Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida
They said to each other, “Come, let us built ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” ~ Genesis 11:4
At first glance, this verse in Genesis 11, doesn’t seem that big a deal, but consider this. In Chapter 9, when Noah and his family left the ark, they were told to go out and replenish the earth. So now, only 100 years later, the descendants are determined to stay in one place in defiance of God. They’ve also determined to build “a tower that reaches to the heavens”. Why? So they can make a name for themselves and not be scattered. As a group, they had decided to take life into their own hands and “become like God” (Genesis 3:5).
This sinful attitude seems to prevail in every generation since the fall of Adam. Note, Great things may be brought to pass when the undertakers are numerous and unanimous, and stir up one another. Let us learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and encourage one another to wicked works. ~ Matthew Henry.
So here we are today – the more things change, the more they stay the same. Someday, Jesus will return and there will be an end to it. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)
So what did we do today? We went manatee hunting! Unfortunately, as with all hunters, at some point, we came home empty. But we experienced so many other marvelous things! AND a sorta, kinda promise of manatees on Friday, following a bitter cold Thursday night. We ran into a couple when we docked to stretch our legs. They’re volunteers that patrol the Silver Springs River (which is all part of the State Park) in their kayaks, and we found them resting in this really out of the way spot, where I’m certain they were surprised to have visitors. But they were very friendly, and told us the manatees should be back, because they’ll be searching for warmer water because of the cold night. We’ll head back out on Friday and see if they’re right. It doesn’t make much sense to us though, because we’ve always been told that the water stays the same 72⁰ temperature year-round, and the ocean temperature isn’t going to change overnight. Hmmm . . .
In the meantime, let’s focus on today!
We put in at a channel near the edge of the Park boundary called Ray Wayside, and paddled upstream for three miles, to our lunch spot – a dock not too far from our campground. It was not an easy paddle. Either we’re getting older and weaker, or the river current was stronger this year. We don’t remember having so much trouble two years ago.
Well, we certainly don’t need to return to that! Thanks for watching out for us, Father!
Back up a bit to the beginning of our tour. At the end of the channel, where it meets the Silver River, we had our first monkey encounter! So exciting to see them in the wild like that! Of course, our eyes (especially Blaine’s) could see them much better than our phones could pick them up, but still. . .
We sat in the water and enjoyed them for a good twenty minutes before moving on, and the time flew by!
We moved on from there, but weren’t able to really scan the banks and trees like we would’ve liked because of having to work so hard, but we weren’t discouraged. There’s always the trip back, when we’ll get to float most of the way.
Sure beats workin’!
We didn’t take a lot of pictures because for one, the above mentioned current, and two, we took a lot of really fantastic pictures from two years ago. Here’s a couple of our favorites to refresh your memory:
Great Blue Heron 
Manatee 
Green Heron 
Alligator and Turtle coexisting.
How does that turtle know the gator’s not hungry??
Just before we stopped for lunch, we came across another troop of monkeys! Do you remember how they got here? A guy imported some back in the 1930’s to provide entertainment for tourists. He didn’t think they could swim, but they can, very well, and swim they did. Right off the island, out of the park and into the surrounding woods. There are now an estimated 300 of them.
Once we reached the dock, we exited the water and carried our boat up the ramp and out of the way of other paddlers who had the same idea. Fortunately, many left the dock area and returned to the water shortly after we arrived, so we were able to sit on a bench and eat our lunch while watching the river (and other paddlers) flow by.
You can’t miss them.
Two more miles to go (in a much slower current) to get to the actual Silver Springs State Park visitor area where you can paddle over the outflow. You can also purchase an iconic glass-bottom boat ride, visit their museum and other things. We were anticipating an ice cream break, and another opportunity to stretch our legs and enable blood flow to return our nether regions!
Either that, or he got hungry again. : )
Their neck looks like it’s covered in black velvet.
Such a gorgeous bird!
Yes. That’s really what it’s called. : )
You can tell because they have brown necks instead of black.
Not too far from our boat, but far enough. : )
Unfortunately, none of those things happened. We weren’t able to get out of our boat at the outflow. There were a lot of people and some Rangers milling about who discourage people like us from parking on the side of the river. You can pay a docking fee, but we didn’t know how much it was, so we just stayed put. Besides, we spoke to some friendly folk who informed us that the ice cream shop – and all the other places here – was closed. Sigh . . . . But we still had cookies with us!
If you walk to it, you’ll discover information about them filming the TV series “Sea Hunt”, here.
Plus, we can tell because many of them paddle like it’s their first time. : )
It’s very pretty underwater here! As a refresher from two years ago – – The springs in this river discharge an average of 516 million gallons of water daily. By the time the water reaches the river, it’s been underground in the Florida Aquifer for 2-3 days. There are approximately 30 springs of various sizes within the 5 miles of the Silver River (the length of our paddle today). The largest is the one we’re aiming for in this picture. It’s called Mammoth Spring. The vent is 5′ high and 135′ long and dispels approximately 45% of all the spring water in the River. The depth of the water here varies, depending on rain, between 35-45′ deep.
You can see the water line on the ‘fencing’.
But we learned something! If you look at the water through the shadow of the paddle, it’s much more clear!
The entire picture is here. The clear part is the paddle shadow 
the edges are what the phone picture would normally look like – 
without the shadow. 
Cool beans!
We had to find a flat, secure and empty-of-critter place on the way back to stretch.
As you can see, this picture’s not nearly as good as the one from two years ago. : )
We didn’t see those last time. They’re gorgeous!
And a great place to move around for a few minutes.
This is the area where the volunteers were sitting.
They told us this used to be a place where they rehabilitated birds to release them back into the wild. 
We have zero ideas about what this is, but it was near where we docked.
Because the return trip is all downstream, and the current moves fairly fast, we barely paddled the five miles back. So nice and restful! And barely anyone else was on the river, so we had it mostly all to ourselves – and the critters who live here. They were probably wondering why we were there, especially when our time dipped in to sunset.
I think it shows him off better. : )
And lastly, how’s he gonna get down? That’s a long way!
Such a wonderful world our Father has blessed us with! We are grateful!