Amazing Places in Florida: 2025

It has become kind of a tradition. Each year, a group of kayaking and canoeing enthusiasts, mostly from central Pennsylvania, meet down in Florida to paddle segments of some very scenic, interesting rivers. We generally use a state park in one part of Florida as a "base camp" for a week and explore six different rivers near that park. Then we move to another part of Florida and do the same thing in that area. Our usual pattern is to visit three regions in Florida for a week each, for a total of three weeks of Florida rivers. People join our group for as much or as little time as they like

In early March of this year, about 16 paddlers from Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Ontario traveled to the Hillsborough River State Park, near Tampa, Florida. We used this beautiful park as our base camp for our first week of Florida rivers. We met up with our trip leader, Lori, and about 15 paddlers from Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada.

We started our tour of rivers with the Hillsborough River in the Hillsborough River State Park. This is a beautiful river in a jungle-like environment, with a small class II rapid (one of three in the state of Florida), lots of turtles and a few of these bigger reptiles. You get used to paddling with alligators pretty quickly in Florida. They look scary but are quite shy and rarely attack people or larger animals. Rarely, but not never. Adds to the excitement of paddling in Florida's rivers and streams. Every freshwater body of water is home to some of these primitive creatures!

On the second day we paddled the Manatee River. The scenery was quite beautiful...

...and Bart removed some plastic trash (actually a sunken sit-on-top kayak) along the way. Picking up trash along streams we paddle is part of what we do as a group. Most of us pick up bottles and cans. Not Bart! Nooo, he picks up big stuff and lugs or tows them to places where they can be disposed of or recycled. Way to go, Bart!

On the third day we paddled the Weeki Wachee River through the Weeki Wachee State Park and beyond. The first half of the trip, inside the park, was extremely scenic, like this

This Barred Owl allowed us to get a few closeups

Some of my nephews, nieces, and their kids, my "greats" were staying in the Tampa area, so I took the fourth day off from paddling to spend time with them. It was wonderful! Here are the "greats" enjoying ice cream at the Candy Kitchen!

On the fifth day, we paddled Lettuce Lake and a segment of the Hillsborough River below the park, both wildlife wonderlands! Along the Hillsborough, we got quite close to this Great Blue Heron!

On Saturday, the sixth (and final) day of paddling in the Tampa area, we chose an old favorite, the Little Manatee River.

We ended that paddling trip here, in the Little Manatee River State Park

The next day, we moved from Hillsborough River State Park to O'Leno State Park, near Gainesville. A few more people joined us, and later in the week, a few of our original group returned to their homes. Here's our Week Two crew

After settling in and resupplying, we started our tour of rivers in the area with a trip down the Santa Fe River into the park, where we visited this "sink," a spot where the entire river goes underground, flows through a series of caverns and caves, and returns to the surface in a "rise" three miles downstream.

On Tuesday, we paddled downstream and then back up the Ichetucknee River in the Ichetucknee River State Park. Among other things, Linda saw her first manatee here. It was quite a moving moment!

On Wednesday of our second week, we paddled another old favorite, the Silver River, where we saw a half dozen manatees, including this one (underwater photo by Doug)...

...and got quite close to a large troop of monkeys, including this one, who placed himself between us and a mother and baby monkey. Thanks, Scott, for the pic

We also got very close to this gorgeous pair of wood ducks!

The next day, we did an ambitious paddle down the Santa Fe below the state parks. It was ambitious because it was long (about 12 miles), it was windy (15-20 mph headwinds for more than half of the trip), and it was rainy (light to moderate rain for about half the trip). Despite these downsides, it was well worth doing: it was quite scenic and there were more than a dozen side springs along the way.

On Friday the weather was much improved. We visited the Rainbow Springs and River, where we saw cool wildlife and paddled in beautiful tropical spots like this

On our last day in the Gainesville area, we completed our tour of the Santa Fe Sink and Rise by paddling up to the rise, pictured here, in the River Rise Preserve State Park. Here the entire Santa Fe River, which went underground three miles upstream from here, resurfaces and continues its flow downstream to the Suwanee River

We also spotted this pair of resting reptiles. For now, they seem content to share the log. Someday, one might have the other for dinner! Alligators eat about one turtle a week for their nutritional needs

The next day, we once again relocated our base camp and moved up to Eastbank, an Army Corps of Engineers campground along Lake Seminole in southern Georgia. After a very rainy Monday (no paddling), we traveled to Ocheesee Pond on Tuesday, where we toured a shoreline swamp with Hilda, a guide who lived by the swamp for practically all of her 70+ years. Here we are following her through a cypress corridor

On Wednesday we paddled Holmes Creek, where we visited this spring. Vern and Judie appear to be floating above the crystal clear water!

Later on that trip, Bart paddled some river trash downstream. It looked like some sort of foam clad metal, about the size of a door. Like I said, Bart likes to pick up big trash! Photo by Lisa

On our last day in the area, we paddled Spring Creek, near Brinson, GA. Another beautiful creek, and a wonderful way to wrap up our trip! Thanks to everyone who participated, and a special thanks to Lori for planning and organizing this fun and scenic trip!

On our way back to Pennsylvania, a few of us visited the Congaree National Park in South Carolina. There we paddled Cedar Creek through a small section of the largest old growth hardwood forest in the eastern US. A worthy stop