This state park reminds me of the one we stayed in in New Ulm, Minnesota, because it’s designed with lots of amenities for locals: a pool (closed now), snack bar, playgrounds, pavilions and picnic sites, kayak rentals, hiking trails. I’m guessing there are lots of large, community-friendly state parks out there with camping, and I […]
Categories
Under the Live Oaks of Tampa
I’ve realized I have a tree theme going in my pictures of Florida: the regular and Dwarf Cypress, Mangrove, Gumbo Limbo, Strangler Fig, so many Pines, Royal Palm, and, here, yet more Live Oaks wearing cloaks of Spanish moss. We’re at Hillsborough River State Park, very close to Tampa. Although I can hear the highway […]
Beautiful Myakka River State Park
We scheduled only one full day at this state park outside of Sarasota, Florida, which turns out to be way too little time to watch all the water birds, to hike and bike the trails through the palms and live oaks, to watch the enormous alligators in the river. But the two nights we have […]
Jackpot with the Birdwatching
Sweetwater Wetlands Park Tracy’s very wonderful sister took us to an unusual water filtration area that’s also a bird preserve. It’s a 125-acre man-made wetland that filters run-off water and pollution from Gainesville through a series reservoirs. They were built and opened to the public as a bird sanctuary gradually so the ecosystem could settle. […]
Lincoln’s New Salem
As we make our way to Iowa and Wisconsin, we’re sticking to our plan to stay at campgrounds for the weekends so we know we have a sure-fire camping site for Friday and Saturday nights when campgrounds are often full. The pattern is to arrive Wednesday or Thursday to get a good spot and then […]
