Blue Spring State Park - Page 1
This article offers you a quick tour of Blue Spring State Park, in central Florida.
We pulled into Blue Spring State Park early on a cold clear Sunday morning. We had heard that this park was one of the best places in Florida to see manatees, and so we arrived full of eager expectations.
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The park is named for the 120 foot deep Blue Spring, which pumps over 100 million gallons of 72 degree water to the surface every day.
Once out of the ground the water travels about a half mile down the Blue Spring Run into the St. Johns River. Large majestic oak trees create a canopy over the spring run and long tails of hanging spanish moss flow in the breeze as the crystal clear waters flow over the ground beneath them.
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It's a beautiful sight, perhaps the most enchanting spring run we've seen.
A wooden boardwalk artfully winds it's way through the woods along the spring run from the parking area to Blue Spring. The boardwalk wraps half way around the spring and you look into the spring bowl from your vantage point over a steep bluff.
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A sign with a diagram at the overlook explains how the spring bowl is constructed. Divers can swim down against the current about 100 feet to a large underground chamber that is littered with all kinds of natural and man-made refuse. A large boulder called "cork rock" lies at the bottom of the cavern and prevents divers from traveling deeper into the spring.
The clear waters of Blue Spring State Park are apparently quite popular with divers. We saw dozens of them at the park on our visit. Divers are required to register at the front office with a partner, and swimming and diving with the manatees is not permitted.
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The official park service web site reports that over 150 different manatees have visited the Blue Spring State Park so far in 2004, with over 80 individuals spotted on one day alone. There were a dozen or two manatees visible in the spring run at the time of our visit.
Most of the manatees we saw were swimming around at the end of the spring run, where it meets the St. Johns River. They would occasionally wander over towards the shore where we were standing and we did get a good look at them through the clear waters of the spring run.
Whether this park is a great place to see manatees seems to depend somewhat on when you go, and what kind of experience you prefer when you visit a state park.
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First, just in case you don't already know, the manatees enter the warmer waters of Florida's springs during the colder months of November through March. Because the spring water comes straight up out of the aquifer it stays at around 72 degrees year round, whereas the river and ocean waters drop in temperature along with the winter air. So, as you likely already know, visit the park in the winter if you wish to see manatees.
The second thing to consider is that Blue Spring State Park is a very well known and popular place, which is located half way between Daytona and Orlando, two of the state's most frantic tourist meccas.
If our visit on a winter Sunday morning was typical, the park appears to be quite crowded during manatee season.
If you get there at 8 a.m. when the park opens you can start the day with some elbow room, but will shortly find yourself enjoying the company of many other manatee crazed visitors. The boardwalk can be 5 people deep in places and you'll have to practise good natured patience as you await your turn to get to the front where you can see whatever it is everybody is currently looking at.
Apparently, the park staff often has to turn visitors away later in the day as the park reaches it's capacity.
So, come early, on a weekday if you can, and bring along your smile so you can make friends with other like minded nature lovers.
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Blue Spring State Park - Page 2
This article offers you a quick tour of Blue Spring State Park, in central Florida.
Blue Spring State Park - Page 1
This article offers you a quick tour of Blue Spring State Park, in central Florida.
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