Wakulla Springs

Monday, another lovely 80 degree day in Tallahassee, we drove south of town to Wakulla Springs, a 185 foot deep limestone spring that pours out a river of clear water.  The spring was developed in the 1930's as an unusually tasteful resort with a Mediterranean style lodge and a few scattered outbuildings and a platform over the deepest part of the springs for swimming and diving.

The springs were used for several of the Tarzan movies, also The Creature in the Black Lagoon.  Now it is a place for swimming and picnicing, and for taking a ride on one of the small old tour boats, as we did, with a delightful older man from Georgia as our guide.

The springs area is a wildlife preserve and only the little tour boats are allowed, so the place has many turtles, birds, alligators, and manatees.

I believe these are moorhens.  More alligators.

cormorants, turtles, ibis

also anhinga, a bittern and green heron that I didn't get photos of.  Manatees, hard to photograph but we saw at least a dozen on our hour tour.

Finally, yet another alligator with several brighter colored little ones, maybe a foot and a half long.

Wakulla Springs has been a local favorite for many years, and it truly is a national treasure.