Saturday September 9th 2023

After yesterday’s long day of travel I slept well last night. Still, it was tough to get started this morning. I only have two days to enjoy the park. In the past I have had two weeks. Lingering over breakfast was not in the cards.

I took two walks to the Silver River today. It is about three quarters of mile down a trail that is actually a dirt access road for park vehicles. At the end of the road is a kayak and canoe launch into the river. The water level is a little higher than I’m used to seeing it during my previous visits in the winter. During my morning visit to the river it was filled with kayakers and powered boats. There were even manatee in the water according to the kayakers. I couldn’t see any from shore.

During my second hike down to the river at the end of the day. I didn’t see anyone. The trail was empty and so was the river. Even the wildlife seemed to be missing. After a few minutes of watching the water flow by, I spotted movement on one of the areas of vegetation in the river. Three little well camouflaged ducks started to move around. A parent emerged from the tall grass to watch over them. It wasn’t all that unusual, but it was nice to see some wildlife above the water surface.

The big wildlife sighting of the day happened earlier on my walk back to my RV Home after my first visit to the river. I encountered one of the troops of monkeys in the area. All of the monkeys are ancestors of monkeys put on an island in the river to attract tourists in the middle of the last century. They didn’t know they could swim off the island, reproduce and grow in size. Filming Tarzan movies at Silver Springs may have also encouraged the monkey population.

Every time I’ve visited the state park I’ve been on the lookout for the monkeys. On a previous visit I spotted one briefly on the far bank of the river, but today I got the full experience. Walking back along the path to the campground a monkey crossed the path in front of me. At first I thought it was a medium sized brown dog on the loose. As I continued on the trail I started to hear banging and snapping limbs from high in the trees. I realized the noise was coming from monkeys moving around in the trees. Still, I couldn’t see any of the actual monkeys. Then about ten feet away off the trail a monkey came down a tree and looked right at me before moving away down the trail. It stopped briefly and I got a decent picture. While I stood at a safe distance I spotted a couple of other monkeys that came out into the clear along the side of the trail. Somehow the experience wasn’t what I expected, but it was interesting. I’ll continue to be on the lookout for other troops when I visit this park.