Florida - Day 33 - in Lake Griffin State Park

Lake Griffin State Park, Fruitland Park

Saturday, 18 February 2023

This state park is home to a very old oak tree.  It's down a short trail near the park's entrance, so today Dext and I walked over there.

I was trying, and not quite succeeding, to get the whole tree in the frame.

A little closer view of not quite all of the tree.

This sign is near the base.
I liked that it was put there by a Boy Scouts troop.

A view of the base.

And an even closer view.

I'm always fascinated with old trees.  Especially so in places like Florida where strong hurricane winds and flooding are a frequent part of life.

This tree, at about 300-400 years old, is called the 2nd oldest oak tree in Florida, but that's according to a website where people can register old trees they know about.  That site doesn't include a Live Oak in St. Augustine, called The Old Senator, that's supposed to be well over 600 years old.  The oldest oak registered on the website - around 400-600 years old - is in Volusia County which I passed through yesterday.  And then the Treaty Oak that I saw in Jacksonville with David and Anna comes after these, per the website.

But these are practically youngsters compared to Florida's oldest tree of any species.  That honor goes to a Bald Cypress named Lady Liberty that's estimated at about 2,000 years old.  It's not very far north of Orlando.  I'd love to see it.

But in the meantime, I'm content to enjoy the age of this one.  Old trees seem so solid and dependable.

While we were there, a couple who'd recently come south from Quebec joined us.  The husband's command of English was pretty good; his wife was much more hesitant, but I tried to speak clearly and use fewer idioms, and she and I had a good conversation about trees and traveling and so forth.  Nice folks.

As I said yesterday, this is a small campground with only 40 campsites, but it's located on a hilly section of land, and the campsites were separated into small enclaves.  So taking a walk around the campground gave Dext and me some decent exercise for a change.  The sun was shining and our site was pretty level, so we were comfortable.