A State Park Visit

When Don and Gracia came to visit they told us about their time exploring the Oscar Scherer State Park, which isn't very far from us.

The park is located about an hour North of us, which made it a good day trip and the entrance fee was only $5.  The park covers 1,381 acres and is home to the imperiled Florida scrub-jay.  According to the pamphlet we picked up, "Oscar Scherer now has the only protected population in SW Florida with a long-term chance of survival".

(Google photo)

To be honest, we didn't see any of these pretty birds although they were probably all around us.  

There was a campground, creek and lake for swimming

Lake Osprey

from the other side

but there was also a warning

Swimming?  I.Don't.Think.So!

There were 15 miles of trails so we checked out the map and decided on the yellow one because it gave us several options.

 

It was 84* and being the dedicated unprepared day trippers that we are, we had no water with us.  duh! We chose the lesser of two evils and turned right.  

While most of the trail looked like this

 

very flat and sandy, we did run into the creek a couple of times.

cool, clear water

and there were several places to sit in the shade and rest.

Where's the water vending machine?

We also came across another lake, aptly called Big Lake.  Really???  Big Lake???  I guess it was big compared to the little lake.  

Look at that beautiful blue!

I'm not sure how long we walked but it seemed like a really long, hot time and my throat was parched.  I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed in the park.  I guess I was comparing it to the state parks in Maine and frankly, I enjoy the ones in Maine a.lot.better.  I like seeing a beautiful view appear in front of me, or hearing the crash of waves along the shore.  However, it was a beautiful day and we were getting exercise, so it was good and we can check it off our list, if we really had a list.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)