After spending New Year’s Day 2020 at Three Rivers State Park, we headed a half hour west for a visit to Florida Caverns State Park on January 2.  The park is a few miles outside Marianna, Florida.

As we entered the park, the effects of Hurricane Michael were still very visible.  Once dense forests that lined the road to the visitor center parking area are gone and the terrain is much like Three Rivers State Park – wide open areas with haggard trees here and there.  Homes and other development are visible not far away.    It will take years for the forest to recover.

At the visitor center we purchased tickets for the one-hour guided cave tour.  Tours fill quickly, so it is a good idea to get tickets when you first arrive and then tour the visitor center and park store while waiting for your tour to begin.

The Caverns

Florida sits atop layers of limestone and caves are pretty common.  Most of Florida’s caves, however, are underwater connected to beautiful freshwater springs and reached only using SCUBA equipment.  Florida Caverns is the only air-filled cave in Florida to offer tours.

The main cave entrance and portions of the tour were inaccessible due to flooding from recent rains, so we entered the cave through a secondary entrance nearby.  We descended down more than 30 stairs, and once inside, we enjoyed stunning rock formations, including limestone stalagmites and stalactites, flowstones, soda straws, draperies, and more.

Beginning in the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps excavated the tour cave using pickaxes and hand tools.   Most of the cave passages were originally only a few feet tall.  Tours of the cave have been offered since 1942 and span an area of nearly two acres under the surface.

Interesting artifacts that can be viewed in the cave include CCC lanterns and white bowls embedded in the ceilings to reflect the lights.

We learned various animals call the cave home – bats, mice, cave crickets, salamanders, cave spiders and occasionally snakes and frogs.  Fortunately we didn’t encounter any of these during our visit.

Here are additional views of the cavern formations:

The cave tour takes you up close and personal to the formations in a dozen or so cave rooms, unlike tours of much larger caves like Carlsbad Caverns and Mammoth Cave.

Florida Caverns are an enjoyable and cool way to spend a morning or afternoon while in the area.

Next week:  we take a blog break as we head to Juniper Springs and Anastasia State Park in search of new rabbit trails!

It was a cold morning at Three Rivers State Park.

We put a hold on outdoor activities and decided to take a day trip to Havana instead. Not THE Havana in Cuba, but Havana, Florida, some 45 minutes away.

Havana is a small town located a few miles outside Tallahassee.  In 1906, the town was named for its Cuban cousin because of shade tobacco, a major crop grown in the area.  Shade tobacco was used to wrap fine cigars and Havana was one of two areas in the United States suitable for growing the tobacco.

In the 1960s, the town fell on hard times when shade tobacco production moved to Central America and elsewhere.  Some 20 years later an antique shop opened in Havana, and the town has since become a quaint destination for antique stores and art galleries.

We visited on 2020 eve, planning to enjoy a relaxed lunch as we looked around.  Christmas displays, lights and large painted wooden greeting cards throughout the town gave it a friendly and inviting appeal.

However, except for a couple furniture galleries, all of the other shops, galleries and restaurants were CLOSED!  We presume this was to get a head start on New Year’s Eve celebrations.

A bit disappointed, we decided to continue our day trip to Thomasville, Georgia.  We resolved, however, to return one day to enjoy what Havana has to offer.

Our route to Thomasville took us through rural Florida into rural Georgia.  We passed by fertile farmlands, dense woods and numerous creeks.

It was lunchtime when we arrived and we stopped at Fallin’s Real Pit Barbeque.  Fallin’s is an old time barbecue that serves mouthwatering ribs, pork, brisket, chicken and much more.  We left completely satisfied.

Our next stop was downtown Thomasville.

The town’s central shopping district is nicely done, with interesting shops and restaurants.  We visited a few open shops and before long, decided to head back to the campground.

There is a LOT MORE to see in Thomasville and it would be a great weekend destination for an anniversary or other special occasion.

On our return trip we stopped at Pebble Hill Plantation, located a few miles south of Thomasville.

The plantation was established in the 1820s and now includes a beautiful mansion with horse barns and finely manicured grounds.  We took a guided tour of the multi-roomed mansion and an amazing upstairs art collection that included several original Picasso paintings.

After the tour, we walked through the horse stables and several other buildings, and then around the grounds for more than hour.

Pebble Hill has an interesting history.   The plantation offers a nice half day diversion while in the area.

Back at the campground, we ate dinner and settled down for a quiet New Years’ Eve.  Our New Years’ Day dinner plans included black-eyed peas and collard greens – for good luck in 2020 of course!

Next week:  after a low key New Year’s Day. we travel to Florida Caverns, Florida’s version of the famous cave located near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

After setting up at and exploring Three Rivers State Park, we wanted to know more about Lake Seminole.  This meant a short drive east from Three Rivers State Park toward the small town of Chattahoochee and the Apalachicola River.

As we crossed the Apalachicola River, the impressive Jim Woodruff Dam was to our left.  It captured our attention as such a dam is rather unusual for Florida.

Completed in 1952, the Woodruff Dam includes a single lock for boats and hydroelectric generators that can power 43,000 homes!

Lake Seminole backs up behind the 1000 ft long earthen dam. The lake is located where the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers originally came together, covers 37,500 acres and has a shoreline of more than 350 miles.   There are plenty of recreational opportunities in the more than 30 parks and 5 campgrounds all around the lake.

We wanted a closer look at the dam and drove a few miles from Chattahoochee to the dam itself.  We crossed from Florida into Georgia, and then back into Florida before arriving.

After parking below the dam, we followed a steep sidewalk to get a closer look at the multiple spillways and power generating plant.  From the high sidewalk, several persons held study fishing poles hoping to catch one of large catfish said to live in the deep water below the powerhouse.

There is also a sidewalk and a few covered tables next to the river, but these were temporarily flooded as excess water from recent rains was being released from the dam.

From another parking area nearby, we had a broader view of the dam, lock and spillways, and the bridge we had driven across earlier.

The dam is a nice half day diversion from Three Rivers State Park, with opportunities to walk a bit and look around.  A small Corps of Engineers visitor center is nearby with additional information about the dam and Lake Seminole.

Next week we’ll explain why the best time to visit Havana is NOT just before New Years.  We had to continue on to Thomasville, Georgia – a beautiful southern town with great bar-b-que, a scenic downtown and historic plantation nearby.