The Springs at Salt Springs & a Bearded Tooth

The swimming area at Salt Springs. You can see where the water springs up from the vents in the rocks.

It’s another chilly, damp, grey day at Salt Springs. Our high today was 55. At home it got up to 59. That’s not how central Florida is supposed to be!

One of the spring vents in the rock

Nevertheless, the area is still beautiful, even though we are spending most of the day inside the Casita. Fortunately, today is one of the days we are getting a decent Verizon signal, so at least we can entertain ourselves surfing.

When we were at the springs we saw a huge school of mullet. Mullet like to jump, and I missed several shots of them leaping out above the surface. I did capture one slightly murky shot of the school, though.

School of mullet

The trees surrounding the swimming area are ancient. And bordering the picnic area is a virtual jungle. It has a very exotic feel to it.

When we were here before, in September 2010, the weather was hot and sunny. We went swimming, and at the time the 72 degree water felt icy to us. Today I bet 72 would feel warm!

My brother-in-law told me that many years (decades) ago, he and a few buddies would come down to Salt Springs and dive into the vents to catch blue crabs that clung to the rocks down there. Now, of course, you can’t do that. But at least the springs are still there!

Another view of the swimming area

If you would like to see what the springs look like when the sun is shining, you can see photos of our previous trip to Salt Springs here.

One more totally off-topic thing I’d like to add. I have been fruitlessly searching for a bearded tooth mushroom back home. A couple of days ago my sister Hope sent me a photo of a big “thing” that she found in a tree behind her house. At first she thought it was a small cat curled up in the tree. Then she was afraid it was some kind of weird egg sac and who-knows-what would jump out at her!

Incredibly, it turned out to be a bearded tooth mushroom! And since I hadn’t expected to find one when I visited her, I hadn’t even checked out the trees on her place. So I missed out on that incredibly choice mushroom!