Beautiful Wekiwa Springs - and BIG BUGS!

Soon after we moved to Florida, we started seeing signs all over for Wekiwa Springs State Park. I was eager to see some of "natural Florida" as Seminole County likes to advertise. Seminole County is the beginning of some of the northern Florida ecology. Northern Florida is more mixed forest and tends to be of higher elevation than central and southern Florida. In fact, the Everglades ecosystem used to extend almost to the middle of the state into Kissimmee where the higher lands then started. In any case, I'd seen those lush forests before, and was eager to experience them again.

The entrance to the state park was very unassuming. When we pulled into the parking lot though, we saw the attraction. The springs were right there at the base of a lush green hill surrounded by trees. A very large swimming area had been built up in the 1800's complete with steps leading into the warm, clear blue water. Bubbles erupted from the sandy bottom where the spring originates. The view beyond the swimming area is my favorite though. This photo was taken from the footbridge that divides the swimming area from the start of the Wekiva River.

Exploring more, we hoped to see fox squirrels, alligators and maybe a few birds. Instead, the
big highlight of our visit was a lubber. What is a lubber?? It is the largest grasshopper you have ever seen. We were completely astounded and spent many minutes dancing around it, taking photos and half afraid it would suddenly jump on us and make us squeal like little girls. At the time we didn't know what it was. Only later did I learn that Floridians know it well, and that it's no big deal to them. As Tricia told me, "It's just a lubber." I wish this photo did it justice. They're at least 3-4 times the size of the largest grasshopper I'm used to seeing. (6-8cm long)

Luckily, we've explored Wekiwa many times since then, and seen other things that I'll post here, but you'd be amazed at how excited we were to see that crazy grasshopper on our first wildlife excursion.