Juniper Springs at Ocala National Forest: December 23 - 27

Before arriving at Juniper Springs Campground and Recreation Area we spent a short week at an AirBnB house on Lake Ana in Bumpass, VA. We had my sister there as well as all our children and their families except for one son-in-law for an early Christmas get together. The weather was unseasonably mild when we first arrived so a few of us took off our shoes to supervise Zay (one year old grandson) while he explored the lake edge water.

Here is our rig at the Juniper Springs campground.

We are staying at two spring campgrounds in Ocala National Forest. Both springs advertise year round  72℉ water temperature. During our stay at Juniper Springs the air temperatures were peaking in the 70's. So I went ahead and took a dip in the springs on a couple of the days. Jane also entered the water on one of those days which was brave for her.

You can see a building in the background of the pictures. The building and parts of the recreation area were constructed as part of the civilian conservation corps projects. The pool is created by a dam. Water spilling over the dam drives a water wheel that is on the side of the building.

Restoration work was being done on the building and a nature trail/boardwalk so we only got to experience a small portion of those features. One interesting sight was seeing small spots where water was emerging from the underwater sand. The park literature called them boils which was an apt description because it looked like water was boiling up out of the sand. The sand areas where water was emerging was clean compared to the surrounding sand. We didn't have our phones then so I don't have any pictures. A short video would have been best anyway. 

We spent a quiet day on Christmas but we were able to spend the day after Christmas with Jane's parents and her brother's family in the suburbs northwest of Orlando, a little over an hour drive from the Juniper Springs Campground. The next day after our family visit was our transition day to Alexander Springs Campground and Recreation Area. More on that visit in the next post.