19 March 2007 First State Park Visit

Today saw us visiting our first State Park, a few miles away from the villa, called Lake Louisa. We paid $80 for a family pass which is valid for a year and allows eight family members at a time to visit any of Florida's State Parks as many times as wanted free. Good value when we plan to visit as many parks as we can this visit and again next time we come over.
The park had some beautiful views and its 4,500 acres protect 6 lakes, two streams, 11 natural communities and 100 miles of lake shoreline. The communities included sand hills, scrub, upland mixed forest, cypress swamp, wet flatlands and old citrus grove. We had our picnic lunch by the shore of the largest lake, Lake Louisa, very beautiful but very cold as a howling gale was blowing across the lake. The other side of the belt of trees surrounding the lake was hot, hot, hot. I had twenty minutes sunbathing while Terry took photos of birds and butterflies.
We tootled along a nature trail and were amazed at the size and colours of the butterflies - just like being in Butterfly World at Preston Park!! They were gorgeous. We ogled at the cypress trees sitting in the swamp festooned by Spanish Moss on one side of the path and at the turkey oaks and bluejack oaks on the other side - two completely different habitats right next door to each other - fascinating. There were cacti in the dry sand and reeds in the swamp - again right next door to each other. Amazing. We saw a little lizard scuttle up a branch and whacky great big birds (which we couldn't identify) soaring on the thermals at the edge of one of the lakes, they swooped to within about 30 feet of us. Very impressive. Pity we didn't see alligators, deer, red hawks or gopher tortoises which are supposed to be in the park, but Terry saw (nearly fell over) a snake, don't know what sort, big and dark (about 30 inches long). We saw Deer Moss which looks like moss but is, in fact, a type of lichen which grows on the ground in among the grass! No comparison really!
But, never the less, a great day, all in all.