Thursday, February 26, 2009

Leon Sinks Geological Area, near Tallahasee, Florida

Howdee all.

Today we went to a very cool geological area... An area of karsts
I took this information from the Leon Sinks website..
You can click on the link above to read more about the area and look at the trail map.

Leon Sinks Geological Area
Welcome to the fascinating world of karst. The term is applied to terrain that rain and groundwater have changed by dissolving underlying limestone bedrock. The porous limestone bedrock was formed long ago from ancient coral reefs and shell deposits. Rain and groundwater have dissolved the limestone to form sinkholes, swales and underground caverns. The Woodville Karst Plain runs from Tallahassee southward to the Gulf of Mexico. A wet sinkhole is an opening to the Floridan aquifer, which supplies our drinking water.
Many of these sinks are connected caves underwater....they have been explored by divers. If you are interested you can check out the video at Utube by clicking this link.


Jeff and I decided to do the full round trip, about five miles plus. We passed several dry sink holes.. and then came across this one..

Beautiful blue green water, very clear.

We hung out and watched a few birds come in to drink.
another sink ..
We passed many sinks..and this one below being the largest and deepest.
Big Dismal Sink offers a breathtaking view of more than 75 different plants cascading down the sink's steep walls.


besides the sinks we passes several small cypress swamps.


Oh whats this I see ..
Pink on a tree

Pink spots
and one PINK Heart...



How Cool is that!

I googled pink Lichen but couldn't find any info on it...any ideas?
(oh...smart sister found out what this is...)
Christmas Lichen
and this other link actually has photos of the lichen from the same area that we hiked today
More Christmas Lichen
Thanks smart sista...

and what the heck?????? How does this tree stay up?


with a little help from its friend...
its leaning into that spot up top.....

We saw some nice birdies today...alas no pictures...if i were one of you with those super cool cameras with real fast shutter speeds and zoom lenses you would have seen photos of...

White eyed vireo, Golden crowned kinglets, Hermit thrush, Yellow bellied sapsucker,
Red bellied woodpecker, Chickadees, Titmouse, Cardinals, Ruby crowned kinglet, Robins and Pine warbler and Orange crowned warbler.
But I dont have one of those cameras...so you will just have to take my word for it...tee hee...

23 comments:

  1. FIRST!

    Geez I thought I would never have to type that on my own sister's blog. ha. Those sinks are very cool Loved the water pictures. I think one of those pink heart pictures would look loverly framed.

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  2. Yes sister...you are first...
    and I love the idea of framing some pink lichen heart for sistas...

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  3. yeah, you are getting too popular for the sistas!
    Anyway, I think what you have seen is Cryptothecia rubrocincta, the Christmas Lichen.
    http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/dec2006.html

    what do you think?

    Oh, what a cool place you visited!

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  4. Yes looks like you got it Sista Beachgrl...
    might need to get you another Prize for that find!
    Thanks

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  5. I think you are leading a great wonderful life. Those nice photos are amazing. I wonder if the water is safe for consuming. I imagine it cold and clean, though.

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  6. Hay!
    I'm surfing on the net, and I'm find your blog.
    I like it!

    I like your interest blog! How nice nature. Is this water for drink?


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    ReplyDelete
  7. Great pictures Dawn. I really love the one with the heart on it!

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  8. That blue green water is so beautiful - almost looks like the colors of a mood ring! And I agree that those heart pics should be framed!

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  9. I love the heart lichen-that's an amazing find. Interesting place--bet it's full of mosquitoes in the summer time.

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  10. what beautiful pictures! What marvelous reflections! Yes, I love the heart too.

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  11. Hey, I used to go swimming in some of those sinkholes when I was young. One time, not long after the release of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, someone was playing that in their car (backed up to the sinkhole, trunk open), it was sunny and warm with strange scents wafting through the air. Ahhhh. I thought it was going to be 1977 forever......

    (I was wrong, by the way.)

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  12. What beautiful pictures! Thank you for the tour and the color commentary and especially for the pretty pink hearts!

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  13. Fascinating....I am going to watch the video in awhile. Those photos of the blue green water are incredible....

    Will be back to catch up, I think I've missed some posts. Gotta go now, someone is c-a-l-l-i-n-g me to tell me my del taco bun tacos are here...

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  14. This does sound like a very interesting place to have one of those digital cameras with a zoom...soooo many vistas and colors and BIRDS!! Wow..I loved your photos of the sinks and I had to laugh out loud at luck of that tree continuing to stay upright!!

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  15. I'm so glad that I reached your blog! It's a wonderful live that you are living, which people like me can only imagine it to be a reality one day.

    I liked your blog and the template.

    This post is so beautiful.

    - Bhavesh

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  16. Wow, how can that tree stand there???

    Dawn, you get to visit such fun places!

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  17. Cool hearts and gorgeous water in the sink holes.. Looks like another world..

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  18. Howdee all..
    thank you all for the nice comments..
    Shellmo..mood ring colors..yes it was happy according to those colors

    Earl...
    You are too funny...it isnt still 1977 but you can still back up a pickup to a nice sinkhole somewhere...and humm what do I smell?

    Sandy..
    Tacos do I smell tacos..yummy..

    again thank you all...

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  19. What a great trip. 5 miles would do my legs in, but I'm glad you and Jeff get to see so many neat places. Keep up the reports for us armchair adventurers.
    Lee and Dan

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  20. Interesting geological area-nice list of birds too-You mean you didn't get any Ivory-billed Woodpecker photos?
    There are many days when I'm unable to get a useable photo of a bird.

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  21. Hi Dawn,
    Great shots as usual. Just catching up as I have been out of the Blog loop for a while. I'm hopeful we get near you on our way back east. It would be great to see you both. Don't leave Florida before March 30th if you can help it.........
    Ada May

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  22. Wow Dawn, what a cool place. Thanks for taking us along! I would have loved to see all those birds!

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  23. Interesting geological area-nice list of birds too-You mean you didn't get any Ivory-billed Woodpecker videos..

    Motorhome Insurance

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ok what do you really think?????