Last week, the kids and I struck out for Alafia River State Park for our adventure Friday. Since we also visited Abigail's grave for her birthday that day, and the Church is next door to the park, it was perfect timing. While there we chose one of the trails with 6 geocaches along it to explore. While we were only able to find 3 of the caches, we had a great time. Current cost to enter the park is $5; however, due to a summer discount through the end of September, cost was $4. There is also a small store in the park, mostly full of biking supplies, as mountain biking trails are a main draw within the park.
For those who are unfamiliar with geocaching, it is something that we are trying out this year. You might think of it as real life a treasure hunt. You use the "Geocaching" app on a device with GPS tracking, in our case we use my phone. It gives GPS coordinates to the cache and allows you to track how close you are to the item in order to zero in on it. Most of the caches include a clue either in the name of the cache or in an extra hint section, to help you find it. Once you discover the geocache and open it, there is a log book to date and sign when you discover it. Often larger caches will include items to trade or special tokens that you are to take out and move to a new geocache location. The kids have loved the hunt and subsequent treasures they have hidden.
Alafia River State Park is a great location for geocaching, because they have more than 20 regular geocaches and at least another 10 premium caches. We use the app for free, and haven't upgraded to the premium for an additional $29.00 a year. The kids said that might be fun to do if we find all the regular geocaches in our area. Our first cache of the day was difficult to find. We walked around it and near it so many times before I finally caught a glimpse of it. The caches are often camouflaged in color and tucked in leaves, branches, or draped with moss to make them difficult to spot. Our second cache of the day, had some tiny dinosaur toys that the kids traded for. The third cache was especially clever. The hint was "4 feet high" and after spreading out in the immediate area, we found a post around that height that we started combing over. Britt found the tiny canister that screwed shut, the top having a ring that was threaded through barbed wire on the post. When he unscrewed it a tiny rolled up log book was inside. The trail we took had 6 geocaches, three that we found two that we couldn't, and the last of which we were too tired to look for that day. It was pretty hot, and the only company we had on the trail were a few lone bikers, and a single gopher turtle.
The trails at Alafia River State Park aren't as shaded as the hiking trails we've done up until this point. They do pass through some forested area, but at least half of them were in full sun. This is in part due to the history of the are. The park sits on land that was once used for phosphate mining. The steep hills and curves along with several lakes left behind is what makes it such a great spot for mountain biking. I suppose too that since the trails are for hikers, bikers, and equestrians, they were wider and more open trails, resulting in less shade. We each had a little bit of a gatoraid left from lunch, and also brought along a gallon of water, but we went through that about half way along our 2.2 mile hike. It also didn't help that the boys didn't want to walk that day and were carried at least 2/3 maybe 3/4 of the way by Ruth and myself. Our advice would be to go on a cloudy day, at a cooler time of year, and carry plenty of water.
After our hike in the interest of research we went to check out the campground, as we cooled off in the car with our juice packs. There are 30 campsites all with water and electric. There is a separate dump station within the campground. They also have several yurt-like tents for camping along with a few primitive sites. The yurts each have their own queen size memory foam mattress and kitchen station. A small bathhouse is also near the center of the campground. We didn't get out and look too closely, but thought it would be a nice place to camp in the future. All in all we had a great time and would recommend Alafia River State Park to anyone looking for a unique area to visit in Central Florida.
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