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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Falling Waters State Park, Florida

What a wonderful small state park campground!


Our campsite at Falling Waters State Park, Florida
After our two weeks at Gulf State Park in Alabama, our next major destination is Savannah, Georgia. When we travel, our goal is to take our time and keep our driving distance under 300 miles in a day. Under 200 is even better.  So since the distance between Gulf Shores and Savannah is just over 500 miles, I knew we would want to stop twice. Knowing it is "snowbird" time, when lots of RVers are migrating back north, I felt I needed to make reservations. Using my State Park book I found two nice stopover places.



Our first  day's drive was 158 miles to Falling Waters, a Florida State park.  The next drive is a bit longer at 278 miles, but Crooked River, a Georgia State park looked interesting. The last leg of this drive is only 111 miles, so we will probably have a nice afternoon to get settled at Skidaway, also a Georgia State park near Savannah. I'll let you know when we get there.

Sure, we could stop at Walmart or Cracker Barrel parking lots, but if a stopover place has something that looks like it might be interesting, we like to stay more than one night. Somehow I would rather be awakened in the morning by birds singing than by traffic and early-morning shoppers.  It's all about making the travel a relaxing and fun experience. There were plenty of times when we had limited time because of jobs, that we easily drove 500 miles or more in a day.  No more!  We are full-timers and one of our biggest luxuries is being able to take our time and see the country.



We stayed at Falling Waters for two nights. This gave us time to take a nice walk along the boardwalks to the park's namesake.


A waterfall. Sort of!  As waterfalls go it was not very large, but because of reconstruction of some of the boardwalk and lower viewing platform, we were not able to go down to see it closely. Maybe from below it looks larger. 

One of many sink holes
The interesting geological feature of the park is the many sink holes. The waterfall actually falls down into one of them. But I guess "Sink Hole Park" was not as appealing as "Falling Waters
".

We did swat a few mosquitoes when we were sitting outside and reading, so we sprayed ourselves with "Off" before our walk. 
Beautiful woods often have bugs.

Soldier Bug? 
I'm not sure what kind of bug this was, but there were several of them on the railings of the boardwalks. It was quite large. 


Does anyone know what it is?

13 comments:

  1. We totally agree on shorter trips and exploring as we go. We try to average no more than 5 hours of driving a day. It depends on where we can find a place to stay along the way and what interests us. With our 5th wheel being 42 feet, its sometimes more difficult to find a place, but we seem to manage just fine. I don't know what kind of bug that is, but it kind of looks like a box elder bug.

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    1. We know box elder bugs 'cause we had a box elder tree at our last house in Milwaukee. This brown bug was about 3 times longer (1 inch).

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  2. You missed another great Florida State Park, Fort Clinch, in Fernandina Beach, which is on lovely Amelia Island.

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    1. Your recommendation came in a little too late to influence our course. We are now at Crooked River SP in Georgia, just a few miles north of Fernandina Beach. Maybe we'll play interstate tourists tomorrow...

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  3. Hope they are not stink bogs :(. Park looks great. Safe journey

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  4. short drives and overnights in interesting places... priceless!

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  5. Short drives are wonderful. The Walmarts and stuff are just great for us when we do not want to go any where other than moving on in the morning.
    The object is to enjoy the journey and loots like you are doing it,
    I am sure you will have fun.

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  6. Replies
    1. Here is the URL of an image of palmetto bugs, which I hope will show everyone they're not like our bug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eurycotis_floridana_nymphs.jpg

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  7. If they're any kind of stink bug, don't squish it or you will be sorry!

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  8. Are you in pines? We had bugs like that one place we parked around Glacier. If they're the same they can bite and make a big welt! Not being a bug hugger myself, they usually meet my shoe or some other flattening form.

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    Replies
    1. Yes there are pines everywhere! But our bugs were not aggressive: I think one climbed around on Merikay's hand without biting her.

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  9. We always called them stink bugs and even if they don't bite you if you step on one or smack it with your hand it can leave a welt. And the stink of course. LOL

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