Sharing a Love of Nature and a New Hobby at Manatee Springs State Park

While camping nearby, we decided to make a quick trip to explore Manatee Springs State Park, in hopes of seeing morning manatees in the area for winter. Since our friends, @My500FtLife were at the same campground, we invited them to come along for a couple hours to check it out.

We followed the Ranger’s instructions to head to a back parking lot to find the springs, boardwalk and nearby trails.

This is a Class 1 spring, so had a lot of volume, even in the dry time of year we visited. The boardwalk along the water was canopied in beautiful trees and, with a cool weather day, made for an enjoyable stroll.

We spent time at the overlook on the river, watching otters play, turtles and alligators explore and seeing several manatees gather where the spring and the river met. There is a marina at the park and, when we visited, it had only a $2 fee for parking there, so definitely worth stopping in if you are boating along the Suwannee River nearby.

We then ventured down a nearby trail since there was a geocache to grab, and that was the extension of our journey!

Our friends were not familiar with geocaching and their teenage daughter was curious about it, so BJ took a few minutes to explain how it worked, showed her the app and the map, and she took over from there, guiding us to the spot, learning what the descriptions meant, and searching for the prize. Finding the hidden treasure and learning there were several more along this trail to find meant she was hooked.

We spent the next couple of hours exploring and talking, searching out more hidden treasures, until the sun was setting and the temperatures were dropping, which meant it was time to go.

Before we even made it back to the campground, she had already found and downloaded the app and located all the finds we made to log them on her own.

The park was such a treat to visit, and sharing one of our favorite traveling hobbies with another family made it that much more memorable.

Definitely add this one to your list of places to visit, and snag a campground reservation if you are able to since they have one and it is beautiful!

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