Silver Springs has wildlife everywhere you turn. Before you get to the main gate there's a wooden bridge to cross. If you look over the side you will see all kinds of turtles, and if you look hard enough there should be an Alligator there.

Once you get inside the park you should head straight for the glass bottom boats. They offer two different boat rides on the Silver River. On both rides you will be able to look through the glass bottoms and see many different fish, turtles,crawfish,and shellfish. Hopefully you will see a Garr fish, that was cool.

Everything is crystal clear because the water is 99.8% pure. The Captains will tell you many interesting facts of Silver Springs 10,000 year history.

After you have enjoyed your boat rides on the Silver River you may want to watch the "Wings of Spring". Here you will see different birds in free flight. You will be sitting on bleachers and the trainers will bring out each bird and tell you a little about that particular bird.

After that they allow the bird to fly to the top of the bleacher where another trainer is waiting with a treat. It is really cool to see these birds fly over your head and they do come pretty close.

They have hawks, owls, eagles and vultures. They have some comical ducks that are good for a laugh. They also showoff some very colorful parrots that are usually seen in the tropical rain forest.

All this makes for a good show and a good opportunity to site down for a rest. These young people put in a lot of time and effort into these animals shows and they deserve a lot of credit.

After you have watched the "Wings of Spring" show and your legs are ready to go again, head to the bear exhibit. Here you will see a huge Kodiak bear. Also they have black bears and a variety of rare bears that I have never seen before.

The huge Kodiak bear was having a great time playing in the water, and I stood a watched him for 10 minutes. The other bears were usually in the shad somewhere out of the sun.

One of the bears was pacing back and forth next to the fence. He had worn a rut in the ground from all his pacing. I found this to be a little hard to watch because I don't think he was to happy being locked up in the cage. These cages are huge and they have everything that they need, but I guess some of them find it real hard to except.

There are other animal exhibits that you will want to visit. Other animal exhibits you should stop by are Panther Prowl, Kritter Korral, and of course Big Gator Lagoon. At Big Gator Lagoon you will see all kinds of Alligators. They have big ones and they have smaller ones, but they don't do much but lay there.

Silver Springs is has a huge variety of animals that everyone would enjoy. Something else that I enjoyed was the native and exotic plants. They also have lots of places to shop for gifts. You will never go hungry with a pretty good variety of places to eat also.