Wekiva Springs, Site #27 April 2011

This has to be my favorite non-full hookup State Parks.

You can reserve these spots at www.reserveamerica.com. It was very hard to get into, as they were doing construction, but one that we will be visiting again as soon as we can, as it was only an hour from home!! Can't be beat, as well as they have the springs for the beautiful Florida summers. We had to have had one of the best sites, close to the restrooms, and next to a super large field, that we had a family baseball game in. They also have a book share closet with kids and parent books and games to borrow and check out. The kids are excited to bring back some of our older already read books to share with other campers...

This park had it all, camping, swimming, hiking, fishing, walking, so plenty to do over the next few days!
We started out Saturday with a trip to the Springs, which also had a Springs Festival going on! Some of the participants were the Sanford Zoo who had a live gator and snake to pet. The Orange County Water Conservation group where the kids learned first hand how water conservation worked. They got a shower water timer to save water, rulers and pencils for school, as well as maps of all the springs in Florida to visit and camp at, and lots of other neat groups to learn from. Then they got to swim! Which kid doesn't want to do that, oh yeah, that would be my 5 year old, who is scared of the natural springs. I enjoyed a little snuggling time, but he got to be heavy in the water, so we got to hang out on the shore catching some sun, while the others snorkeled and explored the amazing spring. (Which by the way is really cold ~ year round!) It was so beautiful, and clean, and not mossy bottom like some of them that we frequent, so mom was very happy!!!

We got to go on a bike ride around the park, a great long 3 mile hike the same day!

We even went to get a special treat ~ Sundaes at McDonalds (which my cell phone showed close) but sent us 20 miles away :)) The next morning, the boys went fishing and gator sighting while Janie and Owen joined me on a bike ride, which we caught a ride back with the boys, as the bike ride was too "hilly" for those two to make it all the way back!

 

This visit ended too quickly, as there was alot to do in such a beautiful park. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip and was in a great location in the Orlando area, and allowed each of the kids lots of the favorite things to do. The only problem we had was on the way out, everyone was leaving at the same time. We had drove separately so I took 1/2 of the crew home while he had to wait with the camper at the one and only dump station, which was almost a 30 minute delay. We will definitely go back and recommend to other family campers!