On Thursday Rob, his dog K.C., and I went up to Falling Waters State Park. There we set up our campsite in the highest elevation campground in the state. Yes, it is a mind-boggling 324 feet above sea level at the Falling Waters State Park Campground! Nevertheless, the campground is quite possibly the most clean and pleasant that I have ever stayed in. Then we went on a short hike through pine forest, crossed a bridge over a small bog, skirted a large pond (watch out for alligators!), then walked along a boardwalk meandering through lush hardwood hammock forest and finally walked down steps to the waterfall viewing platform. The waterfall at Falling Waters is the tallest in Florida and it drops 73 feet down into a sinkhole. It is a beautiful sight and we were lucky enough to see it after it had rained the day before so there was quite a bit of water falling.
After taking some photos we hiked on a little loop and saw a Park Ranger and a bunch of bat researchers perched on the edge of another sinkhole. They were there to count the bats that were there at nightfall.
It turned out to be a peaceful night under an almost full moon. In the morning I hiked to the fall one more time to take a couple more photos then we were off to go hike on the Florida Trail.
|