Florida Caverns State Park – What’s All the Fuss About?

Hello! My name is Ben and in 2022 I’ve set out to camp in my travel trailer as much as possible. I’ve already done a few tours around the Florida/south Georgia area so check out my Camping Stories for more of those reviews and pictures. Can you guess in which park I took this picture? *Answer is at the bottom of this post*

Today’s post is about Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna, Florida. It’s in the panhandle about an hour west of Tallahassee and I camped here in the last few days of April. One of my favorite things to see and/or photograph is wildlife, so when I took off for this 4-day trip, I didn’t know what to expect since the park is known for its cave tours. Another reason I was a little anxious is that I found out they don’t do tours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I only had Thursday to get a tour in, I was leaving on Friday.

The good news is that I booked a tour for 10:45am (central, yes the park is officially on central time) and it did NOT disappoint! I’ll preface these pictures with a warning: There are a few tight spaces that had me feeling a little claustrophobic. Another few folks I talked to mentioned that the ups and downs inside the caves were hard on their knees. So… fair warning about that! Here are a few of my favorite pics from the caverns.

I took a lot more photos, some were terrible, but the less terrible ones might be posted on a cave specific blog. As far as the rest of the park goes, I’ll admit that when I drove up to the camp sites, I was underwhelmed. Would this be boring? What is there to do besides the cave? It also didn’t help that the “blue hole” was brown.

If you’ve done research on the park, you know that it was hit hard by Hurricane Michael a few years back. So in the park you’ll notice lots of newly planted trees and such. They’re marked with little flags (to keep from getting mowed over?), as you’ll see in the first picture below. The second and third pictures in the set below are examples of the stripped (and dead) trees in the area. Hauntingly beautiful, and the birds seem to like perching on them.

And here’s a picture of a cool little cardinal. He was enjoying the not-dead trees.

They’ve really done a great job rebuilding the area. Point #1, I especially loved having a sewer hookup right at my site. I was told a few spots had them before the hurricane, but now they all have sewer.

*you have 15 seconds to get your poop jokes in here*

Moving right along to point number 2 (get it?) and much to my delight, there was plenty of wildlife in the form of birds and alligators. Actually, I posted about the alligators recently. Would you believe I stumbled (metaphorically speaking) upon 8 baby alligators that couldn’t have been more than 2 weeks old? I didn’t stumble upon their mother, which is how I’m able to write this post today. Of course I got some pictures of the adorable little things, you can see them here. And not pictured in that post is this alligator below, sunning on a fallen tree.

The caverns area is a couple miles from the campground so be prepared to bike or drive when you need to get up to the parking lot there. A few campers have those electric bikes, which are darn cool. The more I see them, the more I want one. But I definitely love my 1970s era Free Spirit 10-speed pictured below…

I’ve camped a lot so far this year and met great people along the way. For some reason, though, the folks camping the few days I was at this park were my favori—–

*ahem* I’m obligated to say my parents are my top favorite neighbors because 1. we camped together at East Bank Campground in Bainbridge, GA and 2. They read this blog…

–But outside of family, the people at Florida Caverns were great. It was fun having personable neighbors! Plus, the day before I left, the family who set up their class C camper at the site next to mine were French, so you better believed I eavesdropped as much as I could. I’m sorry, it’s a beautiful language! For all I know they were making fun of the guy next to them and how he wears the same clothes a lot. Hey, it’s how I’ve always been you lovely French family…

Peu importe je t’aime!

If you have the chance, I definitely recommend this park! The caverns are really great and interesting. The guide was knowledgable about the history and info of the caves. Keep your eyes open for gators in the surrounding ponds and river. And don’t forget to look up! There was such a variety of birds. When I get back to the park again, I’m determined to photograph the owls. I heard them a lot but they wouldn’t hang around long enough for a picture.

arrête de me traiter de cette façon les hiboux!

The park pictured at the beginning of the post is Juniper Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

American Express Jersey Swap Commercial – The Music and Sports Legends…

American Express has a solution for sports ball fans. The problem? Your favorite player gets traded and now the jersey you have with the player’s last name isn’t quite as accurate. The solution? Well, here it is (then scroll down for more info)…

The Music. The heartbreak/country song playing in the background is “I’d Trade All Of My Tomorrows” by Merle Haggard. The full track is below…

The Teams. The NBA teams (although I’m assuming AmEx would extend this benefit it other sports as well?) listed are as follows: Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, LA Lakers, and the Boston Celtics.

Country Connection. Using this Merle Haggard song reminded me of another favorite basketball commercial featuring the country legend Waylon Jennings. His song “Just the Good Ol Boys” was the perfect song to highlight Jason Williams and Randy Moss, who went to high school together. Click here for a quick synopsis of their history, and here’s the commercial.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

Alligators at Florida Caverns State Park

Yet another first for my camping excursions, this time setting up at Florida Caverns State Park in the panhandle of the sunshine state. Obviously, the big draw is the caverns (which are beautiful and worth the price of admission), but in the few days I camped, I sort of had the hankering to take pics of wildlife less photographed. I guess I always have that hankering, come to think of it. Well, this park didn’t disappoint! In just one day I saw a lot of birds, a couple of owls, dogs, a cat, and 10 alligators!

Scary, for sure, but before you go on thinking I’m a brave soul, I’ll share a little secret. Eight of the ten were babies. The other two were bigger but not nearly full grown. Now that I’ve clearly brushed off the idea that I’m a tough guy for photographing these tiny (but still wild, yeah I’m tough) creatures, here are the pics. It’s fascinating how the babies can be so cute and yet look so frightening and YES, I WANT ONE!! When they get bigger, you can have ’em, mmmk?

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

Ruby-throated hummingbird – up close and zoomed in

I’ve loved trying to photograph a hummingbird (or two? possibly a male and a female) visiting a feeder the last few weeks. As I waited for it to show up, I discovered a few things: he’s not too worried about people being nearby, shows up about every 10 minutes in the morning and evening, and either there are more than one or they have the ability to hide their beautiful, colorful neck when they want to. You can see in the pics below where the red color on its neck shows up very vividly, but then just seconds later you can’t see red at all. Males have the ruby-colored neck, females don’t.

For the first time, I also saw what’s pictured below… a hummingbird perched on the feeder, with wings by its side. Pretty cool!

Thanks for buzzing by…

-Out of the Wilderness

American Idol – top 10 revealed and I’m rethinking my taste in music

I must not have good taste in music because the America is keeping the contestants I would send home and they’re sending home singers I’d definitely keep *ahem* Ava Maybee. After the recent round of eliminations, the group was reduced from 11 to 9, but the judges decided to keep one of the two axed contestants… Lady K. So we have our top 10!

Here’s how my list looks when I created a list for the top 14.

The judges, who I think must’ve been told long ago to always be nice even when they don’t wanna be, praised a few singers that I didn’t think did well at all. Yes, I’m talking about Huntergirl. She performed Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” and it was pretty bad most of the way through. The last verse and the final few notes were OK, though. Mike Parker was just OK. Emyrson Flora has a really nice voice but I really wish she would’ve picked “True Colors” instead of that awfully boring and uninspiring song from Billie Eilish.

Can you tell I’m still bitter the judges got rid of the pregnant mom? I didn’t even remember her name but she was better than half the singers in the top 10!

I thought Jay, Leah Marlene, and (the eliminated) Tristen knocked it out of the park. My top performer of the day was Leah Marlene.

She’s just quirky enough with a great voice to go far in the competition. But who I like doesn’t seem to be jiving with the rest of America so she’ll probably be eliminated next week!

Batman Facepalm GIF by WE tv - Find & Share on GIPHY

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness