Blue Springs State Park

School is out now and we have already hit a super beautiful high note !

But, before I share that adventure, we made it to Blue Springs State Park just in time before school let out for summer. We went on a perfect day, it was after school and all of maybe 30 people over the course of us being there were also visiting the park. I don’t know if it’s because we have been spring hoppin’ so often or if this one really is a bit warmer but it wasn’t anything to get in as far as having to brace myself for the cold. It felt AMAAAAAAZING !

The water here is definitely different in color, but it also feels so much more natural. Huge gar are swimming around. I mean, wow… they are big. I have seen only a few that were small caught at the inlet but these were 5x that size. I was chuckling a bit at this girl who didn’t want to get in because of the fish and 20 minutes after she finally did someone said something about them. I thought they were just joking because I was playing with my son obviously unaware of my surroundings but she was on the verge of tears so I start looking around….they are everywhere. There’s so many of them that there’s almost no point in letting your fears get the best of you – if they were going to attack like piranhas then you’d just be S.O.L haha.

The water is also very deep, we didn’t get in where people that tube down do but, where the main swimming is it’s pretty deep. Right at the bottom of the steps it was over my head, I thought that was really strange and also scary when getting in and out. A few feet past the steps you can stand on your toes…. this is all dependant upon height of course, I am 5’5 just to use mine as an example. There are logs on the bottom, they are kind of slippery but are nice to stand on. My son was in his life vest the whole time so I’d let him drift a bit then swim over to him before he got close to where they have it roped off.

OH !!! And a manatee came in the swim area, right as i made it up the stairs out of the spring… at least I got to see it 🙂 The same man that was trying to catch gar for like 30 minutes (which was kind of funny, watching him flip about…had a nice accent too heehee) went and swam to the manatee and I think that chased it away

Some things this park offers are:

• Camping
• picnic
• playground
• kayaking
• kayak rentals
• concessions
• live manatee cam
• gift shop
• snorkeling
• tubing
• fishing
• swimming
• boat tours
• historic site
• nature trail

Unfortunately we did not get around to checking out the campsites so I can’t comment on that aspect, my son and my friend’s kids had fun on the playground. It’s small but it gets the job done 😛 there’s a big grassy area too which is great for running around.

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Accessibility-

This park is by far one of the most accessible, all concrete walk areas and the nature trail is a boardwalk and that one leads to the opening of the spring. There is another long boardwalk going towards the playground and Thursby House areas as well with little viewing docks.  The entrance to the spring is a metal ramp with a rug/carpet type of thing going over it… the only concern after the ramp would be the steps and the immediate depth after the steps. The steps are super slippery from algae, water shoes would counteract that i’m sure. Just looking around I was very impressed with the accessibility. They did well 🙂