9/10: Historic Wakulla Springs, Florida

After spending two glorious weeks on the Florida Panhandle at Grayton Beach State Park, Steven and I headed south toward Tampa for a few days to stay at a friend's vacation home for a change of pace since one can only stay at a state park for two weeks straight before leaving for a minimum of three days. On the way to Tampa, we opted to stop at Wakulla Springs State Park for a few hours as we've always had great experiences at Florida's state parks.

A sign describing Wakulla Springs' archaeological and historic district indicated its importance due to relationships between human culture and natural resources from the Paleoindian period to the recent historic past, a period that spanned nearly 15,000 years. I was surprised to learn that there 55 recorded archaeological sites located in the state park. The sites included Paleoindian kill sites, camp sites, village areas, and a mound or village complex. Also found was evidence of visits by Spanish and other European explorers. 

Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, heavy logging and naval activities took place. Until the 1930s, the springs were a favorite place for picnics and political rallies. The park was acquired in 1934 by Edward Ball so it could be used as an attraction while still focusing on the preservation of wildlife and conservation of the park's natural features. The Wakulla Springs Lodge, completed in 1937, was an example of Mediterranean Revival architecture. The archaeological district was listed on the National Register in 1993.

Steven and I felt we should have been back in South America, particularly Paraguay, upon seeing the splendid ceiling decorations in the lodge!

A popular resident of Wakulla Springs, 'Old Joe' was probably the most photographed alligator in the wild! Often seen lounging on a sandbar, he reportedly never harmed a man, woman. or child. Local

folks said Old Joe took up residence in the horse-and-buggy-days at Wakula Springs! Old Joe would have started life at just 6"-8" long. About ten years later, he would have measured nearly six feet in length, half of that in his tail only! Florida's largest gator came in at 14', 5/8" long!

Joe was killed in the early hours of August 1, 1966; his body was found at the bottom of Wakulla Springs. Though a $5,000 reward was offered for information on his killer, no one has ever stepped forward to claim it! They thought he lived to be over 100 years old, measuring 11 feet, 2 inches, and weighing 650 pounds. 

The lodge's marble bar in the old soda fountain measured 70', 3" long, making it the longest marble bar east of the Mississippi River. Each of its eight pieces was quarter sawn and came from a single slab of marble. It was original to the lodge when it opened in 1937.

We read that archaeologists continue to explore and analyze areas throughout the state park. They were able to confirm a continuous human presence that began at least 14,500 years ago. Creek and Seminole Native Americans lived along the Wakulla River that was once the ancestral home of Apalache Native Americans. In a story we've heard far too many times, most of the Apalache perished from European diseases after Spanish conquistadors landed on the Wakulla River in 1528.

After touring the lodge, we walked down by the river, watching people jump off the old diving platform into the river, and then along the river trail.

By 1813, a tragic civil war between two Native American groups in nearby Alabama brought famine to the Upper Creeks or Red Sticks group. Their leader was Hillis Hadjo also known as Prophet Josiah Francis. He followed a prophetic movement that forecast doom if the 'white man's' way was adhered to. He led his family from Alabama to Spanish Florida and established Francis Town on the east bank of the Wakulla River.

In 1818, US General Andrew Jackson briefly took control of the Spanish Fuerte San Marcos de Apalache located at the end of the Wakulla River. An enslaved man, Billy, belonging to a Native American, betrayed Prophet Francis' location to Jackson. After Billy was lured to the fort, Jackson ordered him hanged in April of 1818 as he was believed to be a British sympathizer. 

The ever-so-tranquil Wakulla River:

Next post: Thanks to some dear friends in the Denver area, we spent a few nights at their home in Hudson, near Tampa.

Posted on March 25th, 2021, from our home in Denver just hours before we fly for the first time in a year to see our son, his wife, and their ten-month-old daughter, Max, in San Francisco for a long weekend. I know the weekend will be a very welcome getaway, especially for Steven, as we've been contending with a major remodel of our main floor. All was going well until an hour or so ago when we had a minor flood when the sinks were being disconnected! Here's hoping our dining room chairs won't suffer permanent damage as they got wet when the water came through the ceiling into the basement where the chairs, etc were being stored during the renovation. I hope your day has been easier!

8/30-9/9: Florida's Heavenly Grayton Beach State Park

In all the dozen or so years Steven and I have visited Grayton Beach State Park on Florida's Panhandle, we'd never been unable to get across this spit of land while walking along the beach. On the last day of August last year, the situation looked more challenging with the rushing waters meeting the Gulf of Mexico. No doubt the area's recent heavy storms had contributed to the sand giving way and the water pouring in from the nearby lakes to the gulf.

On our countless previous walks, we'd been accustomed to nothing more than a couple of inches of water at the worst and normally just an endless stretch of sand.

Steven attempted to wade through first, wanting to check out how deep the water was and how strong the current was before I followed him. After a few feet, he turned back, saying it was too dangerous to proceed any further. 

Even if we couldn't enjoy a long walk along the shore, we did take pleasure in the sunset that same night.

9/1: The storms had let up sufficiently to allow swimming for the first time since our arrival several days earlier.

A few years ago we bought this beach tent that was perfect for me as I didn't feel comfortable being out in the blazing sun for hours on end. It was ventilated on the back and sides so I could feel the gulf breeze without getting the sun's intense heat.

