Crystal River

Manatee

Who said I suffer from insanity? Heck No!!! I enjoy every minute of it, as we enjoyed this short/crazy freezing trip to Crystal River and Three Sisters Spring. I had planned to take last Monday off to go kayaking at Crystal River. The forecast had the temperatures dropping below the 40s Sunday night so it was assumed that Monday morning was going to be a good manatee viewing day. The forecast changed and so did my plans. Do not know how but was able to convince my wife to come with me. I do really think she was more concerned about me swimming with those low temperatures than willing to go kayaking on Thanksgiving Day but she did come. Of course, I had to do some extra help and chores around the house but it was worthy.

Cold morning at King's Bay

Put In / Take Out: Hunter Springs Park. Please check previous posts about this location for details.

Scene exiting at Hunter Springs area

It is Thanksgiving and am not in the mood of writing a long post. Anyways most of you do not read what I write and just see the pics. Do not blame you. But I am going to ask you a special favor. If you only read one of my posts please read this one and share it if possible. I am going to say something about what is going on at Three Sisters Spring. More than that. If you read only one paragraph of this post just read the following one.

Protect Our Manatees

I did not think this place was going to be as packed as it was today. My bad. But the truth is it was super crowded which is not bad for the local economy but I think is bad for the spring and the manatees. We met some nice people in the area today. Stacey and her husband, volunteers, were in the water in a kayak and a paddle board respectively enforcing the rules. Rules that every boat operator should know, I assume. But the fact is that these volunteers had to work very hard in the short period of time we were there. People going after manatees to touch them, swimming into the protecting ropes that marks the manatee refuge, being noisy, splashing in the water, etc. You would think that tour boat operators would know better and will tell their clients what the rules are. Not sure that is happening like that. A volunteer had to ask twice for the people to keep it down and to enter in the water carefully. It baffles me they had to do that. Where the heck is common sense now a days? One of my professors used to say " Common sense is the less common of the senses". He is so right!!!!!!

I am not going to apologize for the rant. Not for this one. So...that being said let us go to the pics we have from today's short, freezing, but nice trip.

Coot

King's Bay scene

Brown Pelicans and Vultures

Sail boat at the bay

Brown Pelicans

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Manatee

Manatee comes to say hello to wifey

Manatee

Hello. Nice to meet you.

Manatee

A volunteer keeps an eye on the tens of snorkelers at the river. Stacey, his wife is the one in the red yak.

Crystal River

Brown Pelican

Cormorant

Manatee at  Three Sisters entrance

Manatees

Manatee

Manatee close encounter

Manatee and calf

Big manatee

Manatee and no...not another manatee. That is me.

Manatee calf

Manatee with scars.

Mom manatee and calf

Rear view

Manatee

This is it for this one. Check our Facebook Page for more pics of this and past trips and thanks for reading. Hope to see you soon, from another beautiful Florida location so we can share more Views From Our Kayak. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving Day!!!!!

Manatee and the Yak

Wakulla River

Wakulla River manatee

A personal matter forced me to take a day on vacation today to go to our state capital; Tallahassee. After thinking that it sucked big time came to my mind that, if I finished early what was needed to be done, then would have time to go and kayak somewhere near Tallahassee or a place on my way home. Long story short: Wakulla River and it was awesome as in manatee all over the places. My apologies in advance but the pics did not come out as I expected. Probably because am learning to use Manual Mode and have ways to go. There was not too much variety in the river but the scenic beauty is stunning.

Wakulla River

Put In / Take Out: The Wakulla River has more than two points where you can put in and take out. One of them is the bridge on CR 365, the other the bridge on US 98, and being the last one the city of St. Marks. Instead of trying to understand my writing check this link. It has good info and is what I used to locate where to put in for this trip: Kayaking Wakulla River. I did put in at the US 98 bridge. Paid $5 dollars and it uses the Honor System that means no attendant. You deposit your payment in a box and kept the receipt visible on your dash. There is an outfitter, TNT Hideaway, at this same location. If you rent from them you can use their put in area, which is much better than the boat ramp on US 98. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT go to Wakulla Springs State Park thinking you can put in there. It will not happen. Actually, you cannot kayak within the state park boundaries as it is a wildlife sanctuary.

