Come Face-To-Face With Florida Wildlife At This Beautiful And Underrated State Park

When you vacation in Florida, sometimes nature can be overlooked in favor of flashier locations or beautiful under-the-radar sandy beaches. Yet there is a treasure trove of experiences to be had with wildlife in the underrated Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Although 200 acres isn't exactly massive for a state park, you'd be remiss to ignore this beautiful spot on Florida's western side. 

Homosassa Springs, named for its namesake springs, has been a haven for travelers for well over a century, beckoning them with its pristine waters and wildlife galore. There are trails dotting the preserve for visitors to enjoy nature and see plenty of Floridian wildlife. (Paved trails aren't necessarily accessible for wheelchairs, though the elevated Wildlife Walk is accessible.) Some of the animals you can see here include black bears, deer, and alligators as well as lots of birds and fish. Plus there are boat tours, birding opportunities, geo-seeking, hiking, and picnicking to make a day of your visit to Homosassa Springs, or longer.

More than that, though, the park also serves as an important sanctuary for manatees. The gentle giants of Florida's seashore who can no longer frolic in the ocean are given another chance here, with plenty of onlookers to enjoy their shenanigans. Seeing manatees is definitely one of those timeless things to do in Florida that we highly recommend.

Although there are some places where you can swim with the manatees (without touching them, of course, because that's illegal), Homosassa Springs State Park is not one of them. In fact, swimming isn't allowed here at all, but, fortunately, this hidden spot where travelers can swim with sea creatures is located nearby. Even so, you can always enjoy watching the cuties bob around in the water gracefully — or not — all year round. You'll spot these adorable creatures in the Fish Bowl observatory area of the park.   

Some of the West Indian manatees you see at Homosassa are permanent residents, unable to return to the wild due to injury or sickness. But there are others that come to the park temporarily as Homosassa is part of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Manatee Rescue, Rehabilitation and Release Program. So, if the manatees recover they can go back into the open waters when the time is right. Plus, if you fall in love with these sweet aquatic mammals, you can always pay two of the permanent residents a digital visit for half the year: Ariel and Betsy are featured on a live web cam from April to November.

Visitors who want to learn more about manatees should be sure to get to the park by 11 a.m. or at least before 1 p.m., as staff offers insight for these majestic animals near the Fish Bowl. These daily presentations are free, included with the park's price of admission. 

Before it became a state park, Homosassa Springs was already a nature attraction, although the attraction element was more in tune with traditional entertainment, which is why Ivan Tors Animal Actors kept its actor animals there. Although that was decades ago, one of those animals is still very much a Homosassa resident: Lu the hippo. The oldest living hippo on the continent, in fact, this adorable fellow was famed long before Fiona at the Cincinnati Zoo was all the rage online. 

Nowadays Lu can be spotted lounging around or playing around in his cushy digs at Homosassa, but he was once a movie star. Lu was featured in "Daktari" and "Cowboy in Africa" and even had some TV spots like appearing on the "Jack Linkletter Show." Although he isn't native to Florida, he is an official citizen of the state. If you visit Homosassa you have to say hello to Lu, he is a beloved resident of the park and loves his adoring public.

Park services specialist Andrea Junkunc told WUFT that Lu loves having an audience. "He has been in captivity his entire life," Junkunc explained. "He really does seem to like to interact with the visitors and he's a big star here so everyone else's name, they call out to him, sometimes he calls back. When he's feeling really good he'll kind of do like this weird somersaults where we can see his feet come up in the air."