Days at Alafia River State Park

December 18-21 & 29-Jan 1, 2023                 Most Recent Posts:
Alafia River State Park Site 5                           Flying for the Holiday
Lithia, Florida                           Gamble Rogers: Sunrises, Sunsets, Rain and Wind

Now that the holiday is over I’ll go back to what I did both before and after flying to Maryland for a bad airline experience and a fun holiday time.

I left Gamble Rogers on Monday December 18th for the 3 hour drive to Alafia River State Park in Lithia Florida.  I’m gone from the coast and headed west and inland.

Alafia was chosen a few years ago for its proximity to the Tampa Airport since I spend about half my 14 day reservation time flying to and being in Maryland for the holiday.

Alafia River is reknown for its exceptional mountain biking trails created from this reclaimed phosphate mining area.  The trails range from Easy to expert.  They are well marked and not for hikers.  There are also 20 miles of equestrian trails and hiking trails through a mostly mixed hardwood forest and pine flatwoods.  Most of the 30 total sites in the two relatively small campground loops are pull through with water and electric.  There is a dump station as well.

When you first pull into the campground area there are three sites for what they call Comfy Camping – Glamping Rentals.  I’ve shown them before but this time there were many more people camping in them so I was lucky to get these pictures unblocked by their cars and trucks .

They are quite nice with solar panels,  a BBQ grille and picnic table, rocking chairs around the fire pit, bean bag toss game or whatever it is called and more.   The first three pictures were taken from the front of the site.  The last one was taken from the trail behind the sites to which they have a connector path for hiking.

Most mornings I walked this trail behind the Glamping as I call it to and around Lonesome Lake

These Common Moorhens were the only water birds I saw on my hikes.

There is a boat launch just outside the park where you can kayak the south prong of the Alafia river which flows through the park but the only time it was really warm enough to do that was while I was gone unfortunately.  It felt planned.  This is what the temperatures were in the morning rising only into the 50’s or at best low 60’s until the day I left and it was in the 70’s every day I was gone including the day I returned just before dark.   Then back to atypically cold for Florida in December.

Saw this fellow one day on the trail.  I find them so strange looking that they are endearing like possums.  But Armadillos are related to anteaters and sloths and found only in the “new world”.  While Opossums are marsupials like kangaroos.

Heard this Red Bellied Woodpecker before I saw him.

There wasn’t much of a view toward the sunset or sunrise but I went out often just looking for the color.

I showed this bridge in an earlier picture.  One morning a family surprised me.  We stood and looked at each other for some time before they decided to wander away.  I was very close to them but by the time I got to the bridge they had disappeared into the woods without a sound or trace.  Sure wish I could move as quietly on my two feet as they do on 4 or in this case 20.

The lake always had something wonderful to see.  There were days of puffy clouds.

And Florida’s version of Fall color.

I got back from Maryland late on Thursday and that Saturday Shayne and Bev, whom I met at Fort Clinch a year or who knows how many ago, drove an hour to come down and see me.

I wanted to take them out for lunch but had to pull rank and age in order to get Shayne to agree.

The closest restaurants to Alafia are in Lithia and there isn’t much.   Three pizza places, McDonalds, Outback,  Taco Bell and Beef O’Gradys.  We ended up the latter whose walls were totally covered with BIG TV’s.  Amazingly  Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Women’s Basketball team was beating the sox off of East Carolina.  Eventually 73-36.   I do LOVE ACC basketball.

BUT, the company actually was more enticing than the game.   Aren’t they darling??

I hiked out the old year.

The park has wonderful mowed trails, plenty wide, no racing mountain bikes.

Those often lead to gorgeous wooded trails

On New Year’s Day I began 2024 by moving to Myakka River State Park outside of Sarasota Florida where I hope the weather will warm up enough to kayak which for me means in the 70’s and under 10mph winds.

A very Happy New Year to you all and thanks so much for keeping in touch.