February 24, 2018 Silver Springs, Florida

86 degrees and sunny. We went to Silver Springs State Park. It is right across the street from where we are camped and the main spring is where we paddled to yesterday.

Silver Springs is another of the old attractions in Florida that used to be around before Disneyland. In 1878 the glass bottomed boat was invented here that gave visitors a unique and spectacular view of the springs.  After WWI visitors packed their model T's and headed to Florida for the golden age of  roadside attractions until 1960 when Disney arrived. A few attractions survived and became state parks including Silver springs. Welcome to Silver Springs.On the left is where you pick up your ride in the glass bottomed boats, to the right are the gift shop, restaurant, ice cream parlor and museum. It was an award winning design in it's time. 

John and I at Silver Springs state park 2018. The spring is the one we paddled to yesterday. It produces 550 million gallons of water a day that heads down the Silver River to the atlantic ocean. 

Safety advisory: Rhesus monkeys are found in the park, do not approach or feed them. They were released in the early 1900 to give visitors a thrill on the glass bottomed boat rides.  They have no predators and have multiplied since then.They now are aggressive and carry diseases. Alligators  no swimming, and if that is not enough wild animals there are also black bears- be bear aware. Many movies were filmed here including parts of the Creature of the Black Lagoon, the creature's costume, and Underwater starring Jane Russell with skin diver action and aqua lung thrills. Even some of the Tarzan series was filmed here. Some of the vintage stained glass windows, an azalea blossom and wood sorrels flowers. 

Camillas in the gardens, a visitor in the children's frog slide,and some white blossoms.  John eating an ice cream cone -his lunch- inside the coiled up palm tree.  

White flowers on a bush, wild tortoise, and resurrection ferns growing on a palm tree trunk.  Although set in the ocean the classic  1958-1961 TV series Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges filmed many scenes at Silver Springs, from the Sea Hunt Deck here. John in the Sea Hunt Poster.

This is part of the same river we paddled yesterday, from the bridges and boardwalks near the beginning of the river. 

We toured the Silver Springs Museum too. There was a natural history section with the prehistoric animals and indians in this area, plus history of the springs. Also the historic Cracker Village. The Crackers were the cowboys who herded cows with whips that they cracked over their backs. There was also an Indian village at the resort too, Seminole Indians lived in these thatched 'chickees' and sewed souvenirs sold here to the tourists. Seminoles were known for their sewing and quilting work. 

We  hiked  the river and the swamp trails. All told John's GPS recorded that we walked 8 miles seeing the park. There is also a campground we checked out. It like all the rest of Florida's State parks are full way in advance. 

Afterwards  we  went to beautiful historic downtown Ocala  to visit the Infinite Ale works brewery and have dinner.