blue springs park

Wrong information on this page. Swimming only. $10 per person. People are very nice and will let you look at the spring for free for a few minutes. She said it gets very busy in the summer. Camping is available too.

For six dollars I could not have had a better time. It was a clear day. The crowd was reasonable in size. We made our way along an elevated walkway and saw easily 80 young and old manatees cruising and feeding in the clear water surrounded by big fish. There was a nice walk involved and many different spots to observe. I would return and on a warmer day would love to take a kayak out or take a swim.

We visited this park hoping to see Manatees and we saw many as well as fish, butterflies, turtles, and one very large alligator. Boardwalk and viewing sites are well maintained and even on a busy day space for all . We also enjoyed the Ranger's talk and her answers to many questions.It was BEAUTIFUL.

This is such a beautiful park. The springs, the manatees, turtles, birds and other animals, the nature trails, everything. We had a wonderful day.

Our trip to Blue Springs is a highlight in our trip to Florida! We tried to go last year but the park was packed. This year we were at the gate before the park opened. No crowds, a lot of manatees. My husband and I enjoyed the park greatly. The walkways and plat forms to see the manatees are well keep. The nature along the trails is beautiful. Of course, the manatees are in the spotlight. The view is great and seeing these graceful animals in the water is amazing! We will go again next year. TIP: to avoid the crowds go before the festival starts and early morning.

This place is a gem of Florida. However the people running it do not care about you or your family and just want your money. IF YOU ARE TRAVELING BY BOAT DON'T GET OUT ON THEIR PROPERTY OR YOU WILL BE CHARGED! If you don't immediately pay what they ask you to, they will call all 3 branches of law enforcement in the area. I have seen it happen twice. They are mean and aren't afraid to send you to jail for not paying their fees or not following their rules. I would suggest accessing it FOR FREE by boat or by just swimming over from Rum Island which is a free access right across the river. Its free and there is no danger of going to jail...

It's amazing, nothing else. You can spend all your afternoon, but after some hours it's kinda boring if you are not having a barbecue or playing something. I recommend rent a kayak or something to go river down..It's 5 dolars to rent it and there are some machines to buy chips and this stuffs. To get into the park you pay 10 dolares per person.

The park's name comes from a 35-foot deep spring surrounded by a small swimming area edged on one side by a narrow beach. On the side across from the beach is a large raised platform where brave people can jump down into the blue water bubbling out of the spring. Along one bank of the shallow tributary that flows from the spring is a long boardwalk. The balance of the park consists of heavily treed camping areas.Blue Springs Park is not the place to stay on holiday weekends unless you enjoy sharing your swimming and beach space packed shoulder-to-shoulder with other people. The park has no limit on the number of people allowed to come in as long as they pay the entrance fee of $10 per person. We were there on Labor Day weekend with temperatures in the 90s, and it seemed as though half the population of Florida wanted to be there too.The RV parking sites have water, but only 30 amp hookups and no dumping at the sites. We couldn't use the park's central dump area because we were told there had been so much rain that it was full. There is no wi-fi available. The sites are hard to find after dark (which is when we arrived). They are on a first-come-first-served basis with no reservations taken. The cost works out to $42 a day for two adults. There also are areas for tents, with water and electric available only in a small section. The rest of the sites are primitive camping. Canoe rental is $15 for two hours. Kayaks are $10.

Lots of picnic tables; concessions available along with canoe and tube rental. Boardwalk along the water; tower for jumping into spring; also beach area for little ones. Can hike in surrounding woodsy area and camp with reservations.Took a nature walk and had a treasure hunt for the kids. Enjoyed a canoe ride and swimming in the crystal clear and blue water of the spring.Bathroom and changing facilities were adequate. No negative comments and would go again for a family outing!

