Friday, August 27, 2010

Florida-Falling Waters State Park

We headed to Florida on Wednesday, driving through 4 states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Florida. What do we encounter along the way? More bridges! Just what Sandy was looking forward to. Yeah, right. We have kept track of the incoming hurricanes, ready head inland if one starts to head our way.

Our destination was Falling Waters State Park in Chipley, which boasts to be the spot of Florida's tallest waterfall. When we get there, we find out it only runs in the spring time. : ( The park is situated in a pine forest, only 324 feet above sea level.
Here we are, trying to figure out who goes first when trying to back into our sites. Maybe "rock, paper, scissors" would work.
This park had a lot of nice trails. Sandy and I decided to try walking on the Terrace Trail seen below until she saw a snake! Even though it was small, it was still a S-N-A-K-E! The sign by the bathrooms warned us of all the poisonous snakes that live Florida. We were out of there! Snake sightings trump everything: a desire to get exercise, see new sights, enjoy the pine forest, etc.
After supper, Jerry and I did go and check out the boardwalk that took us past various sinkholes. In pioneer days, the waterfall powered a grist mill and there was a nearby whiskey distillery. In 1919, one of the first oil wells in Florida was drilled here, but after drilling to a final depth of 4912 feet, no oil of commercial quantity was ever found. Development of the park was started in 1963.
We went down the wooden stairway to see the mouth of a sinkhole 100 feet deep and 20 feet wide that disappears into a sloping cave at the bottom. I got a bit of vertigo just walking down the steps and peering into the black, seemingly bottomless pit.

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