January 6, 2020 – redhouseexperiences.com

We stopped at a KOA on Pine Island, FL, just west Fort Meyer, FL and stayed a couple nights after leaving Key Largo. The weather was beautiful, and the campground was nice enough. They seem to get a lot of snowbirds from up north (something about a pot and a kettle…). But it was crowded…lots of concrete pads crammed in close together…and not really a destination for us.

Donna found the Rainbow Springs State Park and campground and made reservations. We arrived on January 4th and were pleasantly surprised. The campsite is enormous (64 feet deep, 20 feet wide, with picnic table, fire ring, a clothes line for towels, and full hook-ups)! And the price is super reasonable! You also get day access to the headsprings area with your parking pass. The staff was friendly, and the sites were all clean. There is a central public restroom and shower facility for every twenty or so spots. There is also a washer and drier at each of these locations. The campground proper has a 3/4 mile hiking area, and is no more than .3 miles from the Rainbow River. You can rent canoes or kayaks, and there is a swimming area as well. The campground is very nice. We would definitely stay here again – and absolutely recommend it to others.

On January 5th, we drove to the headsprings area. There is plenty to do at this portion of the park. A large swimming area is situated right at the top of the river, near the welcome center. About 50 yards down the river is a canoe/kayak rental and launch. The Rainbow Springs water is 72F (22.2C) year-round. Did we mention the water is crystal clear?? It is absolutely beautiful!!

Around the other side of the river, there is a series of man-made waterfalls, which are quite lovely. And if you follow the waterfalls to the top, they lead you to the remnants of the old Rainbow Springs Attractions. This former commercial attraction included a zoo, an aviary, a butterfly garden, and a rodeo barn. If you continue to follow the path away from the headsprings, and through the butterfly garden (past the rodeo barn footings), you eventually find three hiking trails ranging from 3/4 mile to 2 miles in length.

The hiking trails were well maintained, and it was indeed nice to get out and walk for a bit. We followed the longest trail, and aside from one turtle (that a passer-by’s dogs named Maggie spotted), there was not much wildlife. Which was sort of a relief after seeing the ‘how to react to a bear’ sign…

The zoo, butterfly garden, rodeo barn and aviary were puzzling to Donna and me. It was very interesting, but we didn’t really understand why they were in a State Park, or why they were dilapidated. It turns out that the headsprings was a commercial attraction that operated from the 1930’s into the 1970’s (http://springseternalproject.org/springs/rainbow-springs/history-rainbow-springs/ ). After we walked around it, we checked out the welcome center at the campground and found a fun and interesting display of marketing materials from the old attraction.

On January 6th, we rented a canoe and paddled up the river from the campground to the headsprings. The trip was amazing! the water was crystal clear, and we saw so many fish, birds and turtles… and the one alligator that we left quite undisturbed… The birds were fishing, or drying out on riverbank foliage. The turtles were swimming around or sunning themselves on logs. The river bottom ranged from between 6 and 20ft (2m to 6m) deep. There were large swaths of river grass and patches of sandy rock bottom. The sun was out, and it was in the high 60’s as we returned down river from the headsprings. It was a very good day!