Florida Roadtrippin’ Day Five (end point Three Rivers)

Day Five (Thursday, July 7)
A lot of the trip was planned around this day, getting to Florida Caverns State Park on a day when it was open and not a weekend since it has a tendency to get packed early.

Places to Stay: We found a cabin at Three Rivers State Park about a half hour away. The cabin is equipped to accommodate disabled visitors, so I felt a bit bad about booking it, but we booked this pretty late and it was a single night during the week. I really wish Three Rivers had a second cabin because it was honestly too hot to camp without an RV and the park itself was really pretty with lots of trails and river views.

Things to do:
There are plenty of things to do in Pensacola and along the coast, including just lying on a beach somewhere. Pensacola has a lot of history and it’s near both Alabama and Georgia, so it’s a good stop before heading to either state.
We packed lunches, our stuff, and our one friend and drove up to Mariana to the Caverns.
It took us a while to get everyone out of the house so by the time we got there (around 11:30 or so), they were already booking the 3:30 tour. Because we were only 3 people, we managed to squeeze into the 3:15 tour but that still left us with a lot of time to kill.
After we ate our picnic lunch, we decided it was too hot for hiking, so we drove up to the park’s Blue Hole to go swimming. There are a lot of “blue holes” in Florida. The one at Florida Caverns SP is deep. Really, really deep. (Not recommended for people who aren’t good swimmers as there’s no lifeguard and the water is cold enough to be a shock when you first jump in.) So refreshing.
The Cavern tour was great. We ended up with a really funny tour guide who even spotted a native bat for us.


After, we hiked along one of the trails to take the long way back to the car.



Things to Eat:

Breakfast was tofu scramble, toast, bagels, and (for the husband) an egg at our friends’ house; lunch was sandwiches and hummus with chips and cherries in the park. For dinner, I cooked up some more Field Roast sausages with the rest of the pepper and onion, made the last pack of rice medley, and served it with leftover pasta salad and baked beans. Four of us ended up eating and there was still food left over.