The cool thing about River Rise is that the Santa Fe River disappears underground at O’Leno State Park and reappears 3 miles away at River Rise Preserve as a pool. Casey & I were eager to see this natural wonder. We hiked the trail but I could tell that park was best enjoyed on horseback. We had to settle for a slow stroll to the water. Halfway down the hiking trail I almost got knocked down by a huge wave of tiredness. Due to the time change I woke up very early that morning & headed out State Parking well before the sun woke up. We made our way down to the waters edge, looked around and then headed back to the car.
The afternoon was still young and I had more parks on my list to see but I decided those were going to be explored another day. I was so very tired and I knew I would just be going to go and not really allow myself to enjoy my visit because all I would be thinking about was the LONG nap I needed to take! I felt it was better to find my way home before my eyelids turned to lead.
Before you visit, make sure you check out the parks website for all of the up-to-date park information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/RiverRise
