Wakulla Springs State Park

During our visit yesterday to the Museum of Florida History, as our guide was explaining the skeleton of a mastodon found in Wakulla Springs, she mentioned that the manatees were there.  The minute she said “manatee” I wanted to go.

The spring, of course, is the primary feature at Wakulla Springs State Park.  The park brochure proclaims the spring to be “one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.”  The spring is some 300 feet below the surface, so not visible.  Wakulla cave apparently holds the status of being the “longest and deepest known submerged freshwater cave system in the world.”  The spring forms the Wakulla River which joins the St Mark’s River and eventually makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Lodge

Popular around Florida are the glass bottomed boat tours and Wakulla Springs has that, too.  They also offer a river tour.  The glass bottom boats were not running today because the water was so dark.  Since we could see the bottom in even several feet of water, we were surprised to hear that visibility was so low.  Apparently, all the rain lately has caused to dark water.

Ceiling in the Lodge

We had come especially to see the manatee and were planning to take the river tour.  However, we noticed manatee in the swimming area behind the lodge.  A park volunteer, who is in her third winter at Wakulla Springs, said there was no concentration of manatee in the park that was any better than what we had this morning at the end of the diving platform.  We opted to save our money and stood for an hour or more watching seven manatee frolic in the shallow water of the swimming area.

Being the deepest and longest of anything would naturally warrant a lodge for all the visitors coming to see whatever was greatest.  As early as the 1840s there has been a lodge and commercial ventures to one extent or another, including the glass bottom boats.   The current Wakulla Springs lodge was opened in 1937.  It could use a facelift and some new furniture in the lobby, but all in all, it is still pretty nice.

The Park and Lodge are on the National Historic Register and the park is designated a National Natural Landmark.

For a bit of trivia--several of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films were filmed here as well as Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Tomorrow, we’re going to leave early in hopes of beating most of the rain for our run to Saint Augustine.