On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
I did another river trip with one of our Ocala friends, but a different river this time, and one she hadn’t been on before. Put-in was on the Silver River, the same place we took out in 2020, but this time we were on our own so we did an out-and-back up the Ocklawaha River, which the Silver flows into. The out-and-back was a success because the Ocklawaha was dead calm, no current, and we would have wiped ourselves out fighting against the spring-fed Silver.
I got to exercise my moribund skills from Canoeing Merit Badge: J-Stroke! Draw stroke! We also saw a lot more birds than I had expected, 11 total, including three new ones. And had a nice three-hour tour (Three Hour Tour) on the river.
Put-in on the Silver
Entering the Ocklawaha. There’s a big contrast, the Silver is crystal clear from the spring water, the Ocklawaha is blackwater, from tannin maybe?
For most of our trip we were the only ones on the river and the water was so smooth there were some great reflections. The trees are cypresses.
Company. These airboats are loud, we heard this one for a long time before we saw it. It turned around before it got to us. We saw a couple of fishermen in motorboats, very courteous. Can’t say the same for the group that rented jet-skis though. I guess they didn’t know what NO WAKE means.
The river widened when we got further upstream.
Great Blue Heron. Not the greatest picture; I was using a phone for all of these instead of taking a camera out in a canoe.
The route back after we turned around. Some more nice reflections.
The only gator we saw, kind of unusual, there’s usually more.
This Tri-colored Heron was posing for us on a branch that we paddled under as we came back up the Silver.
mrmoshpotato
Boris: Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!
Bullwinkle: Bail! Bail! Bail!
Nice pictures, even if you saw only one gator. C’mon gators! There’s a guy with a camera! Strike a pose!
raven
Nice!
eclare
Gorgeous reflections
AM in NC
Very cool – love that photo with all the cypress trees, especially! Lived in central Florida during middle grades, and loved the lakes and springs. It is a beautiful place. Too bad about what is happening with so many of the people.
Betty
Looks like a peaceful journey, barring those moments with the noisy motors around.
Dagaetch
That looks like a fun trip! I love taking reflection pictures…it’s so satisfying when you find that perfect image where a viewer has to study it to know what is reflection and what is reality.
Barbara
Florida has a lot of places like this. Some years ago we kayaked from Juniper Springs, around a 3-4 hour trip, and it was truly a special place, probably not far from here — Ocala was the closest big town. It’s similar, but no motorized boats at all, because it’s a state park within the national forest.
Yutsano
It’s not the gators you see that you need to worry about. It’s the ones you don’t…
Love the pictures, especially the two herons!
cope
Having recently moved out of Central Florida after a very long time there, I can’t think of too many things I miss but canoeing and kayaking are in the top three.
Thanks for the pictures and the memories.
oldster
“…three-hour tour (Three Hour Tour)…”
That got a laugh from me!
pieceofpeace
Lovely shots, they give a good sense of place and feeling of being in pristine nature.
Surprised they let jet skiis in this area.??
WaterGirl
Photos of water! Reflections! WaterGirl is in heaven. :-)
JaneE
Probably confused it with woke and they weren’t so everything was fine.