What possessed us to seek out Lake George Park in Volusia County, Florida on a recent 100°+ (38° C) June afternoon? Part of the inspiration to make the trek to the park is my mission to document all of Florida's natural features before they are destroyed by development or ruined by climate change. The journey was half the fun (getting lost, riding lonely dirt roads, being out of cell phone range).
Lake George Park is massive at nearly 8,000 acres or 12½ square miles (32⅓ square km). There are nature and horse trails, picnic pavilions with tables and grills, and no humans.
Lake George Park is massive at nearly 8,000 acres or 12½ square miles (32⅓ square km). There are nature and horse trails, picnic pavilions with tables and grills, and no humans.
Getting to the park reminded me of that timeless Robert Frost verse from
The Road Not Taken (1917).
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Shallow Lake George is especially so this summer as summer rains have not yet been reliable in Florida, again this year. An unscientific guess made from looking at exposed pilings indicated that the lake is likely only about 6-feet deep in most places, down from its average 9-feet. On this day, like so many others this June, a stiff wind blew from the southwest bringing clouds of mosquitoes and stifling, unseasonably hot temperatures, but no cooling rain showers.
Lake George = Lake Welaka
The lake is broad (11 miles long by 6 miles wide; 18 km by 10 km) and brackish. It is the second largest lake in Florida, sometimes referred to by its Native American name "Lake Welaka."
The name Welaka means "chain of lakes" in the language of the Timucua, who were native to this part of Florida prior to European settlement. The first European to document a visit to the lake was Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who as the Spanish governor of Florida, explored the St. Johns River in the spring of 1596.
Later, the Florida territory was sold to Britain. The royal botanist in America to King George III, John Bartram, explored the St. Johns River in 1765. It was John Bartram who gave the lake the name Lake George, in honor of his king.
I cannot imagine how any Europeans could have handled the intense heat and humidity, not to mention the bugs, around Lake George. It was brutal. Somehow I imagine 250 years ago it was not nearly so hot and there were likely cooling rain showers like those we remember from our youth growing up in coastal central Florida. The current weather is not the weather of our youth, much less what the European explorers experienced.
The current heat wave is not forecast to end anytime soon with excessive heat and dry conditions forecast through mid-July.
The current heat wave is not forecast to end anytime soon with excessive heat and dry conditions forecast through mid-July.
The water was only about 3-feet deep around the fishing pier and dock at the completely deserted Lake George Park. We did not see another human for perhaps 10 miles within the Lake George Forest and Wildlife Management Area. It was hard to imagine the close proximity to millions of tourists and residents of Florida as the forest was so completely devoid of people.
The forest preserve is roughly west of Flagler Beach, north of Orlando, and about 60 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
Below: An anhinga stands on an old exposed pier from a long lost dock.
Part of the lake is used as a bombing range and as such is free of pleasure craft. The targets (see below) line the shallower eastern side of the lake. The bombing range is affiliated with the U.S. Navy's Pine Castle Bombing Range located in the nearby Ocala National Forest just west of Lake George. The bombing ranges date to WWII.
On this day the bombing range probably had less to do with the lack of pleasure craft than did the intense heat.
Below: Looking west toward Juniper Spring and Green Cove Spring. The springs contribute to the brackish quality of the water.
Below: Our truck was the only vehicle in a deserted Lake George Park. It did not appear that anyone had been there recently. The bathrooms were spotless, there was no litter anywhere. It was a very nice change from what one could expect in more heavily trafficked areas of Florida.
Below: Looking north toward Rocky Point and Salt Creek.
While the lake hosts a large variety of wildlife ranging from migratory water birds and alligators to a number of normally marine animals like stingray, mullet, striped bass and blue crabs, on this day it was too hot to see much wildlife.
There is a large enough blue crab population in Lake George to support a local fishery, making it one of the only fresh water blue crab fisheries in the world.
The only bird of prey that was working on such a hot afternoon was this osprey that was nesting atop a bombing spotter communication tower.
I used a 300 mm lens to get in closer and see what was happening atop that 100-foot tower.
One of the osprey (Pandion haliaetus) was constantly taking off and landing with fish,
while the other osprey guarded the nest.
The dirt road to the park is about 10 miles long off of Hwy 17 near Pierson
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, 1917
At the end of the road even the telephone poles, covered in Spanish Moss, appear rarely used.
If you don't remember the story of what inspired The Road Not Taken read this fascinating feature from The Guardian
Mexico's elegant terns have begun nesting farther north in years when their traditional food is scarce.
The consensus among the state’s establishment to remove the flag came about, many civic leaders said, also because of what did not happen: There was no violent reaction, which made the old antagonisms harder to summon. No swarms of outsiders flooded the State House. Instead, the small state and the small city of Charleston seemed proud of their comportment, and eager to atone for the hurt.
The Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine
