Three Days at Koreshan State Park

We left Collier-Seminole State Park early Sunday morning. We did a lot of food shopping and headed to Koreshan State Park where I had reservations for three nights. Our plan was to get a site and have a nice rest and paddle on Monday. First of all some of these FL parks are goofy. Even though the site is empty, until it has been cleaned you can’t sign in. They said we could park at the picnic ground until 3 PM. It was not even noon yet. When we drove to the picnic parking we saw the boat launch which was not near our campsite, so we had a great idea, drop the canoe off, lock it up and see if our site was empty, it was…. but wait we can’t sign in until 3 PM. So we parked in our camp site and enjoyed our rest and signed up after 3 PM. Go figure. The rules are the same in all FL parks, but everywhere else they say, if it’s empty go get it.

 

There are some river access spots closer to our actual campsite but this worked out better for us since we wouldn’t have to roll our canoe over there and it was already off the RV and we could get our antenna up to watch the Super Bowl. Great game!!

 

So, early Monday morning we peddled our bikes to the boat ramp and locked our bikes up in place of the canoe. We got an early start and hoped we could paddle 4 miles down the river to Estero Bay and then possibly paddle 3/4 mi in the bay to Mound Key Island State Park.

 

It has been 25 years since we paddled this river, which I had remembered  was similar to the Blackwater River at Collier Seminole, wrong. Lots of Houses, docks, power boats and it is not a scenic trip. We did see a Manatee, Heron’s, Egrets and Vultures. The only good thing was that it was not a weekend when all kinds of canoe/kayak livery paddlers would be all over the river, we saw a few as we returned, The bad part, as you got past the docks and Manatee zones all the powerboats flew past us at full throttle. You would think they would have a little respect for 2 old people in an open canoe. Four clowns on Jet Skis almost ran right into us and each other. We did make it to the bay but decided to paddle back to camp  rather than risk going the short distance in the bay to the island. Our advise, find some more scenic place to paddle.

 

What is Koreshan Park about anyway? It is a historical site donated to the state in 1961 by a small communal religious settlement which started here in 1894. They conduct daily tours. Lots of tourists just come to visit the settlement which has been beautifully restored and worth the stop to discover how this small sect, similar to the Shakers, survived and thrived in the hot, jungle environment.

 

Walking/biking paths are all through the settlement which is well separated from the campground and canoe livery.

On Wednesday morning we will head back to Lithia Springs Park which is close to Tampa.

 

Click for trip plans and map