Rainbow Springs

After watching the Netherlands lose on a last second goal yesterday during the Euro cup, Cameron and I decided that we wanted to do something different today. I gave him a couple of options and he landed on Rainbow Springs. I was excited to visit it as I had heard a lot of really good things about the state park. Cal even had some friends tell him about it.

The drive to Dunnellon today was an easy one except the GPS took us to the tubing entrance instead of the main park. Once we figure that out and found a parking spot, we headed in to start exploring. Our first stop was their swimming area. I had seen pictures of it before and assumed that it was roped off with nets to keep out alligators. I was wrong. I couldn’t believe that kids were swimming in an area without lifeguards that might have snakes or alligators in it. Cameron agreed with me, and didn’t think it was for him either. The water was clear to the bottom, however, so maybe that made everyone feel safer. Either way, I was impressed with how many people were there. While we were at the dock, we also checked out the kayaking and canoe rental. That looked a little more plausible to me, but I liked the Silver Springs one a little bit better.

After checking out the river, Cameron and I started on the hiking trail. It was really hot out and very humid, but thankfully, we were in the shade. I also felt a lot safer in this area, at least we weren’t near alligators. The paved trail took us back through some waterfalls and the old remnants of the attractions of rainbow Springs 50 years ago. All of it was really neat to see. I would’ve loved riding on their monorail system. We talked about turning around when we got to the dirt path, but decided to go ahead and walk and explore a little bit more. I decided at that point that Cameron was definitely more afraid of the bugs that we might encounter than snakes, alligators, or other animals that I was worried about. While walking, we saw some huge spiders, a lizard with a blue tail and an interesting bright red ant.  I loved all the foliage and appreciated the shade. The two of us spent about an hour and a half on the trails before making it back to the main entrance of the park. It was a lot of fun.

Tonight at Gator Dockside, we told Doug all about our adventures at rainbow Springs. He was impressed with how far I had hiked and found our explorations interesting.  By chance, we ran into one of Doug‘s employees. She grew up in Florida and said that she used to swim at Rainbow Springs. She stopped when she was in high school because a water moccasin swam right under her.  I was glad that I hadn’t heard that story before we went. Overall, it was a great day exploring Central Florida. I will miss Cameron going on these adventures with me when he goes back to Indiana.