Hike in Hillsborough River State Park

We are camping at Ducky's Day Off RV Park in Zephyrhills, Florida to see our long-time RV friends Karen and Connie, who are wintering in Thonotosassa.  We've enjoyed a couple days' "exchange program," and today they joined us for lunch at one of their favorite restaurants up our way, followed by a hike in Hillsborough River State Park, which is right in our area.

The park is one of the eight original Florida State Parks created in 1938 and, like Highlands Hammock State Park, which we visited just prior to this stop, was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (known as the "CCC").  Consisting of 3,383 acres with over 7 miles of trails, much of the park is a live oak hammock due to its proximity to the Hillsborough River. Certain sections are swampy, but much of the forest surrounding the river is elevated. Land near the entrance of the park consists of pine trees and saw palmettos. The park is divided by the Hillsborough River. While much of this section of the river is quiet to the point of seeming to not flow at all, this section is noted for having several clusters of small rapids, including Class II rapids. It is considered a blackwater river, and is one of the few rivers in Florida to have a system of rapids.

Because every hike must start with a trailhead selfy, we all posed for ours:

Karen and Kathy led the way to our first stop, which was a nice view of one of the sections of rapids on the River:

The river environment is lush, with many cypress, pines, magnolias, palms and other typical Floridian flora:

We spotted some turtles sunning themselves on a fallen tree trunk -- almost exactly where a sign described the turtles:

Those little fellows weren't the only animals to hang out near an explanatory placard.  This alligator was directly across from a sign that provided information on the American Alligator.  There were actually two clearings providing this view of the alligator --

-- as well as this view:

Some of the palm trees were breathtakingly high, and they showed off the brilliance of the blue sky today:

Many old trees in this region still stand although they have nearly completely rotted from the inside out.  Kathy spotted one and could not contain her curiosity:

This cypress is suffering the same fate, but, in this case, the hollow opening was large enough for three of us to fit!

Speaking of cypress, how can you do so without mentioning the cypress knees?  We thought this might be a knee convention:

Our walk took us to a large, well built suspension bridge that spanned Hillsborough River:

From the bridge, Kathy spotted what looked like a catfish lying lazily under the surface of the water, waiting for its next meal to be delivered.  We also saw this ibis more actively taking out the meal it ordered:

What else can we say?  "Horizontal palm":

We looked, throughout the hike, for some good examples of bromeliads, and finally found them perched on a tree by the bridge:

The tree itself stretched one long, thick limb directly across the bridge.  While Connie offered to climb up onto the limb for this group photo, the ladies strongly recommended that he keep his feet on the ground. . . er, the bridge:

Next to the bridge was the U.S. Geological Society (USGS) stream gaging station for the Hillsborough River.  

Kathy noted that the station doesn't even bother measuring the stream depth until it reaches nearly 13 feet!  By that point, the trail would be flooded.  We noticed that many cypress trees showed evidence of long periods of high water just under that, so perhaps it was understandable.

This was our last day with our friends.  Although we plan to get off the road in May, we're hoping that we keep crossing paths with them -- as well as our other good RV friends -- somewhere "down the road."