Salt Springs State Park

Last Monday, I went to Salt Springs State Park. (After fielding the first emergency phone call from the office, which came in at 10 a.m. Sigh.) I had never been there before, and the driving directions on the web site would have had me going quite a bit out of my way, so I went to a local community web site, BC Voice, to ask for directions. Now, I did this with quite a bit of trepidation, as the bloggers on BC Voice can be absolutely vicious. I mean, you ask for driving directions, and someone will chime in with, "whatsa matter? you too stoopid to read a f**king map?" Seriously. If you want to check out some really mean people, check out BC Voice. I'm not going to link to it here, because they would probably hunt me down and kill me.

ANYhow, I got my directions (thank you, nice person!), and off I went. Which is always an adventure, because I am fully capable of getting lost at a 4-way intersection. But! I managed to make my way there, through some very pretty countryside and places I hadn't been to in years. Hi, Quaker Lake! Hi, Laurel Lake! Hi, Brackney! Although I am sad to report that the McMansionization of Quaker Lake is well under way. When I was a kid, Quaker Lake was surrounded by small family cottages. Now, there are houses the size of freaking hotels on the lake. Kind of sad.

So! I get to the park, pull in the parking area, and the first thing I see are some llamas:

Heck, I don't know why they were there! They just were!

There were waterfalls:

And salamanders:

(Or is this guy an eft? I always get my reptile terms mixed up.)

And there was bee balm:

I love bee balm. It looks like fireworks. (Now here's where someone chimes in and says, no, that's not bee balm, you idiot, that's (insert plant name here)).

So! This is a beautiful place, and I managed not to get (too) lost on the trails, and I'll definitely be going back again. If I can find it.