< more recent | 22-26 December 2025 | older >
26 December 2025: Took advantage of my last full day in Ocala National Forest to go playing on some favorite Jeep trails in the morning. The “sand pit” was open again (last time I was here it was gated and locked) and it was great fun to just go play there a little bit. Then I tried going to my favorite Forest Road here, that has what I call the “trench” which is always fun to drive, but there were a lot of hunters out on the trails and my first approach to the “trench” was blocked at a narrow spot by a group of hunters, so I found a different way to connect to the trail and was able to enjoy the drive through diverse habitat that I love so much. In the afternoon, I headed to the Bulow Plantation ruins, and was pleasantly surprised to have the place to myself for awhile, which made for a great photo opp. Then it was time for a last sunset over the prairie and a relaxing night at camp before beginning the drive back north tomorrow…
25 December 2025: It was quiet on Chirstmas morning and I was almost “startled” to see the sandhill cranes right on the other side of my campsite at the edge of the prairie. They stayed there for a while, so close, as if they were “visiting” me for the holiday. And I appreciated having this moment “alone” with the pair, who I have heard and seen from a distance over the years that I have been coming to this place to camp. I had never seen them so close for so long, so it was a rare Christmas treat. Later in the afternoon I drove to Tampa to have Christmas dinner with family in celebration of the day…
24 December 2025: Did some exploring early in the morning along the St. Johns River in Palatka where I had seen an intriguing spot that I wanted to investigate further on my way back to camp last night. It was a local marina where people kept their boats and one guy was even living on his boat out there. More “Old Florida” vibes. Then focused the rest of my day on preparing to welcome in Christmas at camp tonight. I had located a good spot for firewood where they had been logging and I loaded up the Jeep with logs that were really tree trunks, taller than myself, and also some smaller wood, and brought it all back to my camp where I cut up some of the biggest ones and prepared to have a bonfire that would last until midnight as I kept my own Christmas vigil under the Spanish moss covered live oaks…
23 December 2025: Continuing with my theme of “Old Florida” today I went back towards the coast around Flagler Beach to spend some time at the River to Sea preserve and then worked my way back to camp after locating the traces of the Old Dixie Highway, where an old brick road reveals itself under the dirt trail along a remote section of the backcountry. It was cool to uncover this remnant of a very old road, and I followed it back towards the St. Johns River and on to camp for another beautiful night under the stars…
22 December 2025: Had a nice morning at camp, then headed over to Silver Springs State Park, one of Old Florida’s original tourist attractions, dating back to the 1870s. I usually shy away from major tourist spots, but I decided I wanted to try to see the manatees and do some photography through their glass bottom boats to see how that might work. The mass tourism aspect of the park was annoying, but the actual eco-tour via boat was really informative and we did see a lot of wildlife including some manatees, as well as some sunken boats, that were intriguing. When I was done with the river trip I bee-lined back to my own camp in the forest where there were no crowds or “amenities”, just the incredible natural beauty of the landscape. Another beautiful sunset over the prairie and a calm night around the fire was perfect …
THIS MONTH:
December is Holiday Roadtrip time, and this year we are heading back to a few favorite locations in the southeast as well as exploring a couple of new ones…
COMING UP SOON:
We will be taking part in an international overland expedition from the Sichuan Basin to the Tibetan Plateau in April, where we will be tracking snow leopards and working with local nomadic herders in cooperation with wildlife conservation efforts that aim to reduce human-wildlife conflict in one of the most remote areas of China…
USnomads.org is very proud to be presenting the fifth edition of the Nomad Rally in 2026. This is a unique kind of rally experience — a ten week event that participants can do from anywhere within the continental U.S.A. Competitors design their own routes as part of the rally, then drive it in a points-based online competition that includes optional activity tasks, quests and weekly challenges. The 2026 rally will run from 8 June – 17 August and is open to any driver within the United States who has an off-road capable vehicle — stock or modified. Registration for 2026 is currently open. For more information see the Rally website …
THE BULOW PLANTATION
