Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park, or... the bottom of Florida?

In my quest to explore everywhere and anywhere in the state of Florida, I've found my way to Gainesville and the Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park. For Jeff's birthday I wanted to take him somewhere we both hadn't been yet but that was an easy half-day trip.. and still random / off the beaten path.... Well, I guess a giant sinkhole you can climb down into pretty much fits the bill.

Well, after a short 2 hour drive from Orlando to Gainesville we arrived at the Devil's Millhopper. Jeff had no idea where we were going... and I really didn't know what to expect once we got here.

Well, uh, here goes nothing!

Basically, the Millhopper is a giant 120 foot deep, 500 foot wide sinkhole with 12 different springs feeding into a pond at the base and under it.

 Ah ha, see what I did here!

I took a photo of me leaving a front print!

(I'm so awesome) 

While the park isn't very big.. its still pretty neat and we pretty much had the place to ourselves..

 there's a short walking trail that takes you around the rim of the hole

 And the set of 236 wooden steps down to the bottom of it.

It's not so bad getting down to the bottom.... But once you're down there... you gotta climb all the way back up. Guess they should have added an escalator. 

 Once at the bottom, at least, there's a small platform with some built in benches. You can relax for a bit and enjoy the view... 

before making the climb back up to the top.

Oh, and one of the many waterfalls that flow downward into the sinkhole. There's a fairly large waterfall on the side opposite of the stairs but due to the thick growth you can only hear it... 

the only easily visible ones are small like this.

 Oh hey... look, its me. yaayyy

Uh, yup, Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park, Gainesville, Florida.

I'll have some amusement-related posts later this week.... I promise.