Needles Drive

On Thursday and Friday we had two good long driving days, each over 450 miles, and made a much shorter run today of only about 144 miles. We will be stopping in Henderson NV, jut south of Las Vegas, so we can get together with a couple of other Alfa RV owners, Joe and Betty. We met them this summer, and have exchanged emails several times. We are really looking forward to seeing them this evening.

Now, to catch up with our travels in the Custer State Park area: On Monday we drove the Needles Highway and took a hike around Sylvan Lake.

The park road winds through the forest and along the edge of the mountain. From it, your first view of the needles is a wall of upthrust rock spires in the distance.

As you get closer, there are many pull-outs along the road so you can admire these huge formations. Note how tiny I seem, standing at the base of this one.






















I really don't have time to compose many words about them, but here is another neat image.

There are five tunnels through the rocks, some as narrow as 12'. We had stopped for lunch near this one and we were startled when we say a Class C RV heading toward it. We couldn't see the tunnel at the time, but the RV seemed to have gone through just fine because it never came back.

This rock had a name: The Eye of the Needle. I wanted to get the sun shining through the hole, but couldn't get the right angle.

Sylvan Lake is small with a lodge and boat/kayak rentals. There is also a swimming beach, and quite a few children were having fun in the water.

The hike around was about a mile and a half, partially paved, with a few challenging spots. I have learned that even if a walk is short, and starts level and paved, I should take my hiking poles along. I really need them for confidence and balance in rough spots.

The lake was perfectly calm and the air was cool. Wonderful!

We took a different route back to camp, and along the way we stopped to take pictures of several longhorn cattle grazing in a field. After the buffalo herds were decimated, a herd of 4000 wild Texas longhorns were driven up to the South and North Dakota grasslands. They in turn were almost all killed in the bad winter of 1886. 

We passed this sign every time we left the park. Turtles or not, this is the way I prefer to move across this vast country of ours!

Except when I need a new tooth!

Wekiwa Springs Wrap-Up

Our time is almost up here at Wekiwa Springs State Park, and we must say we have really enjoyed the peacefulness of this place on the edge of Orlando. The weather has been to my liking. It has reached the low 70's most days, with overnight temperatures in the 50's. Quilt and cuddle sleeping weather. We have had some heavy rains in the night, but that only makes the Alfa seem more like a warm, safe, cozy cocoon. 

We have been out for walks most days, either here in this park or at some other nearby places. Most of our treks have been three to four miles on wonderfully level paths.  I like that!

Our last hike was just over six miles in length. We had set out for an eleven mile loop. On the second leg of the loop the trail turned to mud and bog, as it approached this river-run which is connected to the one we canoed on last week.

We kept expecting to get past the bog and find dry trail because we could see the blaze trail markers from time to time, but the muck just kept going on and on. I think it was about a half mile or so, but it sure felt like further!

Eventually we got to a drier place and had a choice between continuing on the blazed trail or taking a service road. I wanted to go down a sandy service road, and Craig wanted to continue on the trail. We tried the trail for another half mile. But when we saw more muck and puddles ahead, we turned around and went back to the road.  

We kept mumbling the State Park slogan "the Real Florida" from time to time. All in all we had no mishaps, and felt like explorers!

We ended up eating our lunch at a picnic table next to the Jeep. The second boggy area eliminated five miles from the loop we had planned. I didn't mind. Six miles is enough to make me sleep well!

Not all of our time was spent in the parks.

For one of our day trips, we went to a "pick it yourself" orange grove. We have been looking for a special orange called a Honey Bell, but none seem to be available either at the groceries or at the roadside grove stands. This grove was out of them as well. We did get some Yellow Navels for juicing and have been having fresh squeezed OJ every day.  Yum! 

There were some friendly farm animals at the orange grove. This longhorn had quite a good spread!

The days have passed quickly, and we made some fun memories, but we are ready to move along on Wednesday.  We have so far to go!  Next stop: 64 miles northwest.