Steven has always been much more of a sun-lover than I, preferring to 'bake' in the sun with very little time in the sun tent. We both apply copious amounts of sunscreen but I wouldn't want Steven's dermatologist to witness Steven spending hour after hour in the sun. I was able to just poke my head out of the cabana to take this photo of him!

Believe me, I didn't crop people out of these shots - the cabin beach at Grayton Beach State Park is normally really this blissfully empty almost all the time! That is part of the reason why we keep coming back year after year to our little piece of heaven on earth! 

If other people do get too close to us, we just up and move further down the beach so we have uninterrupted views and peace and quiet. Fortunately, the little cabana is very light and, therefore, very portable and folds up at the end of the day into a small tube-like bag.

The long walkway down to the beach is on the right.

Seeing this elderly man walk past us that first day of September reassured us that all was 'right' with the world as we'd been watching him on his daily afternoon walk on every visit for the last dozen or so years. I've always wondered where he lives, where he's from, and what his story is as he is so much a part of our Grayton experience.

On our walk that day, we saw a number of these things all along the beach that looked like very ripe bananas.

9/3:

Another shot of the empty beach from the walkway:

9/4: 

I must have spent an hour off and on while reading and watching this one sand crab digging into this small hole, throwing out sand, and repeating the process time and time again.

This part of the Florida Panhandle is known as the Emerald Coast but you wouldn't have known it for the turbulent waters we'd experienced our first four or five days at Grayton in 2020. These glorious sea-green waters were as blissful as one can ever hope to swim in. 

When we walked around the state park's cabins, this was a view of the rear of our cabin visible through the forest.

Last year, when we were assigned a cabin further from the beach, I admit to some initial grousing. However, when I realized there was this beautiful and peaceful walk to the beach along a trail instead of the road, I thought we'd struck gold! In the spring and early summer, this expanse is full of water lilies so I was surprised it had dried up almost totally this late in the summer.

What a magical way to reach the beach by taking this pretty trail that hardly anyone else seems to have discovered!

9/5: This looked like another day of pure bliss, right? It was until we found out that swarms of biting flies had invaded the beach to an extent we'd never experienced on any other visit. It got so bad we ended up having to move to another area of the beach. We talked to park staff, one of whom described the dog flies as being like house flies with fangs! We were told that the flies are often a problem in August and September, especially when winds from the north blow the flies from the forest to the beach. It was pretty unpleasant as you can imagine! I found the only thing that helped was to wrap myself like a mummy with towels to reduce the flies having too much skin to feast on! Not the way you envision enjoying a beach vacation all wrapped up in 90-degree weather.

Fortunately, our sun shelter was pretty light to move to another area of the beach where there were fewer flies, for a short time at least.

Grayton Beach is obviously on a flight path for the nearby Eglin Air Force Base as Steven and I have regularly been entertained by Air Force jets flying at very low levels on what we have figured must be training runs while we relax on the beach. Several times a day, we look up to watch noisy low-flying planes pulling banners behind them advertising cheap summer garb from beach stores.

9/6:

The sign marked the state park boundary on the beach.

9/7: To escape the nasty flies at the cabin beach we decided to return to the park's camping beach located a couple of miles east. I purposely said 'return' as the camping area and its beach were all we knew of the state park for the first eight or so years we came down to Grayton.

We were so enamored with our annual respite at Grayton that many years ago we donated money to the park so that this bench could be built at the entrance to the camping beach for people to rest a spell and enjoy watching the beautiful sunsets. 

Because it catered to so many more people, the camping beach was far more packed than what we'd gotten used to at the cabin beach the last few years. The flies seemed far less prevalent so the 'crowds' didn't bother us!

9/8: Some more shots of our cabin in case you missed the last post:

To reach the camping beach, we had to drive past this small lagoon. In our 'old camping days,' we used to bring down to Grayton a small inflatable kayak that Steven especially loved to maneuver through the lake and lagoon that abutted our camping spot. He could even take it as far as the expanse of water in this post's first shots!

I have never grown tired of watching the sea oats flutter in the gulf breeze.

You can perhaps now appreciate how the pristine sandy beach helped Grayton Beach State Park be named America's Best Beach last year!

To recapture our old days, we walked through the camping area again and what we had always considered our own private beach from our favorite camping spot. In our camping years, we made sure to reserve our favorite spot eleven months to the minute in advance, the earliest time possible to make a reservation for the following year! It was nothing short of magical to set up our 36-foot-long travel trailer in our spot that had access to a short trail to the lake beach. Steven loved to leave his inflatable kayak there so he could leave anytime for the 'open water'!

9/9: This photo from our last day would have to suffice until we returned to Grayton on September 27th for two more weeks in our little piece of heaven on earth.

Next post: An idyllic time at Wakulla Springs State Park en route to Hudson near Tampa.

Posted on March 23rd, 2021, from our home in Denver's western suburbs. It is another sad day for the people of Colorado as we grapple with understanding yet another horrific mass shooting all too close to home. The city of Boulder just a short drive north of us has always had the reputation of being a peaceful enclave for people searching for an alternative lifestyle. How tragic that Boulder is another city that has lost its innocence and joined the far too long a list of communities that have witnessed such senseless gun violence. Please make sure to tell your loved ones you love them and hug them tight when you can.