Hillsborough River State Park

Since I enjoyed biking at Hillsborough River State Park in the past, I decided to go again and was there at the end of January.

Like much of the country, it was cold – well for Florida.  One day, it only got to the mid 50’s (one night we were actually in the 30’s)!!!   While at Hillsborough, I walked some but biked most days.  I would bike on one of the dirt trails that led to a dirt road.  I made a bad mistake and biked a day after we had a good bit of rain.  Biking the trail wasn’t too bad, but the road was rather muddy, it made for an interesting and tough ride. 

The only other pictures that I took while there was on the day I went to see the manatees.  I had been told that because of the cold weather, there were more manatees than normal at the Big Bend Power Plant observation area in Tampa.  I could not believe it --

I estimated there were at least 200 manatees, I heard other people estimate 250 and more.  Each of the dots in the water above is a manatee.   I heard several locals say they had never seen that many manatee here. 

The Big Bend Power Plant and manatees---

Manatees among the reflection--

Many of the manatees had scars. This huge manatee had a really large scar --

This manatee enjoyed swimming on his back and appeared to be waving at the people on the observation deck --

A small manatee watching us --

I tried several times to get a picture of a manatee when they dove, but was not quick enough until ---

From here, I went to Fort Myers.  Since I didn’t got to Sanibel Island in 2012 for the first time in several years, I am having Sanibel withdrawals!!  Since the Sanibel campground is impossible to get into, I stayed at an RV park in Fort Myers and drove over to the island a few days.