NewYearsTrip: Jonathan Dickinson SP

Monday, January 7, 2019

We arrived at Jonathan Dickinson State Park around after a leisurely drive up the Turnpike from the Everglades with no reservations. The woman who met us at the gate wasn’t pleased with us. We asked if they were full, and her response was there already were three other groups waiting for a site to open up, the implication being that Slim just left town. She also said that we checkin wasn’t until 3pm, but we could park in the adjacent lot until then. So we parked and I wandered over to the office to confirm her dour pronouncements. We could easily head to another park, or even just drive home, if need be.

The ranger in the office had a different take on the world, and gave us a site immediately, down by the river. We took it for a day, but he said we just had to come back the next morning to extend our stay if we wanted. (Which we did, as it turned out.) He gave me some maps of the paved and unpaved trails, and mentioned in passing that he used to live on Lassie Black just outside of White Springs when he worked at Oleno SP!

The campsites in the river campground are fairly close together, but each has power and water, and the bathrooms have hot showers and are quite clean. We set up our screen tent, but it proved to be inadequate keeping the noseeums at bay as the Sun set.

Camp Murphy is the name of the mountain bike trail system in the park. It is a few mile ride back to the trails, and some of the trails are delightful: e limed gravel with well bermed sweeping turns, a narrow trail through the scrub dunes with nice use of the scant elevation differences. The first trail, Tortoise, is perfect for starting a ride, a warm up with nothing too difficult, flowy enough to get your speed and comfort level up without any scares. It flows into Ranger, which is also well maintained and offers a slightly more challenging trail of hard packed surface. As the trails continue, though, they lapse into soft sand that is challenging to power through. The obstacles start off as whoop-de-dos and wooden breaks across the trail for erosion protection, and pavers and wood paths to scoot past sand, but later trails have more limestone rock gardens, palmetto roots that seem groomed to provide challenge, and deep sand that makes you long for 5” tires to get through. They have their own version of Ocala’s Vortex, Bunker Hill, which discretion kept us far from. It looked from a distance to be well over my head for riding.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

We woke up chilly! The inside of Ernie was cooler than outside, but still, it was nice to need the blankets for cuddly comfort. Once roused, we rode to the front gate to extend our stay, and then rode more of Camp Murphy. We tried to avoid the sand traps, and somewhat succeeded. We started on trails that were new to us, and they had some pretty sandy slogs, along with nicely bermed and prepared trail, including a 6 hill whoop-de-do. We re-rode our favorites before hopping on a service road to avoid the less fun parts.

We rode to the Lookout, a glorious 86’ view, tallest point in that part of Florida!, with views of the Atlantic, the ICW, and the sand pine scrub prairie and forest that is Jonathan Dickinson. I was impressed by how much land is undeveloped, the park really is quite large. After lunch we wandered over to the Visitor’s Center and its displays of the history of this part of Florida. I was also tempted by the Free WiFi, but it turned out to be worth every penny, it didn’t offer internet. C’est la vie.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Our plan was to leave Jonathan Dickinson early and try for one more night on the road at Blue Springs SP. I was surprised that at 8am on a Wednesday morning there were a lot of cars on US-1, like there are people who still drive to work or something. Bummer for them! Bummer for us when we arrived at Blue Spring, and the ranger at the gate laughed at our idea of getting a site without a reservation. He said they have one walk-up site, and it was already taken. So we went into the park anyway and walked the boardwalk to look at the manatees that hang out at the spring during the winter. 

Ever the optimist, Sharon had us drive next to Tomoka SP, on the Tomoka River. No luck there, either, and we only drove through the campground there, checking it out for future plans. Sharon suggested we stop at Faver Dykes SP next, but it was getting later in the afternoon, and time to wend our way the rest of the way north and back home.

Pictures of Jonathan Dickinson, and a few of Blue Spring, are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/vZqVthe1SKLEThJ5A