Oleno State Park

We really liked Oleno State Park. We did end up staying there 6 days. We were waiting for good travel weather and it looked like March 22 would have no wind. So, we decided to stay another day. When I went to pay, the guy told me that they only had one site left for that night and it was our site. Wow, that was lucky. The strange part is that the park did not totally fill that evening.

I spent most of my time in the park hiking on the many trails. I think I logged over 25 miles in the 6 days. The trails are mostly flat compared to hiking in mountains, so that makes it much easier to log significant miles. I did find some interesting features in the park.

This is a limestone rock outcropping that is next to a sinkhole. I think this area was excavated at one time to get some limestone. Rocks are worth something in this area. They could come to Missouri and I would be happy to sell them as many as they want.

This is the "River Sink". This is where the river goes underground through the limestone. Divers have explored the caves and found miles of underwater caves and passages.

River Sink. Plenty of turtles riding the slow moving whirlpool. 

A better shot of the turtles

This is one of the oldest Florida State Parks. The land was given to the state and the CCC came in and built much of the original infrastructure.

The same CCC statue we have seen at many parks around the country.

Here are a few of the original buildings:

I am not sure if this is the original bridge built by the CCC. 

The area had a mill back in the 1850's. Parts of the original machinery have been preserved and put on display.

While Kim and I were looking over the swimming area, we noticed that a wedding was going on. I had to take a shot of the wedding party. The guy must ride a KTM, there would be no other good reason for those orange dresses.

Overall our time at Oleno was very good. We had many families in the campground enjoying their spring break. We love to see families out enjoying camping in the great outdoors.

On March 22, we headed to the northwest. We found a COE park that looked nice called Hales Landing near Bainbridge, Georgia. We had been in Florida since February 4th. I will tell you all about our cool little COE park in my next entry. I can certainly see some paddling in our future.