Silver Springs State Park (Day 3 &4)

Day 3 – 7:30am 63* Today we enjoyed our coffee & tea then made turkey, cheese & egg scramble. Needed a heavy breakfast to get us prepared for our kayaking adventure. 🛶 We drove over to the main entrance to Silver Springs and headed towards the rental area. There we inflated our own kayak and away we launched. Up in the tree was only one rhesus monkey! I’ll explain them later! 😎 Crystal clear, cool water. Paddled to where the glass bottom boats launch, deeper water there then went down the Silver River passing sightseeing boats, SUP, and other kayakers. Lots of wildlife…turtles swimming & sunning on logs, fish…Gar, mullet, bass, tilapia, mud fish and more. 🐟 Lots of birds nesting, pileated woodpeckers, anhingas, wood ducks & herons. Continued on the Fort King Trail seeing old docks, boardwalks and an old fort throughout the springs. Gorgeous, relaxing afternoon. Then deflated the kayak, packed it back up in the truck and it was time for our daily Diet Coke & lunch! 🥤 Took a walk around the campground loops and relaxed till Daniel and Lauren arrived. They brought cheese & jam from Italy and made a nice charcuterie board to start the night off. Happy hour has officially started! 🍷 Big salad & Grilled hamburgers and enjoyed a nice campfire! 🔥 Perfect day.

Day 4 – 7:30 am 60* I got up early to go to Tas-t-o’s Donuts! Matthew has tried to go there every time he visits his brother but it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Sooooo , yup I had to try this place. It opens at 5am and closes at noon or earlier if they run out. They make all the donuts fresh there every day! Nothing fancy….You walk up to the window and tell them what you want or like what I did stand in front of the window so I could look at the selection and pointed! 🤣 Then I stopped off at Dunkin to get Tim a big cup of coffee then Publix for …..yup my daily Diet Coke and BOGO Margaritas and chips! The entire day was all about relaxing. We rearranged the truck & inside the camper. Took a walk & toured the Cracker Village. Tim napped for 2 hours while I edited & downloaded pictures and did the blog. Then we went to Daniel & Lauren’s for Happy Hour then to Outback for dinner. We had a great waitress who made the evening so much fun. On the way into the park we saw deer running across the road and even a rabbit! Called it a night for tomorrow is moving day! Pleasant dreams. 🛌 💤

Silver Springs – One of Florida’s first tourist attractions, the springs drew visitors even before the US Civil War. Glass bottom boats have been a popular way to see the 242-acre complex. Silver Springs was founded in 1852. The glass-bottom boat was invented here and tours of the springs began in the late 1870s. In the 1920s, W. Carl Ray and W.M. “Shorty” Davidson, after leasing the land from Ed Carmichael (upon whose death the springs were left to the University of Florida, developed the land around the headwaters of the Silver River into an attraction that eventually became known as Silver Springs Nature Theme Park.The attraction featured native animal exhibits, amusement rides, and 30 or 90-minute glass-bottom boat tours of the springs. The 1934 ‘Princess Donna’ is the oldest and only remaining operational boat from this bygone era.

In the 1930s, six of the original Tarzan movies, starring Johnny Weissmuller, were filmed on location at what is now Silver Springs State Park. In the late 50s and 60s, the clear water made this the perfect location to film more than a 100 episodes of “Sea Hunt,” starring Lloyd Bridges. “Creature from the Black Lagoon” was filmed here; so were scenes from movies ranging from “Rebel Without a Cause” to James Bond’s “Thunderball.”

A glass-bottom boat operator Colonel Tooey released the original troop of rhesus macaques monkeys on an island hoping to wow guests around 1930. There was just one problem. He didn’t know the monkeys could swim  . . .they took up residence in the forest. By 1980 it’s been estimated that there’s more than 400 macaques roaming around the the river! 🙊Many of the monkeys have herpes,which presents a danger to visitors!

Last year when Tim, Daniel & I walked a trail we saw a few which then turned into 40+ of a pack crossing the trail in which the alpha charged us to stay away! Oh shit it was for real! Fortunately this trip we only saw one up in the tree as we launched our kayak!

In the 1950s, 800,000 people visited a year, according to the Silver Springs Nature and Theme Park, the company that used to operate the attraction at the spring. In 2013, the State of Florida took over operations of Silver Springs and combined it with the adjacent Silver River State Park to form the new Silver Springs State Park.

There’s 59 sites in two campground loops. Each site offers water and electric hook-up, as well as a fire ring, barbecue grill and picnic table. Only a few have full hookups.

Across from the campground are a few Trail heads, the Silver River Museum, classrooms and the Cracker Village. The Cracker Village is a replica of the 19th century pioneer settlement. Dating to 1890’s. This homestead had cabins, barn, blacksmith shop,smokehouse, outhouse, a church ⛪️, and a schoolhouse.