July 27-29, 2014, Carrabelle, FL continued
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Sunday we drove the east and central Forest Trail portions of the Big Bend Scenic Byway. We stopped at Wakulla Springs State Park, a 6,000 acre wildlife sanctuary. The main attraction in the park is Wakulla Spring, a pre-Ice Age sinkhole that is connected to an underground cave system. Professional dive teams have explored the spring cavern to a depth exceeding 300 feet and a distance of 18,000 feet. Mastodon bones were found in the spring in 1850 and scientists have identified the remains of at least nine other extinct Ice Age mammals deposited as far as 1,200 feet back into the cave. The water from the spring is a constant 68 degrees year round. In the 1940’s a couple of the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller were filmed here. Creature from the Black Lagoon was also filmed here in 1954. They have a lodge, swimming and picnic areas and hiking trails. This is a beautiful area and the water is very clear. When water conditions permit, glass-botto