I’d never seen a live manatee until I moved to Florida. Fortunately, Florida has tons of places to go where you can interact, and in various ways. This time, I chose the viewing area at the Big Bend power station where these wonderful animals congregate in the winter months to enjoy their spa experience with the warm water surrounding the hydroelectric plant.
I managed to pick a day when there were school buses lined up at the entrance. Uh oh. Rambunctious kids swarmed every conceivable corner of the place with teachers making valiant attempts to herd them to the boardwalk overlooking the river. And that, of course, is where I was headed as well.
I counted somewhere around 30-35 manatees. Most of them were too far away to see anything more than dark blobs floating near the surface. But, lucky me, there were several close enough to photograph reasonably well.
Other than the central manatee viewing area, there is also a birding path that leads to the end of the boardwalk. Although I didn’t see any birds in the trees, there were several catching fish from the river. Being the great photographer that I am, the one photo I got of a bird grabbing a fish ended up looking like roiling water with no bird in the frame.
So I headed to the gift shop. Although small, it has some nice souvenirs. I ended up with a t-shirt, a mug and a Christmas ornament. If I had grandkids, I imagine they would love the plush manatee.
I went on to have lunch in Apollo Beach (I’ll cover that in another post) so it would be easy to make a morning of this excursion. Although Big Bend is a good place to see lots the manatees, I found Homosassa Springs to be a better one. There’s more greenery (so calmer and prettier), an attached zoo of sorts, and the manatee viewing platforms are lower to the water and closer to the animals. Judge for yourself. The photo on the left is Big Bend and the one on the right is from Homosassa Springs. That said, is it worth your time? Yes.
- 6990 Dickman Rd., Apollo Beach, Florida
- 813-228-4289
- Free parking
- November 1 – April 15 – Open 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- http://www.tampaelectric.com
- Wheelchair accessible
Lisa Browder 
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