When I recently went to visit my daughter in Gainesville Florida my husband asked me what are you going to do for a week in Gainesville. Well my daughter found plenty of things for us to do, but I have to say my most favorite was our visit to Blue Springs. We packed a picnic lunch and charcoal for the grill and took the three children my daughter Nannies in the summer and headed out. The water was crystal clear 72° which apparently it is year-round. We enjoy floating on a rafts and snorkeling while we watch the fish and turtles swim underneath us. They have a nice clean bath house and they also offer camping. The fee was very reasonable $10 for adults $3 for children 12 and under. They rent snorkels and rafts on site. I enjoyed it so much we went back again two days later.

We have been coming to Blue Springs for many years & always have a blast. Frequently they have been Boy Scout trips & we camp here rather than Ginny because the drinking is insane at Ginny, usually a fatality there every summer. At Blue all the non campers must leave at 7 so it calms down at night. The spring is beautiful and the kids cannot get enough of jumping off the platform into the water. There are no mosquitos, just lots of flies at sunset & ants. It was in the 70s at night so a fan in the tent was adequate. Only bad thing I'm going to say is that the bathrooms at Blue are really getting bad. Tiles crumbling off the walls in the shower. Not cleaned frequently enough, very muddy in there. There are plenty of nearby activities to keep the kids engaged for a 3 or 4 day weekend. Here is the usual itinerary: Friday Arrive at Blue by 12, set up camp, jump in the water & enjoy the day here. Saturday Go tubing down the river at Ichetucknee State Park 20 min away, rent tubes along the way. If you want to do the whole 3 hour float from the north end you will have to leave by 7 bc they close that end of the river around 8 am when they get to 300 tubers. Then you can float the south end. Our kids get bored with 3 hours of floating and prefer to tube from the midpoint which is 1.5 hour float. Access this from the south parking lot. Even the midpoint will close by 12 on a Saturday. Then you will only be able to take a 45 min float from Dampier's Landing also at the south parking lot to the end. After we finish the tube ride we drive up to the north lot and snorkel in the Head Spring and Blue Hole. Then back to the camp site. SundayBreak camp, drive to Ginny Springs next door. Snorkel in their 4 or 5 springs, see the scuba divers cave diving, cool off & drive home. Extra Day Next time I will add an extra day and go to Bob's River Place 30 min away on the Suwanee River to go on the rope swing & slide.

First off, don't confuse this with Blue Springs STATE Park. This is in a different location, with less to do, and it's more expensive. These springs are nestled in between Ichetucknee, O'leno, Ginnie Springs, and the Santa Fe River. In its natural state, I'm sure it would be a very pretty place. However, on a Saturday in July, the place was overrun by drunk adults, and unsupervised children who I'd consider too small to be unsupervised around those drunk adults. As for activities, there are grills and picnic tables available, if you arrive early enough in the day. A snack shop has limited selection but reasonable prices. Tubes and canoe rentals are available, but I wouldn't recommend it. The tubing run is extremely short, and it's a one-way trip ending with a walk back upstream in the waist- to neck-deep water. Canoeing out onto the Santa Fe could be fun, but the entry free plus rental means you can make this happen cheaper elsewhere. $10 per person is steep considering what you get.

