Wakulla Springs State Park

Last week I related to you our trip to Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay. This week I will introduce you to another site we visited on our Gulf Coast trip, one with lots of wildlife and a rich history.

We’ve probably all heard of the springs of Florida; Silver Springs, Tarpon Springs and the one in St. Augustine called The Fountain of Youth.  However, I had never heard of the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park until very recently.  I found it on a map while preplanning our trip and I’m glad I did.

Located about 30 miles south of Tallahassee, Wakulla Springs is a little difficult to find, but it is worth the effort. The park features a very nice lodge, a freshwater swimming beach and cruises on glass-bottom boats along the river formed by the springs.

On the river cruise you are likely to see all manner of wildlife, including mullet fish which will jump up to five feet out of the water, alligators, manatees and fishing birds like the pelican, heron, cormorant, ibis and anhinga.  Even the bald eagle is a visitor to the park, plus some other exotic birds you might see on any given day.

Anhingas (called snake birds, due to their similarity to water snakes when they swim half submerged in the river) and cormorants share cypress debris to spot their prey

The manatees were the first I’ve ever seen in nature.  They are very shy, so it is difficult to get a picture of one.  They appear as a large tan shape several feet below the surface. The river has several of them and we saw 6-8 on our 45-minute cruise.

Aside from the wildlife, the park has a history too. Several of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films were shot there, as was the horror film, Creature From the Black Lagoon.  If you are old enough to recall Tarzan diving into the water from a projecting tree trunk, that trunk is still there, though it has shrunk over the decades since the films were made. Now it’s a perfect perch for the birds to spot their prey in the water.

A heron poses on Tarzan’s diving log while looking for his next meal

Starting back in 2008, a team of archeologists began excavating a dig along the river that had yielded some artifacts common to ancient man.  By the time they had finished the dig they had uncovered enough to state that the site had been occupied for the past 15,000 years since the last Ice Age. That makes it one of the oldest continuously occupied “villages” in the worl

Mullet fish of Wakulla Springs.  These two were about 30 feet down, so they weren’t jumping as they are prone to do. (note the clarity of the water)

If you are up for a very relaxing and interesting tour, go spend a few hours or a few days at Wakulla Springs.  It is a neat place to get away from it all and converse with nature..