Andrew and I arrived at Troy Springs to find it extremely quiet and the spring itself was closed to the public. At first we thought it was closed because it was not season but as we made our way down to the dock it was very apparent that something was wrong, we just did not know what. We spent the time we could there and then decided we would head out to set our camp up. It wasn’t very late but we figured it would be better to have plenty of daylight to make sure everything was good.
On our way to camp we noticed a sign for Wes Skiles Peacock State Park so we followed the road and went exploring. This park had 2 springs and many sinkholes. In fact, that whole region of the state had many sinkholes! We drove to the furthest spot back and figured we would just work our way up to the front. We walked to Peacock Spring and were simply shocked at what it looked like. Instead of a beautiful, clear spring, it looked like a mucky swamp. We were so confused; was it just that time of year?
We walked the trail system that followed the cave system below and admired everything around us. When we got to the road I decided it would be best to get the car and finish the other half by driving to it. We got to see a huge sinkhole and then finished off the park by admiring the Orange Grove Sink. It was there that we discovered what was going on. A sign that was posted said the spring was closed because the river was contaminating it. Wow! I had no idea nature attacked itself like that. I was disappointed most of the day because we were robbed of seeing these parks the way they were supposed to be seen but then I turned to Andrew and told him we were actually lucky because we got to see a side of these parks that very few others have. It may not be as pristine and shiny as it should be but these parks are still beautiful and the transformation of mother nature is stunning!
