Suwannee River State Park, Florida

 

Our second state park on our Florida 2021 trip was Suwannee River state park. Mom has wanted to go here for quite a while so it was one of the first places I looked for reservations for. We stayed here for 3 nights. This park in about 30 minutes from a town of any size, although there is a convenience store about 15 minutes away according to maps. We stayed in the park the entire time and weren't tempted to go anywhere. There are not a lot of roads in the park, basically one that takes you through the day use area, to the campground and the boat ramp and a dirt road that takes you to the group camp area. There are many miles of trails, but due to river flooding, we were only able to do the high ones. I really wanted to walk the river trails, but the water at the beginning was almost waist deep. So I didn't. The river rose the whole time we were there because of storms up river in Georgia. The campground was in no danger of flooding. I really enjoyed the campground. The sites were a bit challenging to back into, so watching neighbors back big rigs in was amusing and amazing. It did reconfirm my desire to keep my small rig. We had a campfire every night and enjoyed just watching the fire and seeing the moon rise. I found trees in our campsite to put my hammock up and intend to read in my hammock, but it was hard to read when I was so comfortable. If I get to the point where I can repeat state parks in Florida's panhandle, this is one of my 3 favorite parks there. The others are Falling Waters and Blackwater River. We still have not stayed at Florida Caverns or Suwannee River music park.

The first trail we walked was the earthworks trail. There are dirt mounds left from the civil war when they were getting ready to defend the railroad bridge. This trial takes us to the confluence of the Suwannee River and the Withlacoochee River. There is a beautiful deck over the river giving a great view. There is also a little building with steep steps that the ranger said is where they measure the river height and take samples of the water.

The second trail was the sand hill trail. This trail is not so scenic because it takes us through sandy piney woods. The woods are lovely and feel very isolated. It goes through an old grave yard with very interesting tombstones.

We tried walking down the Suwannee River trail but were blocked by the water, so hung out on a swing overlooking the river and watched people and birds. There was a man there with his kids teaching them to slingshot the sweet gum pods into the woods.

I followed stagecoach road and found part of the balanced rock trail. The bridge was underwater so I continued along the river to the group camp. There was a group there, so I turned around and retraced my steps. It is amazing how the views change when you are going the opposite direction on the same trail.