Florida 2024 - Episode 1 (Blue Spring State Park and the Manatees)

Описание: Blue Spring State Park, Orange City, Florida including a wide variety of wildlife including hundreds of manatees, cormorants, snowy egrets, white ibis, anhingas, purple gallinule, lumpkins, great white egrets, great blue herons, and american alligators.

On New Year’s Eve 2023, Sue, Cassie and I left to escape the Ohio winters for a little over two months returning on March 7th, 2024. We traveled over 3,100 miles down to Florida and back. We had many stops across much of the geography of Florida including central Florida, the Keys, the central Gulf Coast, the central Atlantic Coast, Walt Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground and the northern Atlantic Coast. All of our stops were at Florida State Parks with the exception of our stop at Disney World to meet our son Chris, his wife Amy, and our favorite four year old Grandson Drew.

We are chronicling our trip to Florida in a series of videos. This video (Episode 1) provides the highlights of the first leg our trip leaving Ohio and traveling to our first stop in Florida, Blue Spring State Park. We took three days to get to Blue Spring State Park including overnight stops at the Sweetwater KOA in Sweetwater, Tennessee, and the Cordele KOA in Cordele, Georgia before arriving at Blue Spring State Park on the third day. Our plan was to stay at Blue Spring State Park for three nights to rest and recover from the over 1,000 mile journey before heading further south to the Florida Keys.

Blue Spring State Park was established in 1972 where researchers tracked 14 manatees in the spring. The refreshing 72-degree waters of Blue Spring attract the manatees and many visitors at this gem along the St. Johns River. By 2005, after years of park improvements and manatee protection efforts, wintering manatee numbers exceeded 200, and on January 2nd , the day we arrived, a record number of over 750 manatee were counted at the spring.
On our first full day at Blue Spring State Park, we explored the Spring itself. Sue, Cassie, and I enjoyed the hike from the campground and then walking along the well-developed paths next to the spring. We stopped at many decks and overlooks available to observe the manatees. There were many babies and young manatees swimming right beside their mom’s. There were also several species of fish (large and small) that were enjoying the warm water. What a wonderful experience seeing hundreds of manatees hanging out in the spring, as well as swimming out into the St. Johns River for their afternoon feeding.

The next day we got up and again explored the spring. Winter is perfect for observing the manatees and other wildlife at Blue Spring State Park. Sue and I decided to take a two-hour nature and ecological boat tour on the St. Johns River through Blue Spring Adventures. We hoped to see additional wildlife beyond the manatees. The boat tour did not disappoint. We had a great guide who provided narration throughout the tour including the history of the St. Johns River and the manatee. He also talked about the vegetation and the variety of wildlife we saw from the boat. The birds were plentiful, and Sue captured some great photos including birds that we have never seen before.

Blue Spring State Park was a great way to start our winter trip to Florida. The campground was great. Sue captured some great photos of birds. And, of course, we are thankful for our fortunate timing to see hundreds of manatees including juveniles and babies wintering in the 72 degree spring water. This park is definitely on our list to return to in future winters. But now it is time to leave and head down to even warmer weather in the Keys.

Thank you to the artists from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) providing the music for this video including the following:
https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/beach-house License code: YOFHFFDRH2H5BKEU https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/renewed License code: U3PHJCOFOGTYND0I

Thank you to the artists contributing to the GoPro Music Library for the following music for this video:
Artist: Steven Jeffries with the song Cold Pressure
Artist: Kutz with the song Closer
Artist: Quietly Concerned with the song All You Know