Day Two: Little Manatee River Camping Trip

Wimauma, Florida: The second day of our camping trip at the Little Manatee River State Park started off waking up to a brisk 43 degrees in our tent. This was far cooler then the forecasted 55 degrees but thanks to our warm sleeping bags, it wasn’t that bad.

We headed into town for a hot breakfast to help our bodies warm up and to give the energy we would need to explore the park’s trails. On the way into Sun City Center for breakfast, my wife spotted a bald eagle on the ground along the highway at the north end of the park. So we doubled back to get a photo of it. I kept a safe distance away from it so I did not spook it into traffic, but as I was photographing it, a hawk flew down and the eagle went airborne into the tree I was standing under. What an amazing experience.

We decided on Sunshine Café for breakfast. It had really good ratings on Trip Advisor and it wasn’t too far away from the campground. My wife had an omelet, I had biscuits and gravy and my son had pancakes and scrambled eggs.

After breakfast we headed back to the park to start exploring. On the drive through the park, we came across a white tail deer grazing on the grass along the park drive way.

Our first stop was a hike on the Oxbow Nature Trail. The short nature trail winds along the south end of the Little Manatee River, providing glimpses of the river. It was a quiet walk, not much wildlife and we were the only people on the trail.

When we finished the trail, we headed back to the campsite to tear down camp. One of the worst things about short camping trips is that it is a lot of work. No sooner to you get camp set up and settled in, it’s time to tear it down and pack it up again. But it’s all good, much like set-up we have a pretty good process making it almost effortless.

With camp torn down and the truck packed up, we hit the trails again. This time we embarked on their longest trail, a 6.2 mile round trip journey on the north side of the river. Talk about stepping out of civilization, there were portions of the trail that if it wasn’t for the air traffic heading into Tampa, you would have thought you were alone in the jungle.

The hike was a very enjoyable walk in the wilderness. Several spots overlooked the Little Manatee River and giving a glimpse at a future excursion, a kayak trip down the river. After completing our hike we decided to head home.

While I was really contemplating a trip to Tampa for some plane photography time, we instead decided to head back home the way we came, through Parrish and making a stop at the Florida Railroad Museum. While we did not make the train ride, I did manage to get some photo of some of the railcars at the station.

Like all of our trips, we managed to make the most of our time and cram a lot of stuff into a little bit of time. I would have liked to see more wildlife, but you can never guarantee what you will see.

Check back later for more photos from our trip.