The Bulow Plantation was the largest plantation in East Florida. It was founded in 1821 by Major Charles Wilhelm Bulow, who acquired 4,675 acres on a tidal creek (now called Bulow Creek). An enslaved African workforce cleared 2,200 acres of swamp and forest by hand, and continued laboring on the plantation known as Bulowville, cultivating commodity crops: indigo, cotton, rice, and sugarcane. Today, the charred and weathered coquina rock ruins of the sugar mill and the crumbling foundations of the plantation house and slave cabins cam still be seen on the 150-acre site that is now a Florida State Park…
THE OLD DIXIE HIGHWAY
The Dixie Highway was an early 20th-century (circa 1915-1929) road network, stretching from the Midwest to Miami built to foster automobile tourism and connect towns along the East Coast. It was one of Florida’s first major automobile roads and intended to end the isolation of the South. The “highway” was constructed using bricks from the Graves Company and convict labor did the work of grading the road. It took 237,600 bricks to build just 1 mile of road, 9 feet wide. Just fifteen years after its completion, it was already considered obsolete and much of it was replaced or incorporated into larger highways and later the Interstates. The eastern part of the Dixie highway from Jacksonville south was mostly replaced by US 1 in the late 1920s, with a few alignments of the old road remaining in use as “Old Dixie Highway” or “Old Brick Road.” Today, a few remnants of the original historic road exist, most notably in Flagler County, FL where a well-known 10-mile, original, and drivable stretch exists between St. Augustine and Bunnell through Espanola. On April 20, 2005, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The “Old Brick Road” is mostly covered with soft sand, and, in places it is rough and narrow — the road’s conditions make it suitable only for high-clearance 4x4s, SUVs, and ATVs…
ABOUT SILVER SPRINGS
Silver Springs is a group of artesian springs that became a historic tourist attraction in the late 1870s after a glass-bottom boat was invented that enabled visitors to see right down into the crystal clear water below. In the 1920s, the land around the headwaters of the Silver River was developed into a larger “attraction” that eventually became known as Silver Springs Nature Theme Park. The attraction featured native animal exhibits, amusement rides, and 30 or 90-minute glass-bottom boat tours of the springs. In 2013, the State of Florida took over operations of Silver Springs and combined it with the adjacent Silver River State Park to form the new Silver Springs State Park. The glass-bottom boats still operate at the site of the former Silver Springs Nature Theme Park and continue to wow visitors with breathtaking views of underwater life and the many springs that feed the Silver River. One of the main attractions are the manatees, who can often be seen gliding in the shallow waters close to the surface, but the glass-bottom boats also allow visitors to see the underground Mammoth Spring, the river’s head spring, countless species of fish, ancient Native American and Spanish artifacts, shipwrecks and even underwater movie props from the days when Hollywood productions flourished at the park…
Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Berlin | Folkston | Fargo | Fernandina Beach | St. Augustine | Fort McCoy | Tampa | St. Marys
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
16-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
1-15 December – Holiday Roadtrip
November – New York
22-31 October – Paris
16-21 October – Paris
1-15 October – Paris
22-30 September – Vermont
13-21 September – Vermont
1-12 September – New York
16-31 August – New York
1-15 August – New York
July – New York
June – New York
May – New York
18-30 April – New York
8-17 April – Eastbound
1-7 April – Eastbound
22-31 March – California
17-21 March – AZ to CA
8-16 March – Arizona
1-7 March – Glamis
22-28 February – Roadtrip SW
15-21 February – Roadtrip SW
1-14 February – New York
January – Paris
23-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
16-22 December – Holiday Roadtrip
Archive
ROADTRIP
An epic journey crisscrossing the USA from east to west and back again, exploring some of the beautiful wild spaces that make up our “public lands.” The roadtrip covered almost 15,000 miles, much of it off-grid and off-pavement, focusing on the deserts of the American southwest. Some locations were truly “iconic” while others were little known, and the segments of independent exploration where punctuated with some fun events across the region… [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
All about exploring ghost towns and abandoned places in the USA and beyond, with tips, and information on the many different types of sites to be found across the globe, including detailed guides for eight specific sites… [read]
