January 9, 2013 Wakulla Springs, Florida

We stopped at Wakulla springs last trip through the panhandle. I wanted to take the scenic boat ride. Since we had 3-4 more hours of driving to go we did not. So we stopped this time through to take the ride. It was beautiful. It was cloudy, so it was not the best for taking photos, but it was great to look at. LOTS of wildlife. The spring is one of the largest springs in the world at  400,000 thousand gallons per minute. The name is indian for ‘river of the crying bird’.

We got up this morning and the ocean was gone. This was taken from the same dock that was floating last night when we watched the sunset. The gulf is very shallow here so there is a  BIG difference from high and low tide. Since the ocean was gone we left. Wakulla springs was opened in 1937 with this lovely lodge that is still in service today. The pole vaulting fish is a mullet, they jump for joy all the time. The spring was run as a private attraction until 1967 when it became a state park.

The spring shop is closed to spring, that makes sense  to me.  Here is a cross section map of the springs. The main spring is 165 feet deep, then it has all these water filled caves underneath it. In other springs they let scuba divers explore the caves, but not here. They also let kayakers boat on top of the springs and the spring runs, but not there. I think it may have something to do with this being an Audubon preserve.

They run these glass bottom boats so you can look down into the spring when the water is clear. Today it was not clear in the spring so we had to ride in a non glass bottomed boat. Where it is shallow it is very clear, like in the above shot.

An anhinga spreading it’s wings to dry by two huge cypress trees. Here is another boat taking off on a tour just as we were returning. You can see the lodge and dock area also.

A few flora and fauna seen. A cormorant, pink Camilla from one of the many trees in bloom, a juvenile anhinga in the spanish moss, an ibis on some cypress knees, an alligator and a manatee. Lots and lots of wildlife on this trip. Probably because there are no divers or boaters in this area.

The water here is so clear they have filmed many movies here.