Hontoon Island State Park 2/16

Monday dawned sunny and a a little chilly and it was suppose to warm up to the mid 60's.  Today we are visiting Hontoon Island State Park by Deland FL  Once you get to the parking lot and park you go to the dock and wait for the ferry to come across the river to take you over to the Island.  Once there you can pick form several different tails to take.  We choose to take the Hammock Hiking Trail, about 3 miles round trip.  There is swamp area every where and you had to watch for alligators, bears and bob cats to name a few critters that are on the island.  We quickly discover both of us are much more comfortable hiking around rattle snakes, javalina, gila monsters and through cactus & many varieties of stick you plants than we were searching for alligators behind every tree and wondering if the muddy blog we were slogging through was dreaded quick sand. The trail is fairly level and very boggy and muddy and a whole different world of hiking than us westerners are accustomed too.

 The tree in the middle pic is a cypress tree and the what you see sticking out of the water is part of their root system.  They have roots that come out of the water that allows the tree to breath.  They are really cool.  The pic to the right of it is part of the swamp you walk along.

Armadillo's
They are so cute.
But according to the rangers do as much damage to the forest as a wild hog and are not indigenous to this area.





 Cute little green lizard.
On the bench it says The End of the Trail.








We had such a good time wondering around the island.  We discovered they have cabins to rent and a camp ground for tent camping.

Once home naps were in order then dinner.  Joe went on to the races and I stayed home as my throat was getting worse.

Blue Springs State Park, Florida

We have been hanging in here with the cold temps here in FL  Joe has been attending a race every night since we arrived.  I have attended races at New Symrna Beach and Volusia Speedway.  The racing has been fast and furious, so much fun to watch.  We have seen everything from winged sprints to NASCAR.  If you go to RACE PAGE on the top of the blog Joe has added information on all that we have seen.  Last year we attended 53 races at 29 different race tracks in 16 states and this year we hope to beat those numbers since this will be more of a racing year than hiking adventures as last year was.

Sunday I was tired of sitting around being cold so we decided to go to Blue Springs State Park.  This is a beautiful park where the Manatee's come to stay warm in the warm water  of the Blue springs.  We took a leisurely stroll along the springs and watched the Manatees  swim by.  At times there can be as many as 400 of them getting out of the cold water of the St Johns river.  They are huge, weighing as much as 3000 lbs for an adult female.  They are so graceful to watch move through the water.  It is amazing to see how long they can stay on the bottom of the Springs before coming up for a breath.  They are also veggie eaters.  They will eat a hundred pounds of river foliage a day.

We wandered on down to the end of the board walk where we saw a weird bird standing on a log with his wings spread open and turning from side to side.  They do this in order to dry their feathers.

Yes that is a live bird.  If they don't dry their feathers off every so often they could get water logged and drowned.
We also got to see an alligator and some turtles.

 You can see the alligator along the dirt bank.  If you click on the picture it should open bigger to see better.














We discovered that we could take a cruise on the St John river, we managed to get the last couple of seats.  This is a two hour cruise and was well worth it.  We were a little cold but luckily the speed of the boat had to be slow because of the Manatees in the water.  We did a figure eight up the river and around and back again.  There is so much beauty here that we would not of see if we hadn't taken this cruise.

 In the greenery you can see another alligator in the pic on the right.  The pic on the left is a         beautiful Crane.  In the pic below are Cypress trees                          

Now it is time to return to the docks, what a relaxing two hour trip.  We both really enjoyed it.   

We got home and had dinner and headed for the races out at New Smyrna Beach to see the K & N  Pro series and the Modified's.  Wow is all I can say.  They were fast, fast, fast.  This track is a 1/2  mile high banked paved track and so much fun to watch the cars race here.  For once it was not overly cold and   we were finally not freezing.  The races started at 7 and were done by 11 which is pretty fast for the   number of races they had to run.  It felt good to get home and to bed.  I had a sore throat all day and it wasn't getting any better.  Hopefully I will feel better in the morning.