The artic blast arrived just in time for Christmas. We had been due to flee south anyway, but delayed our trip a few days to see family and avoid sleeping in a tent during 20 degree weather. On Boxing Day, we raced the sun south, finding Spanish Moss as the golden hour arrived.
Manatee Springs State Park is about half an hour inland from the west coast of Florida, not really near anything. (Gainesville is a good 45 minutes east.) We arrived in the cold and dark to set up camp and make a dinner of holiday leftovers – delicious sausage and cranberry meatballs, grilled veggies, mashed potatoes turned into potato cakes, and hot, spiced cider to ward off the chill.
We bundled up in the 20-something-degree weather, happy that we’d purchased an electric blanket just before the trip. (No, the dog did not sleep here beyond a short after-dinner nap.)
As you might guess from the park’s name, manatee visit during winter months, thanks to the constant 72 degree water welling up from a series of caves. They weren’t lurking around the spring itself at any point when we walked over, but we did watch them in the Suwannee River just downstream.
One would come up for a breath occasionally, but a snout was the most we’d see of them. They didn’t come up into the springs, where you can swim with them, and we didn’t rent kayaks to paddle out to get a better look. You’re not supposed to approach them anyway. But we did spot a lot of wildlife. A pair of river otters swam under the boardwalk. Turtles lurked around the dock. At dusk each night, flocks of birds would come in and settle in the trees, including huge black vultures, turkey buzzards, herons, egrets, wood ducks and more. I’d say dusk in winter is probably the best time to head out the short boardwalk to the river and hang around.
The water of the springs is crystal clear and warm enough to swim in even on the coldest days (getting out into the chilly air might be a challenge.) At the source is a little dock where children and the occasional cave diver would swim. Perhaps if the sea cows had come up, we might have given it a try. However, Manatee Springs is considered one of the most polluted in Florida. As a result, algae has built up, clinging to the banks and every twig. Sometimes a huge raft of the stuff will break loose and drift downstream.
The park features a series of walking paths through the forest, including a replica of a Native American house, the usual live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, and more than a few white-tailed deer.
There are a few coastal towns 30-45 minutes away. Along one route, you can stop at Treasure Camp for some tasty seafood and cold beer while you stare out at the Suwannee River and wonder how hard it would be to rent a houseboat and spend a lazy week hopping from dockside bar to dockside bar.
We ended up at Cedar Key, Florida’s second oldest town behind St. Augustine. It’s a bit touristy with folks coming over from Gainesville and beyond, but there is local life, historic homes, tasty food (local clams being the specialty), a couple of parks and museums, a tiny, man-made beach, and nice views of the sea and complex waterways.
On our way out of Cedar Key, we stopped at the Low Key Tiki Bar behind the Hideaway Motel, our new favorite bar in the whole state. Excellent cocktails, a fantastic view of the water, funky décor and construction, great patio space, a nice mix of local regulars and snowbirds – perfect.
We inquired about renting a room for the New Year weekend but all five rooms were taken. One of these years, I’m going to organize a takeover of the whole motel and RV lot. The only down side is they do not allow children in either one. You parental types will have to get a spot downtown or at the neighboring RV park.
Instead, we trekked west to our planned New Year destination, Anastasia State Park on St. Augustine Beach. I’ve been camping there since… well, as early as I can remember. My first non-backyard camping memories are of Anastasia. I end up there every couple of years for one thing or another. I’ve even done New Year Eve there before, though we ended up freezing our asses off that time. This year, however, the weather was so warm a jacket was too much on the beach even after dark.
Our last meal of 2022 featured grilled tuna from the fantastic farmer’s market at the neighboring amphitheater (every Saturday morning.) We also picked up a pie as a belated birthday present for one of our fellow campers.
St. Augustine Beach has a New Years Eve festival on a pier just south of the park, so we took chairs and some beverages to the park’s beach and watched the show from 1/2 mile away.
They had some impressive stuff, including some smiley faces, spirals and other shapes I hadn’t seen before. Nifty!
Anastasia has a short hiking trail through ancient dunes, and another around a lagoon, but really the attraction is the beach and the proximity to St. Augustine. We didn’t spend much time at either, however, choosing to go north of the city to North Beach and Ponte Vedra, a stretch of seashell-covered sand where storms have knocked a few teeth out of the row of beach houses. (A bit further north and you can go to a section where there aren’t even houses.)
We’d head home via the same route on a day so foggy it looked like concrete had been poured over everything more than a few yards away. Gorgeous.
So here’s to a new year. I hope yours is better than 2022, no matter how your last year was.
