Saturday December 23rd 2023

It was a nice day to rest at home. The temperature climbed to the mid seventies under a bright sky and a moderate east wind. The state park trails were a good place to enjoy the day and I didn’t see anyone else on them. Activity in the park was very low today. I didn’t see anyone using the day use area, but there were a few empty boat trailers in the boat launch parking lot.

Lake Manatee is a reservoir made from damming the Manatee River. It is popular area lake for fishing. The dam maintains the height of the water level in the lake. The current level is lower than it was on my March or September visits to this park and it may be as low as I’ve ever seen it. This region of Florida is currently under a severe to extreme drought condition. This area of the west coast of Florida didn’t get as much rain during the summer as inland areas.

The occupancy of this campground continues to puzzle me. The online reservation site shows no vacancies, but there are empty sites each night. When I walked around my camping loop just before sunset there were eight empty sites. I don’t know how many empty sites are in the other half of the campground or how many of the eight will be occupied later in the evening. When you book a site, you pay in full. To get a reservation in this park you have to book at the start of the reservation window 11 months out and plans do change in close to a year. They send a reminder about your reservation a few days before it starts. If people cancel then, the change may not get reflected on the booking site. Is the state getting revenue from the empty sites? Either way, there is something goofy about the issue.