on the trails - so mostly it was us and nature.  We did find these little caterpillars in several different areas along the way.  A google search says this will become an echo moth.

The girls at the midpoint of our hike - ready for a break.  Please make sure you pack water for you and your pets as you may want it depending on how far you hike.

Abby, Rue and Ollie halfway through our hike.Abby, Rue and Ollie halfway through our hike.

Day use area and Manatee Springs swim area

The day use area is a very short walk from the Magnolia 2 campground (slightly further from Magnolia 1).  Within the day use area is a large parking lot.  Most days we were there, they didn't have many cars which meant we didn't have any large crowds.

The playground.....

Day use area playgroundDay use area playground

The springs were clear the first few days we were camping.  On the third day, the springs were closed due to 'brown out'.  Basically, this occurs when the Suwannee River is flooding (and it's still flooding now) and causes the murky, brown, water to come into the spring.  It's no longer clear and you can't see the fish and plant life.  Typically, it is 72 degrees and clear enough to see to the bottom.  The park indicated that they close the springs when it gets murky because the alligators will come into the spring and it becomes a safety issue.

The spring....

The steps to the spring are all under water at this point.  The flooding of the Suwannee river which is connected to the spring and not far away has caused the water to rise considerably.

The springManatee spring at high water levels

Wildlife in the park

This park does have wildlife - with the most prominent being deer.  We saw deer passing through the area that we camped every day - usually in the morning hours - often early shortly after sunrise and then in the late afternoon.

We did see one very fat raccoon, but just once and it was running around near the bath house.  Thankfully for us, our dogs didn't see the racoon.

There is bird life - although many of the birds are small song birds, there are other birds as well.  I saw the large woodpecker in several areas and was able to get photographs of it.  The wood pecker that I saw is called a "Piliated woodpecker".  They appear to be about 10 inches or so being one of the largest (if not the largest) in our area of the country.  For those that are curious, I saw this woodpecker over in the 'dumpster/trash' areas when dumping our trash as well as along the swampy area that is near campsite #46.

woodpeckerwoodpecker

Of course, there are the common gray squirrels hanging around - caught this one having a bite to eat by the spring.

Gray squirrel eating a nutGray squirrel eating a nut

And the deer - we didn't see alligators, turtles or what not hanging at the spring but we didn't get a chance to swim in the spring as it went murky the day we planned to swim.

Other items to note

• They do have a concession stand by the spring in the day use area. Typical hours are 10am - 4pm except during summer they are open slightly longer.  If you want ice, this is the only place within the park
• Firewood is available at the ranger station (drive to it, short walk back to your car) or the concession stand (drive to the parking lot, have to carry the wood a good distance).
• Firewood can not be brought in from other areas and they don't want you to collect wood within the park to burn either
• Firewood is $10, must be exact change when we stayed here
• Walmart is on US 19 just a little north of the street to turn for Manatee Springs State Park if you need just about anything else (Winn Dixie is there too)

More photographs
 

For more photographs from Manatee Springs State Park, please click here, Manatee Springs State Park.

The Bushwhacker Plus is 17 feet in length (https://www.braxtoncreek.com/model/bushwhacker-teardrop).  As you can see from the photograph, it is a single axle - but it has full size 'rugged' tires and travels well on the roads and thus far has done very well on the dirt roads we have travelled as well (most of the dirt roads in Florida have some lime based/shells are part of the mixture for the roads).  There is a single stair to enter and my dogs were having a little issue using it so I purchased a camco carpet cover for the stair and they are much more comfortable with it (instead of bare metal). https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Protects-Unwanted-Tracked-Electrical/dp/B001U7FT9E

We had a smaller RV campsite - but the wonderful shade of all the trees, mostly oaks with some pine, made it shady and much more comfortable.  For reference, we were in campsite #25 near the entrance to the campground.

This campsite comes with 30amp electrical service, city water hookup and a picnic table.  They have a dump station (for gray and black water) at the entrance to the campground.  Our campsite was large enough for our 17 foot camper, a 10x10 screen room, picnic table and full size pickup truck.  The ground is primarily leaves and dirt - since it is March, my guess is the leaves may not be there year round, but it was nice to have them covering some of the dirt.  Other areas of the campground are not as shady as our site - some are much larger for the bigger RVs and there are a lot of sites to choose from.  

In addition, they have several bath houses/restrooms through out the campground.  It's good to check where they are and the cleaning schedule so that you know which one to go to depending on the time of day.  Each of the buildings has a few restrooms and showers.  I never noticed that any of them were full with a line and there were very few campsites unoccupied.  The bath houses were clean and functional.  Some would be concerned about them being older, but for me it's all about whether it is clean and functional - which they were.

