Silver River State Park

Oh, what a beautiful day!!  That makes two in a row.  Might this be a new trend?  Made us want to get outside to play.  We went across the street and around the corner to Silver River State Park.

This is a very nice state park and almost within spitting distance of downtown Ocala.  They offer hiking and biking trails, a big rig friendly campground, picnic pavilion, canoe rental, and cabins.  They also have a nice little museum and a pioneer village.

School/church in the pioneer village

There is a small day use fee which is true of most, if not all, Florida state parks.  We also wanted to go to the Silver River History Museum which was an additional $2 each.  We were quite impressed with the Museum.  It is run by the Marion County Board of Public Education and its primary purpose is for the benefit of 4th and 7th graders studying local and state history.  It is very well done and not too juvenile for adults.  It is open to the public on holidays and weekends, otherwise it is used by local students.  There are a couple classrooms and also a nice library.  The $2 fee for non-students helps keep this facility available for education.  Great idea.

The more modern school used in the 1930s

Along with the museum is a replica of a “cracker” village.  This is a hands on area for student projects and the buildings were not open today.  From reading the brochure, it appears they are open to the public, with interpreters, during summer months but only once a month during winter months.

Boardwalk over the swampy area

After we did the museum, we hiked two of the four short hiking trails.  Two people had suggested we do the trails that lead to the river, so those were the ones we did for a total of just over 3 miles.  Our favorite, and the longest of the two, was the swamp trail.  This trail was a loop with a nice boardwalk over the swampy area close to the Silver River.  I was hoping to see an alligator sunning on the bank, but I had no such luck today.  We saw only squirrels and could hear only the noisy sandhill cranes overhead.

Following our hike, we drove through the campground just to see what was what.  Each site is very spacious with water and electric hook-ups.  There is a dump station available.  It appeared that all of the 59 sites would accommodate a big rig and each site had a picnic table, a grill, and fire ring.  Sites are $24/night and there is the typical 14 day limit. A notice at the entrance station indicated the campground was full today.

It was a very nice way to spend the afternoon on this glorious day.

We had originally planned to head over to Cedar Key today, but with rain in the afternoon forecast, we decided to put that off until later in the week.

Tomorrow, we’re heading to Gainesville to visit the Florida State Museum of Natural History.