Great Blue Heron

The Wakulla River is 11 miles long, flows into the St. Marks river a few miles North of the Gulf of Mexico. As the Silver River in the Ocala National Forest, its clear waters attracted several movie makers during the cinema boom in Florida. Some of the Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan movies were filmed at the Wakulla River.

Wakulla River Turtles

My trip was approximately 8 miles total...4 up river and 4 down river. Did turn around at the CR 365 bridge, where there is a fence that does not allow you go far up North inside the Wakulla Springs State Park territory. I do wonder if people really comply with this since there is enough room to paddle under the fence. It was cloudy when I started at the US 98 bridge. The Sun came out, went back into the clouds, came back out, did hide again, came back out, and finally it rained. What about 10% precipitation chances? This place is as beautiful as you can imagine with an incredible and peaceful scenery. Lots of turtles, cormorants and manatees. Unfortunately the water, as it was clear for being a spring fed river, was not clear enough for good underwater photos. I do not know if that is the norm or if those were the conditions yesterday. Enough of my writing, let us go to the pics...

Anhinga

Turtles

More Turtles at the Wakulla River

Great Egret caught lunch

Cormorant

Cormorant and Turtle

Belted Kingfisher

Cormorants

Great Egrets

Turtle formation

Ibis

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher. Is the owl supposed to scare it?

Belted Kingfisher

Great Egret

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Manatee

One and only gator seeing at the Wakulla River

CR 365 bridge. Turn around point as there is a fence with warning signs...

Boundary of the Wakulla Spring State Park

Manatee at the Wakulla Rive

Manatee ahead!!!!!

And this is it for this post. If you checked it yesterday and came back today for the finished post I hope you are not dissapointed. I enjoyed this first trip to Crawfordville. Always take a look at our Facebook Page for more pics from this and past trips. See you soon, from another beautiful Florida location, to share more Views From Our Kayak.

US 98 bridge over the Wakulla River.

Pellicer Creek - From Faver Dykes State Park

Cormorant

It was a tough one to choose where to go. The only place that looked good was Ichetuknee Springs State Park, where I have been wanting to go for weeks, but my wife did not want to go with me today. The less worst forecast was near St. Augustine so reluctantly decided to go to back to Pellicer Creek.Well, let me see how can I put this without sounding bad. OK...Cannot express it with words so will say it with another pic. It was the actual opening or the following one...

No comments...It was that kind of day!!!!

Put In/ Take Out: Will use the intelligent laziness concept here and paste a link to our first post about Pellicer Creek. There you will find all the information you need about location and fees. Just as a summary the put in and take out is at Faver Dykes State Park in St. Augustine. There are restrooms at the ramp.

Self explanatory

This is going to be short. It was a windy gray cloudy day with the Sun making its presence at the beginning and at the end of the trip. Made it past the HWY 1 bridge and then returned to the State Park. Pics chances were minimum so did shoot a few scenic.

Cormorant

Cormorant

Anhinga

Pellicer Creek

Pellicer Creek Campground Area.

Those are all the pics from the trip up creek. Decided to return shortly after the campground. The creek gets narrow and quite frankly, was not in the mood to keep going. Here are the pics of the down creek leg...

Pellicer Creek. The first of only two boats I saw the whole trip.

I95

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Cormorant. Two of them at the same place I saw two at the beginning of the trip. Most likely the same birds.

Cormorant

Duo

Great Egret

Great Egret

Is that a Barn Swallow????

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Here is a video of  a section of the trip. After listening you may advice me to keep writing. Will not blame you for that. I was able to put videos here. Now I cannot. Any advice from the media experts? Anyways, posted the video on the Facebook Page, if you want to take a look.

Scenic video

And this is it for this one. Do not forget to check our Facebook Page with more pics from this and other trips. Thanks for coming and see you next week to share more Views From Our Kayak.

Pellicer Creek