Rainbow Springs

This area of Florida is chock full of springs.  We had already visited Three Sisters in Crystal River and the Homosassa Springs.  But some of our RV park neighbors recommended Rainbow Springs which was about 30 minutes away.  So after fixing the toilet and a quick lunch we headed off for the Rainbow Springs State Park.

After entering the park and grabbing some junior ranger sheets we saw the crown jewel of the park.  A crystal clear pool of water that is perfectly aqua colored.  Surrounded by green jungle and a few colorful flowers it really is beautiful.  We followed the trails to some water falls that, if I understood correctly, are really man made and use recirculated water (cheesy for sure…but it looked nice I suppose).  There used to be a zoo at the park and the remnants of the cages and enclosures can be seen at the park.  There is a really nice garden area, but I don’t think its peak gardening season or something….there weren’t as many flowers as I expected.

A few of us wanted to rent a kayak/canoe but when we showed up to the rental place at 2:39 they told us they were done for the day….they stop at 2:30.  We offered to cut our float short so we’d still return by 4:30 at the latest (if we rented at 2:30 we would get 2 hours) but “uh, I have to be at my other job in town so, yeah, we’re done renting for the day” was the response we got from the young whippersnapper at the booth.  Dacen was pretty bummed and I felt bad we didn’t inquire when we first arrived.  If YOU have a recommendation for a cool place to rent a kayak/canoe and do a float in Florida or anywhere along the east coast, comment below or send us a note at our contact page.

We decided to take a little walk on one of their trails.  It was a nice walk but pretty poorly marked…despite our navigational challenges we made it without any issues.  The kids cranked out a few more junior ranger pages to get a few more stamps.  Man, the state of Florida really makes you work for your patch (compared to other states)!  But the kids are just a few stamps away from filling up their book to get a patch.

After dinner Steph and Brielle visited with our neighbors while Caden beat Dacen and I in a really close game of Biblios.  Dacen then won in a game of Love Letter.  I lost the trophy.  We have a trophy we use for the game champ like they do on TableTop with Will Weaton….it gets ‘engraved’ with the winner’s name using masking tape and a sharpie pen and a grand trophy presentation ceremony is held while all the losers sit on the loser couch.  But the biggest loser gets to go first on the next game we play.