Camping in Ocala

Devin and I took Friday off so we could go camping. We drove up to Ocala National Forest and parked at the trail head. The hiking was different than I was used to because Florida is much less woodsy than Wisconsin so we were hiking in direct sun. The hiking was slow going because we brought Grant with us and he was not a big fan of having to jump over branches and ducking under logs. It took us much longer than expected but eventually we arrived at hidden pond and set up our campsite. Other than a couple of sand hill cranes who were not very happy about our arrival, we were the only ones there and it was very quiet and relaxing to have the place to ourselves. We explored a little more after the tent was set up and Grant had fun playing in the shallow water of the nearby pond. I got to take some nice pictures of him enjoying the outdoors. We saw hawks and bald eagles flying and a little later we even saw them bathing themselves in the water. We build a nice fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner. Both Devin and I slept really well and the sky was filled with stars. In the morning we made so breakfast and hot cocoa using Devin's camp stove. Then we had to pack up camp and hike back to the car. The hike back went much quicker than the hike in and we passed two other sets of campers on the way.