2 Best Sights in Homosassa Springs, The Tampa Bay Area

Here you can see many manatees and several species of fish through a floating glass observatory known as the Fish Bowl—except, in this case, the fish are outside the bowl and you are inside it. The park's wildlife walk trails lead you to excellent manatee, alligator, and other animal programs.

Among the species are bobcats, a western cougar, white-tailed deer, a black bear, pelicans, herons, snowy egrets, river otters, whooping cranes, and even a hippopotamus named Lu—a keepsake from the park's days as an exotic-animal attraction. Boat cruises on Pepper Creek lead you to the Homosassa wildlife park, (which takes its name from a Creek word meaning "place where wild peppers grow").

This state park has the remains of a circa-1851 sugar mill and other remnants of a 5,100-acre sugar plantation owned by Florida's first U.S. senator, David Levy Yulee. Interpretive panels spaced throughout the mill ruins describe early methods of the sugar-making process, the plantation's role in the Civil War, and the harsh conditions endured by the 1,000 enslaved people who worked here.