Blue Springs State Park manatees

40,000 bikers headed home today from the St. Augustine Bike Week - sort of a senior citizen version of the Sturgis Rally. We saw many of them on the road pulling trailèrs full of big, shiny motorcycles. We were driving to Blue Springs State Park where dozens of huge manatees congregate in the 72 degree water during the cold winter months.
Manatees are huge mammals with very mild personalities who are being killed in high numbers in Florida by being cut by boat propellers. They can't live in really cold water. A very clear, shallow stream flows from a hot spring in the park to the St. John's River. The manatees move from the main part of the river to the warm pools when the river gets cold during the winter. A boardwalk runs along the stream with overlooks so that everyone can enjoy a good view of the huge, slow moving beasts. Alligators, turtles and birds all live alongside the manatees who are too big for the alligators to bother. The water is so clear that we could see some huge Florida gar and bass as well, but no fishing is allowed in this protected area.
We enjoyed watching the. Manatee and then stepped aboard a big pontoon boat for a tour of the backwater areas of the river. We got a good history of the area and saw a lot of the "real" Florida - floating bogs, alligators, Sandhills cranes, great blue herons, anhingas, coots, egrets, and osprey. Except for the alligators, cypress and palm trees, we sometimes felt like we were in the channel to west lake at the cabin during the two hour tour. We really enjoyed it. The park is located about a half hour from Orlando and would be a great side trip for visitors to the Disney version of Florida.
We saw our first clouds over the ocean this evening and are expecting rain tonight which is disappointing for our last day tomorrow but so much better than snow, right?