Blackwater River State Park

One-​of-​a-​kind. Sandy bottom river. I believe the last one in United States. Every turn in the bend is a beach.
The term lazy river doesn’t mean the river is lazy, it means that you are. It means the river is flowing fast enough that you don’t even have to paddle your lazy ass. You can actually float down the river in a tube. You don’t even need a canoe. Like at a water park except that this is nature.

There are no free places to park and hike a trail inside of the park proper, so make sure that you bring at least $ 4 in cash. My friend and I were digging under the seats to find change to pay the fee. If you forget, you can backtrack to the Harold Store and hit the ATM.
Ample amount of parking inside the park, but it’s a hike to anything that you’d want to see. Wear comfortable footwear, bring bug spray and sunscreen in the summer, because clouds of biting flies and skeeters will devour you. Welcome to the panhandle of Florida!
Early in the summer of ’12, we hiked the northern section of the Juniper Creek trail (and got attacked by yellowjackets). That section gets pretty vague, at times, so you really have to look for the orange trailblazing marks on the trees. The good part about the upper part is the Red Rock bluffs, which are really tall, for Florida. Those overlook the creek, which is hella cold all summer. Farther south, there is a blue-​marked trail that dumps you onto a white sandbar, where you can swim in that frigid water. We did that, because it was about 95 degrees the day that we went and we were worn out. Continuing south, you arrive at a Boy Scout shelter at the top of a hill. There is a mosquito-​infested shelter, good for protection from rain, and a fire pit. It’s probably against the law and otherwise inadvisable to start a fire, though. We turned around at the shelter and retreated. In the summer, the trail has spider webs (populated with spiders, of course) stretched across it every 15 feet, so take a staff or stick or flyswatter to forge ahead.
Yesterday (January 24), we hiked the southern section. This stretch has puncheons (timbers to walk on to get over streams and bogs) in several parts. We hiked all the way to Alligator Creek, which is ~3.6 miles from the trailhead, took a rest, then turned around and came back. We’re talking about using both vehicles (one at each end) to hike the entire 8.8 miles trail soon.
Juniper Creek trail is hilly, has obstructions to navigate over and under, and is devoid of anything interesting to look at, other than the bluffs and sandbars on the northern stretch. Seriously, most of the time, you are looking at flora growing thickly all around the trail and it’s akin (I imagine) to hacking your way through the Amazonian rain forest… minus the hacking and venomous creatures.
There are snakes in Blackwater, but I’ve never seen one. Matter of fact, if you see birds, you’re on a reg’lar Ranger Ricks’s nature tour, because I think that I’ve seen two the entire 6 – 7 hours that I’ve spent on that trail. Not that I need or desire to be menaced by feral hogs or chupacabras, but some indication of wildlife would be cool.
Good times. Take plenty of water on the southern section, because, while there are slowly-​moving trickles of creeks, I wouldn’t even trust that black and brackish water after a run through a modern water purifier. The northern section is close to the bigger creek and my friend drinks from it without trepidation, although the risk of giardia and who knows what else prevents me from being so cavalier.
Worthy of a look, if you like outdoorsy-​type things and don’t mind sweating. I need the exercise, so we’ll be back soon. I’ll be searching for some trails other places where there is something to actually look at, because Juniper Creek trail is almost like walking in a tunnel.