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| Canoeing in 2018 |
We used to live just a few miles away from the Ichetucknee River in Fort White, Florida, and, when we did, we spent most of our free time canoeing on this beautiful river.
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| Canoeing in 1976 |
The 2,241-acre Florida State Park and National Natural Landmark centers on the 6-mile-long Ichetucknee River, which erupts from the earth in a series of crystal clear 72 °F springs and flows through shaded hammocks and wetlands into the Santa Fe River.
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| Ichetucknee views |
Ichetucknee Tubing From the end of May until early September, "tubing" down the river is the top activity in the park. The park was brand new when we lived there and you had to rent tubes in town or bring your own. Now, tubes and rafts can be rented inside the park. A tram service operates from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day moving tubers from the “get out point” back to the main park.
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| Tubing in 2018 |
The park was pretty restricted when we lived there (rangers checked to make sure you were not carrying anything that could be discarded as trash), but it is even more so now. Areas where we used to wade and swim are now restricted on order to save the native grasses. Springs are restricted – some for canoers and some for divers. It is all good, but it has changed the river – more grass and less open areas. You can see some in the video below.
Scott had reserved a canoe (also managed by an in-park concession) for early the next morning, but we decided to cool off that afternoon with a quick tubing session. The tubes we rented were big and comfy, which was nice.
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| Tubing |
But, because they were big, it was virtually impossible to get enough hand and arm in the river to steer. I almost floated past the dock when we decided to get out. I probably should have just gotten out of the tube, but I was afraid that I'd slip on the rock and lose my tube.
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| Tubing in 2018; Photo: Scott Stevens |
And, we decided to get out mid-point because a lightning storm was approaching and you don’t want to be in the water for that.
Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park
After tubing, we did some exploring, deciding to go to two other areas we had always heard about, but never visited! The first was Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park.
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| Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park |
I have to think it has been improved a lot since the 70s (which makes sense because it just recently became a state park) – otherwise, why did we never go there? What a beautiful spot!
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| Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park |
It’s a beautiful spring-fed swimming hole that flows a short distance before joining the Santa Fe River. It looks like a much better place to swim and frolic (leaving the Ichetucknee for canoeing, tubing, snorkeling or diving). The hot day made it rather steamy, with an actual cloud rising off the cold water. But everyone there seemed to be having a good time.
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| Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park |
Gilchrist Blue Springs has both a diving dock ...
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| Diving dock; Photo: Scott Stevens |
And a boardwalk ...
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| Boardwalk; Photo: Scott Stevens |
The water is so clear that you can observe turtles ...
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| Florida Cooter |
And fish ....
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| Freshwater mullet |
It looks like a very nice family spot.
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| Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park |
We also stopped by the private Ginnie Springs, which is very popular with divers and has lots of amenities, including tube and canoe rentals, a cabin, camping and food services. We didn't go in because it was just a few minutes away from closing for day-use visitors.
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| Map: Ginnie Springs |
From what I understand, the state parks are considered good for nature and family recreation; Ginnie is the “party” river spot. I enjoy the former. We never went to Ginnie Springs when we lived there, as I recall, because it was always crowded.
Ichetucknee Canoeing
The early morning canoe trip was a brilliant idea. The park opens at 8:00 a.m., so we actually had to wait to get in. There were only two other people canoeing (with their own canoe) at 8:00, so we had the river almost to ourselves. Canoes put in north of tubers, so there is the added advantage of having no tubers at all for the first segment. The concessionaire provides a great service – canoe, life jackets, paddles, shuttle service and THEY CARRY THE CANOE TO AND FROM THE RIVER!!! Wow.
The main reason we got rid of our (very heavy) canoe was that we could no longer hoist it on and off of the top of the car or easily carry it to and from a river.
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| Canoeing in the morning; Photo: Scott Stevens |
It was a fabulous run. Beautiful scenery …
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| Ichetucknee scenes |
Juvenile Little Blue Herons …
Florida Cooter Turtles ….
And, the biggest thrill of all, a North American River Otter …
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| Cool! |
We almost missed it. I saw some movement and thought it was a duck, but it disappeared from view.
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| In the weeds |
Just as we were passing, Scott recognized it as an otter. Lots of furious back-paddling resulted in a few good pictures before it disappeared under the water.
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| On a log |
Speaking of pictures, I took my mid-sized lens on my good camera. I am generally very wary of taking a good camera on the water. But, I knew that the Ichetucknee is calm and we had some really nice new waterproof bags (purchased for our Grand Canyon trip) to stow stuff in. I felt safe with the camera and was happy to have it -- for some shots, I did wish that I had had my really long lens. Maybe next time! I also did some underwater videos with my Olympus camera.
It was so beautiful, I am glad I had good cameras with me.
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| Juvenile White Ibis |
I mentioned the Santa Fe River a few times. We used to canoe on it when we lived in Fort white but didn’t this time. Unlike the crystal-clear Ichetucknee, the Santa Fe has lots of natural tannin from tree roots in it, so it’s not as pretty. But, it is a good canoeing river. Lus, it has an interesting feature where it disappears underground for about five winding miles, only to reemerge later. It and many of the other rivers in the area are big favorites of cave divers.
Spring-fed rivers are one of Florida’s best-kept-not-so-secret features. Underground limestone caverns purify the spring water and create fantastic caves, holes and rivers. I have never seen such beautiful fresh water anywhere else.
But, we couldn’t stay in Florida forever. We had to get home.
On to Georgia
We drove north through Georgia, taking mainly secondary roads. The scenery was green and rolling; the temperatures hot and humid.
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| Clark Recreation Area, Georgia |
I don’t have much of interest to report, except that we saw some really cool painted buildings along the highway ...
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| Roadside buildings, Georgia |
And, we finally got some good fried chicken, at a seedy little walk-up place called the Big Chic in LaGrange, Georgia. Good fries, too! I told you this was an "all-you-can-eat" vacation.
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| Big Chic Chicken |
We spent the night in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I’ll talk about the rest of the trip in my next blog.
Note: Information about the parks and rivers comes from Wikipedia and park websites.
Trip date: July 3-12, 2018
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