I thought this sign provided some interesting information about the springs in this area. Hopefully readers of this blog can expand the photo to read it.
We had initially thought we would put our kayak in so that we could search for the manatees but that proved to be unnecessary and even not worth it. The manatees were hanging out right at the spring where the water is the warmest. Kayaks and canoes are not allowed in this area, in order to protect the manatees from unnecessary noise and intrusion. The lovely board walk goes right up to the spring, and the manatees were clearly visible from the edge of the walkway.
If you look closely, you can see 5 manatees hanging out at the end of the slightly submerged concrete walkway. No one was using this walkway because regulations require swimmers and waders to maintain 50 feet of distance from the manatees.
We walked the length of the board walk which is just about as pretty as any mangrove area to be found anywhere. We had been here before, but I had not seen the submerged flowers in bloom. In general, Florida looks great right now. There seems to have been sufficient rain that things look wet, green and fresh. This often is not true at this time of the year. We have seen it very dry with lots of wild fires and dusty soil.
We continued our lovely time in the park by walking close to 5 miles on a scenic loop trail. It was a beautiful day yesterday, and the daytime hours are now getting into the high 60's, very comfortable. Didn't take a lot of photos, but I got this photo near the end of our walk.
