St. Johns River Shipwreck #1

I came across this sunken boat that had washed up against the seawall in Lake Monroe along the Sanford Riverwalk. I've always found shipwrecks, even with relatively small boats like this, to be both intriguing and creepy at the same time. What's the story behind what caused the boat to go down? Who did it belong to? What happened to the rest of the boat? And then there's the creepiness of having a large, mostly submerged object, just sitting there in the dark water, creaking with the currents.


A few months ago, I noticed a few sailboats that had sank a few hundred feet off shore. They were gone when I came across this boat. Perhaps this is part of one?

Lake Monroe Sunset

I was in Sanford, FL a few nights ago and witnessed this great orange sky over Lake Monroe as the sun was setting...

Spring Hammock Preserve #1

I went for a bike ride through the Spring Hammock Preserve's Environmental Studies Center in Longwood, FL. The first point of interest was the Question Pond.



At one point in time, I remember the Question Pond having a bright coppery blue color. Now it's the same tannic color as the rest of the water in the swamp. I turned off onto one of the smaller trails and did some extreme biking, and then found myself at Soldier's Creek.

The path actually brought me to the creek right by the newest section of the Cross Seminole Trail. The bridge seen here is one of three places that I'm aware of where the trail crosses the Creek.


There were several small offshoots running into Soldier's Creek, creating these mini canyons.

I then returned to the main trail and rode as far as I could. I reached this point where the trail got very narrow, with the overflowing Lake Jessup surrounding me on three sides. It was very creepy, hearing nothing except for the occasional splash in the water and distant alligator bellows.

Flooding In Downtown Sanford

After Tropical Storm Fay dumped huge amounts of rain over Florida, there was lots of flooding. Little lakes in city parks overflowed to very high levels, so you can imagine how high a large body of water overflowed. For example, along the St. Johns River. The flooding was seems to be the worst where the river opens up into Lake Monroe. These pictures were taken on September 1, 2008 in Downtown Sanford along the shore of the lake:









Wood Storks were exploring their new watery shoreline.


The road leading into the Sanford Marina was completely underwater. That didn't seem to stop people from driving to the restaurants at the end of the road or riding bicycles to their favorite fishing spots.









There was a news truck there covering the flooding.

At the time that these pictures were taken, the St. Johns River still hadn't crested. It would still be another week before the river reached it's highest point and the water would start to recede.

Sanford Marina...

Sanford, FL is located along the St. Johns River in Seminole County. The city used to have a large steamboat industry due to it's location along Lake Monroe. Lake Monroe is the last area that large boats can travel in before the river gets too shallow. The steamboats are all gone, but the city does have a nice marina near where the steamboats used to dock...

Sunset over Lake Jessup

These photos were taken on March 29, 2008 from Central Winds Park in Winter Springs, Florida at dusk. There was a very nice sunset over Lake Jessup...

Over a football field in Central Winds Park...

Clifton Springs

The Florida Everyone Forgot website has been updated with a page on Clifton Springs.

Clifton Springs is a small natural spring in Oviedo, Florida near the shore of Lake Jessup. The spring consists of several small boils that flow down a stream to Lake Jessup and one larger boil that fills a large murky pool before flowing to Lake Jessup. It is a very cool place to see, and apparently it has some quicksand as seen in the picture above...

Follow the link to visit the page...
Link: Clifton Springs