Visited July 5, 2014- It wasnt quite what we expected, or even close. First off the spring run is extremely narrow and I wouldnt call it a run, its more of a sprint. VERY short and you spend the whole time maneuvering around canoes, fallen trees and there are places its so shallow your behind will literally bump things on the bottom...there are as many canoes, if not more , than there were tubes and 95% of the people in the canoes have no idea how to steer them so you better be on the look out because you WILL get hit a few times, not very relaxing at all. When you get to the end of the VERY short run you literally have to WALK back up the run through the water. Granted its very shallow, thats not the issue...the issue is the current is moving along and youre dragging your tube and having to walk over rocks, through the tall grass growing on the run, and again avoiding canoes and other people coming down past you. There is a boardwalk that runs to the end but strictly for walking and sightseeing, theres no way to get on the boardwalk from the end of the run so you have no choice but to walk back in the water. Why they dont have a ladder or steps so you can use the boardwalk to get back I dont understand. DO NOT take your small kids down the run because you will be towing your tubes and carrying your small kids back...they wont be able to walk it. After you walk back up the run, and you will get a workout doing this...there are lots of kids around also trying to get back and we had a few of them latch on to our tubes for a free ride. Now dont get me wrong, we let them hitch on but believe me after that hike dragging just your tube the last thing you want is more baggage. The spring is not very big so its very crowded as they have no "full capacity" like state parks. We took the one run down and left the park to go to Ginny Springs. On the upside--the run is very clean! the water is clear and theres not litter everywhere like Ginny Springs just down the street. The park itself is very clean, everything is well maintained. I can see that if you have young kids that can swim well enough that you can let them loose it could be a good place for you to take the kids and the park really is well tended. The staff we encountered, really just the lady that took our money at the gate and the girl in the gift shop...were both very pleasant. I have seen comments about the staff not being pleasant but we didnt encounter that. I did exchange a few emails with the owner prior to making the trip and she can come off a bit short in her online communication but thats all relevant to interpretation too. For us paying the $50 (5 adults) ended up being a waste of money since we didnt stay and it was more of a chore to tube there than relaxing. Ginny Springs, although I HATE the fact that its covered in litter is a much better way to go if you just want to sip a beer, float and RELAX. The run is VERY wide and dont see canoes...although a couple motor boats whipped by us causing a lot of wake, which was actually kind of fun unless you had a drink in your hand and most everyone did. The water is pretty gross though...its BROWN, looks like flat coca cola, Im guessing from the rusting cans, etc all over the bottom. You cant see them because the water is so dirty but you will see them on the banks and floating. THere ARE alot of drunk young people there but all the ones we encountered we just having a good time and were polite and very social. We enjoyed them. Blue Springs Park (not to be confused with Blue Springs STATE park) is hard to rate for me. I'd give the appearance of the park and the maintenance 5 stars, the entertainment factor for kids 4-5 stars. For us however...as far as what we were looking for it was a 1, we wont be going back...it just didnt work at all for us as adults with no kids. If being able to have alcohol while youre there is not a concern for you then I would recommend a state run Spring. They wont be over crowded and will be maintained.

Blue Springs is one of our favorite places. However, the people who run it are not particularly pleasant. I'd give it a 10 out of 5 if it weren't for the people who run it. But that does not affect our fun. We rented a canoe this last time and were surprised at the way we were treated. They rented the canoe to us for only 1 hour before closing of canoe rentals, so they said it had to be back in just one hour instead of two, but that there was a 20-minute grace period. We returned the canoe after having it out the hour and 20 minutes, only to be told there was going to be a late fee. We cannot understand why we were told there was a 20-minute leeway but were not told that if we used that 20-minute leeway we would be charged extra. Perhaps it was a inadvertent and irresponsible act on their part, or perhaps it was a way to try to get us to have to pay extra. We will never be renting a canoe from them again, though. The experience just didn't seem right to us.Also, Blue Springs personnel told us when they charged us the extra fee for the canoe that we should not feel badly to pay it since their canoe rental was the cheapest rate on the Santa Fe. But we have shopped around and there are two other places on the Santa Fe that rent canoes for much, much better prices per hour. For example, there is a canoe rental that rents for 4 hours on the river for $20 per canoe, 8 hrs. on the river for 3 people for $45, and then there is O'Leno State Park which rents canoes for $15 for the day.

All I can say is Blue Springs is a beautiful attration! The water is blue and crystal clear! Jumping off the deck is a blast!! I love that you can stroll on the walkway over the springs and enjoy the lovely view. It is a little pricey, $10 a person to get into the park, but it is truly worth it. You are also able to rent floats, tubes, and scuba masks for snorkeling, all of which makes the springs that much more fun! They also have nice picnic tables and grills to barbecue or picnic. The bathrooms were clean, and showers are also provided. There are also plenty of shade with all the surrounding trees. Overall, Blue Springs is a terrific family attration for all ages! There will be no doubt that you will be very happy you visited, and will surely want to come again. Diane-Sutton, MA