Hillsborough River State Park

We said goodbye to Salt Springs on Friday, March 14th, and headed out to Hillsborough River State Park.  My son Jim lives about 20 minutes away from the park, so it's a good place to stay while we visit with Jim and his family. 

We reserved campsite #18, which is conveniently located right across from the bathroom.  We have electric and water, but no sewer.  It was nice to be able to put out our solar lights.  Salt Springs has a new ranger managing the area, and he has forbidden putting anything in the ground there except stakes for your tent.  Nothing else is allowed in the ground, not even our small sheepdog flag.  He has even made campers take their American flags out of the ground.  This angered some people to the point that they actually left the park.  We still love Salt Springs, but it certainly had a much nicer atmosphere before the rules became so restrictive.  Anyhow, it's nice to be able to put our stuff out without being hassled.

Hillsborough has lots of nice nature trails and a bike path that circles the park, so we have plenty to do while we're here.  We took a hike down the River Rapid Trail on Sunday.

The rapids weren't the roaring rapids type, but fairly mild.  We stopped for awhile and enjoyed the view.

The Hillsborough River is perfect for kayaking.  The water is really calm once you get past the rapids.

We had lots of rain come through here all day yesterday and through the night.  Fortunately it should clear today, so if it looks OK we'll inflate the Sea Eagle and go for a ride.  There are plenty of alligators in the river, but I'm told that they won't bother us.  Let's hope that the people that told us that know what they're talking about.