Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, Keystone Heights, FL January 3 – 5, 2014

My son and daughter had come here a number of times during their school years, but we had never been to the park before. Although we had water and electric hook-ups and good restroom, shower, and laundry facilities, the rest of the campground was unimproved. The sites were identified by a site number on a post, as in most other campgrounds, fire pits and electric hook-ups were visible, but they were the only things that indicated a campsite. The area was beautiful with oaks, pines, but not much in the way of buffer between most sites. The parking area of the sites were sand with stumps and rocks in the middle of soem and since we've been in an RV instead of a tent, we appreciate a little more in the way of improved sites, such as gravel parking areas on sites. .

There is a National Forest Campground about 16 miles away and part of the Ocala National Forest which was just the opposite of Gold Head, where RV were parked lined up as though they were in a parking lot. Each to his own, which is why there all different kinds of campgrounds and campers.

Cool intertwined trees

Typical forest 

Pretty view

We took a little walk along a trail and saw more pretty country, lots of mounds of sand indicating pocket gopher holes, and caught up with a former co-worker of Rich's whose husband is a ranger at the park. 

Pocket gopher holes

Pocket gophers are rat-sized rodents, adapted for a life underground, and rarely seen in the open. They have orange-colored incisors behind which they can close their lips, allowing them to dig and cut with their teeth without getting soil in their mouths. They also have external, fur-lined cheek ouches where they can carry food and nesting materials back to the burrow. The pocket gopher digs extensive systems of tunnels up to 36 inches deep. While we never saw any pocket gophers, we saw ample evidence of their tunnels.

From here, we go back to Paynes Prairie, then to Oleno, and back to Paynes Prairie. We didn't do anything of interest at these locations and I didn't take any photos so the next one post will be from Oaks and Pines.