We received this letter in response to our email inquiry about volunteer live on-site positions available at Rainbow Springs State Park. Like most of the Florida State Parks we have emailed in the last week or so they are in desperate need of late spring through early fall volunteers. To that end we will be posting information about 1 state park each day until the beginning of June. We hope you will share this post with your friends, family, teachers, recent retirees, and anyone who can take two or three months off, has a travel trailer or RV and would be willing to exchange part time work for a great Campsite in some of Florida’s most beautiful places.
News and Updates
Our Vacation Ends at Manatee Springs
Our vacation ends at Manatee Springs State Park and we have arrived at our new assignment. Due the flooding down the Suwannee River the Manager for the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail River Camps has placed us at the Woods Ferry River Camp instead of Adams Tract. It seems the road leading into Adams Tract is flooded and he has all of the river camps closed for campers until the river goes down. From what we are told the camp host at Holton Creek is flooded in but has been utilizing this time improving his canoeing skills. We will also use this quiet time to get the campground cleaned and ready for new visitors. They haven’t had a campground host here for a month and between the manager, park ranger and our fellow host at Holton they have tried to keep it tidy. But we intend on giving it a thorough cleaning during this downtime.
Information for Campers
Wekiwa Springs State Park
Next Three State Parks
The next three state parks on our list is Alafia River State Park, Hillsborough River State Park and Lake Louisa State Park.
Information for Campers:
Alafia River State Park is located just off County Road 39 in Lithia, Florida. They have a relatively small campground with about 20 spaces designated for Family Camping and 11 for Equestrian Camping. All the sites are fairly large with about half being pull-throughs and the other back-ins. They are nicely spaced but there is not much privacy. You have a grassy area around the asphalt driveways, electric and water only. There is only one bathhouse with one shower on each side (males/females). Of course, this shower doubles as ADA compliant and the hot water comes from Solar Panels on the roof. There is a wide expanse of grassy area with picnic pavilions, tables, and benches all facing a nice little lake.
First Three State Parks
Our First Three State Parks have been great to visit and it would be nice to be able to stay more than 3 days at each one. So far, in our 10 Florida State Parks Vacation, we have visited Oscar Scherer State Park, Lake Manatee State Park and Little Manatee River State Park. We are currently in Alafia River State Park but will hold that review until next time. Not only are we enjoying our stay at each one we are checking out possible future campground hosting assignments. You never know we could get lucky and get our 2015 year all planned out before summer!
We are taking pictures, working on our next festival and just enjoying not being responsible for our fellow campers and cleaning. Don’t get me wrong we do enjoy being campground hosts but after a year of almost straight volunteer work we are ready for a little downtime.
For Campers:
Oscar Scherer State Park
Myakka River State Park WrapUp
Our last week as campground hosts at Myakka River State Park went about like you would expect. We got a wide variety of unexpected problems that week such as a tornado warning, loud camper complaint after 11:00pm, and a water warning. Of course, about three-fourths of the campground checked out that weekend and over half of them had fires the night before. We got all that taken care of and turned in our keys and hosting manual but before we could leave the temperature light on the RV decided to go to red and stay there. Our fellow campground hosts, a former GM worker, said that it was probably broken because it stayed that way even when the RV was turned off. And we had another bird’s nest in between our RV batteries. Luckily, there were no eggs in the nest yet. We hope to be able to come back to this lovely park sometime in 2015. The bad part of being there was the cellphone/internet service was pretty spotty. They have three camping areas and all three have their charms. Palmetto Ridge is all gravel, large sites with sewers and large new bathhouses. Big Flats camping area is all smaller sites near the Myakka Outpost and lots of shade but little privacy but no sewers on sites except for the campground hosts. Old Prairie has a small older bathhouse, mostly shady sites and no sewers on site except for the campground hosts and the two overflow campsites.
Its Heating Up Here
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