The Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar

Isn't she lovely! The picture does not do this baby justice, this particular Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar was about 5-6 inches long, hard to miss. At the time we had no idea what kind of caterpillar this was so we only touched with our eyes but turns out she will become a moth with a 5 inch wing span.

We passed Miss Hickory on our way down to the spring, Blue Spring that is. A 72 degree pure, beautiful & natural swimming hole on the St Johns river. This park is popular and we heard they fill to capacity early and have to turn folks away on weekends. So Jon took Friday off and it was a perfect day to go. Hot enough day to enjoy some snorkeling in the spring but we didn't know to bring water shoes and the rocks were just too much for our softie feet so we didn't spend as much time in the water as we would have liked. Even so Blue Springs is an awesome state park and we are looking forward to returning. Maybe this winter...Blue Springs is a favorite wintering spot for manatees.