The first day, we checked out Florida Caverns State Park to see if we made a mistake by not staying there. (Spoiler Alert: We did not make a mistake.) The second day, we drove the shorter route to the next park to make sure it was acceptable for the RV. The third day, we finally had a chance to hike from the campground to the day use boat ramp and back.

Shortly down the trail, there is a split in the trail with a bench off to the side. We stopped to see if there was anything in the marsh, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker was walking up a tree beside us. Despite only having a 250mm, these are some of the best woodpecker pictures we now have because of how close and well lit is was. We we able to take pictures from a variety of angles as it moved around.

Just past the woodpecker on the lakeside of the trail split, we ran across a brilliant orange Damselfly. Our best guess is that it is a juvenile female Eastern Forktail Damselfly.

An then a brilliant green Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly.

And a Common Buckeye Butterfly or two and a Rain Lily.

And a little further on, was the reason we think the orange damselfly might be an Eastern Forktail instead of an Orange Bluet or Florida Bluet. As they age, the female Eastern Forktail turns grey. (Don’t we all.)

When we arrived at the day use boat ramp, we saw two people in small fishing kayaks scrambling to get to the boat ramp and out of the water. As it turns out, the “little” alligator we saw in the distance was about nine feet long. It was bigger than their kayaks.

It slowly swam to the reeds and just hung out there. The two kayakers told us that there should be more alligators at the public boat ramp, so we decided to head back and check there.

On the way back, Kate saw a red bird that did not look right to be a Cardinal. The Merlin Bird App claimed it was a Summer Tanager. We had the small lens, and we could not get very close before it flew away. It is a new bird, though.

The category 5 Hurricane Michael hit the pan handle of Florida in 2018, and it leveled a significant part of the forest canopy at the park. This has left large gaps in the canopy and dead trees that are prefect for wood peckers. We hear Red-bellied Woodpeckers multiple times per day, and most places, you are lucky to hear one a week. They also have Red-headed Woodpeckers.

This park is lush with woodland and wetland birds, but it is also lush with insects. Some of them are innocuous, like the American Bird Grasshopper and American Lady Butterfly.

The gnats, on the other hand, are incredibly annoying, and they do not even bite.

In addition to the Common Grackles, Boat-tailed Grackles, and Northern Mockingbirds, there are a lot of crows. This area has a new bird for us – Fish Crows. Visually, you can not easily tell them apart, but they make an “Eh-uh” call instead of “Caw-caw”.

The crow was shortly before the exited the trail, but we missed these little flowers on the way in. We have not yet figured out what these are. They are a little like Violet Wood-sorrel, but the petal is the wrong shape.

After the hike, we planned on lunch and alligator hunting at the public boat ramp.

The outboard split on the lake side was marked with a difficulty of easy, and it most certainly was. It was also in need of mowing, but it was not completely over grown. The trail was wide and fairly flat, but it had very limited lake views.

The return inland split on the way back is marked a moderate difficulty, and it was also easy. There was a gentle rise, but the elevation was not very significant. There were no lake views, but this trail was a little less in need of mowing.

Both trails had an abundance of birds and something small that fled into the leaves as you approach. We never saw it, but it was probably small lizards.

The campground to day use trails are pleasant for birds, but they are not very scenic or difficult hikes.