Days Before and After at Alafia River

December 17-22 & 27-30, 2022                             Most Recent Posts:
Alafia River State Park Site 5                      Winding Up Wekiwa Springs
Lithia, Florida                                   More Wonderful Days at Wekiwa Springs

My days at Alafia River State Park before flying to visit Carrie and her family for the holidays were very different than my days after I returned.  All of these photographs are from the days before my trip north.

I had a two week reservation split into thirds.  The first 5 days at the park 6 days in Maryland two of which I was flying and 3 days back at the park before leaving on December 30.

My site was a pull through which is always nice though seldom as private as a back in.  The real advantage is that I could both take the car off and put it back on the RV in my site which was a serious blessing when I had to move on.

This was the view from my bedroom window.

Alafia River State Park was a phosphate mine beginning in the 19th century.  Mining altered the landscape and created new landforms such as small lakes and steep grades.  The 7743 acres  was donated to the state in 1993.  Currently it is well known for its mountain biking and equestrian trails. 

The forest has grown back and the area where mountain biking exists is an erratic mixture of pond depressions and abrupt hills jutting from the surface. The park claims to have some of the most radical elevation changes in the state which of course is primarily flat flat flat.  This left over strip mining topography has 20 miles of trails much of which can also be hiked.

This is the view out my living room windows of Lake Hurrah.  I’ve never seen anyone but ducks and a few fishermen using the lake.  Still it’s a pretty spot.

I spent most of the beginning days here both hiking and reading on my patio.  Unfortunately for me, the recent hurricane had taken out the boat launch and bridge on the Alafia River.

As with most state parks, happily the trail heads were easy walking distance from my site.  Some of them were mown through tall grasses on their way into the woods and others were wooded from the start.

My first hike took me by a new addition to the park.  They call it Comfy Camping.  I’d not been here to Alafia in two years because of Covid and vandalism.  Thus I had never seen this.

There are 3 set ups like this one that you can reserve.  It would be fun camping for a family group.

The sites were occupied several times during my stay here.

But I was never able to get pictures of the things under the covers by the outdoor tables on the right.   I assume they are the advertised camping cook-station table with a butane burner as well as a charcoal grill.

Picnic table under a shade structure and Nice hammock on the left.

And very nice campfire seating complete with flower pots.  You can see a campsite in the short distance.

The tent entrance has a nice bank of solar panels but they would not support heaters or air conditioning.   The website says “starts at $99 a night” with a queen size bed.   There are some nice pictures of the inside of the sleeping quarters on the website.

From there I walked on by the horse barn which has 6 very nice stalls for folks who want to ride the trails and spend the night in their RV or horse trailer.

While I was walking along the road by the horse barn on my way to the trail head for the trail that goes around the lake, I saw this duo.

It’s a bit hard to see the hat and googles worn by the dog since they are both black.

The lake trail head goes along a mown path through a field to those trees in the distance.

I believe it is an all purpose trail open to bikes, hikers and horse back riders.   I saw no one.

And the little back dot ducks were the only wildlife around.

Nearly every day I went out on one or another of the trails open to hikers.  Most are through the woods.

and often over bridges or other wooden structures set up by the SouthWest Association of Mountain Bike Pedlers who originally created and maintained the mountain bike trails which are now maintained by the Friends of Alafia club.  In previous posts I have shown pictures of some of the swoops and swirls on those trails.   If you’d like to see them, type in Alafia River in the search box at the top left of the blog.  I’ve read that the bike trails are rated Epic  by the International Mountain Biking Association.  Epic sounds pretty serious.    I intended to get pictures of those more difficult bike runs after my trip North but of course that didn’t happen.

On another day I came upon this hawk sitting on a snag right on the trail.  I was very close to him and stood stone still watching him and taking pictures for quite some time.  Unfortunately as you can see from the shot below, the sun was directly behind the hawk and I was afraid to pass him to get shots from a better angle where he might be something more than a shadow.  I was pretty sure he’d fly away if I tried to pass right by his perch.

So unfortunately these were the best shots I have.  The one on the right shows him  standing facing the same direction as the one on the left but turning his head around and looking behind him.   Amazing that they can do that.  Makes for 360 degree vision.

Other trails on other days.

This particular pond had an alligator lazing on its far bank.  The only gator I saw in the park.

I was very taken with this tree stump and wondered how such a design could have happened.

Isn’t it beautiful?  Is it natural?  Or a woodburner with portable tools?

The day after I returned to the park I was sick and unable to do anything for the remainder of my stay.  It was quite a difficult ordeal to pack up and  move to Highlands Hammock where I did go to Urgent Care in Sebring for all the good it did me.  It is very hard to be traveling alone when you are ill.  But that’s for my next post.