Highlands Hammock State Park - what is there to do?

• Hiking on the trails
• Biking on trails (the hiking and biking trails are NOT shared)
• Take a tram tour (see parts of the park you can't otherwise or if it you aren't able to do a lot of walking)
• Visit the CCC museum
• Visit the campstore
• Playground for the young
• Relax!

We travel with our dogs, as such, several of the above options were not available to us but we did hike some of the trails.  All of the trails are short, most are .5 miles or less.  They were created back in the days of the CCC (think 1930s) and are still very nice and well maintained.  They are also shaded which is a plus as the temperatures get warmer - but remember bug spray as the temperatures rise.

Richard Lieber Memorial Trail

Our first hike we choose this trail.  We choose this trail based on the brochure description the park provided quote -  ".4 mile loop trail/25 minute walk. At the beginning of the trail is one of the largest Live Oaks. This oak shows remnants of a tree surgery done in the mid-1930s to preserve it.  This trail leads to a narrow boardwalk through Hardwood Swamp.  The dirt path connects to Fern Garden Trail."

This huge old tree trunk is at the entrance to this trail.  If you look at this closely, you will notice that some concrete pieces are embedded in the trunk.  They used to fill areas of the tree with concrete to help preserve it.

We started down the trail which contains a lot of natural Florida landscape, not much different than what we have near our home in west Florida.

A mixture of ferns, oaks, pine and various other natural plants for this area.  Many of the trails are dirt, watch you step to ensure you don't trip on roots.  In other areas, some of the trails have bridges over water areas or boardwalks over swampy areas.  Please note that dogs are not allowed on boardwalk trails and unfortunately the brochure provided by the park does not indicate which trails are boardwalks.

This trail hooks up with the Fern Garden trail.  Left or Right?  Jim and Ollie pointing to the possible directions we can take.

We choose right in case you're wondering.  Eventually we ended up back on the main road.  The Fern Garden trail has another section that is boardwalk and you guessed it "No Dogs"....so the dogs and I went another direction while Jim took in the Fern Garden trail that is boardwalk.

Wild Orange Grove Trail

Our second hike took us on this trail - per the brochure, this trail is .5 mile linear trail (aka not a loop) taking approximately 30 minutes to walk. Unfortunately, we didn't see any 'live' orange trees although I believe I saw several that were no longer alive.  This trail was before the drivable loop where many of the trails are located.  We started down this trail and continued through the woods, coming across a few bridges, a few muddy areas and eventually ended up behind the 'camp store' located in the park.  Ah, well since we are here, let's stop and get some ice cream.  Then Rue (one of the small dogs) and I walked back to get the truck while the others waited and talked with our campground neighbors who were also relaxing in front of the store.

If you take the tram tour, the camp store is where you catch it. (sorry, didn't take a photo of the camp store).

Cypress Swamp Trail

Our last day at the park, after talking with some other campers from Wisconsin, we decided this was a 'must see' before we headed out.  Who knows whether we will be back again and this is suppose to be the 'best trail' if you want to see a beautiful swamp.

Per the brochure, the beginning of an ADA accessible boardwalk through the Charlie Bowlegs Creek until the historic "catwalk" portion is reached.  For us, we were not able to do any of the catwalk portion of the trail because it is currently being renovated.

This little critter was the only thing I saw while I took my early walk down this trail (Jim and the dogs were waiting in the parking area).  I wasn't able to get this raccoon to look up, to busy looking for breakfast.

The famous catwalk - you can view it, but it is currently blocked off from walking.

For more photographs from Highlands Hammock State Park, please visit this link https://www.vpshoots.com/highlandshammock

Waterrock Knob Overlook signWaterrock Knob Overlook sign says elevation is 5820 feet. Located on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Wikipedia states this is the highest peak in the Plott Balsams and is the 16^th-highest mountain in the eastern United States. The Plott Balsams are a mountain range in western North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

View from Waterrock knob overlookView from Waterrock knob overlook parking area.

We entered the Blue Ridge Parkway off of US 74 to the east of Sylva, North Carolina, just a short distance past Balsam, North Carolina.  This entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway will take you passed several different overlooks and many different trails for those looking to do some hiking. 

This location is dog friendly - please make sure you have your fur kids on leashes (or voice command) as there are others that are taking their dogs out too.  We saw quite a few dogs up there enjoying the view (or maybe it was just the smells).

Ollie, our dog, at the Waterrock Knob Overlook.Waterrock Knob Overlook is dog-friendly.

Here is Ollie taking a few minutes break from riding on the curvy roads up here!  (She was on a leash - removed in photoshop).