Guide to Florida’s Blue Spring State Park

The first time I visited Blue Spring State Park, I was searching for something maybe only a Floridian would understand: a summertime break from the beach. On a hot August day, I detoured inland from Daytona Beach, roughly 32 miles to the north, in search of a freshwater pick-me-up and plenty of shade.

What a thrill it was to ditch the crowded sands of a sun-scorched beach in favor of the cool canopy of towering live oak trees and palms that surround the turquoise headspring at the famed Florida state park. And I’m hardly the only one seduced by the place.

“Blue Spring State Park is one of my favorite local places to bring my camera,” said commercial photographer Danielle Hanusek of Live Wonderful, who lives in nearby Lake Helen. “The boardwalks give you awesome views of the springs the whole time you’re walking. It feels like real, old Florida. And I always love capturing the wildlife and landscapes.”

For Lauren Gay of adventure travel website Outdoorsy Diva, the park is most appealing to visit during Florida’s cooler winter months due to a very special wildlife encounter. “It is one of the best places for manatee viewing,” she said. “They come in by the hundreds seeking warmer waters.”

The opportunities to hike along trails that follow the spring, spot birds like eagles and osprey, launch a canoe or kayak into the St. Johns River, or head out on a guided river boat cruise draw visitors to Blue Spring State Park all year round, too.

Ready for an adventure of your own? Here’s what you need to know before visiting Blue Spring State Park.

Planning Your Visit

Like most state parks in Florida, Blue Spring State Park welcomes visitors throughout the year and is open from 8 a.m. to sunset, daily. If you’re driving from Daytona Beach, count on around 45 minutes (32 miles) to get here. If you’re coming from Orlando International Airport, about 50 miles south, it takes an hour using the toll road (417 North) and about 25 minutes longer if you travel along I-4. Jacksonville International Airport is further away (a little over two hours, or 131 miles, to the north).

Most visitors arrive at the park in a private or rental car. Admission costs $6 per vehicle for between two and eight passengers. It’s just $4 to enter in a single-occupant vehicle. Pedestrians and bicyclists pay $2 a person.

When it comes to the best times to visit the park, Connor Wagner, park services specialist and certified interpretive guide at Blue Spring State Park, says it’s always best to arrive at the park within the first hour or two of its opening or the hour or two before closing for the least crowded experience – particularly during the busy summer months and manatee season.

If you’re looking to swim in the river run, it’s possible only between April 1 and Nov. 15; after that, the waters are closed to protect the manatees, even if none have arrived yet. The period between Nov. 15 and March 31 is manatee season. For your best chance at seeing manatees, plan your trip around a cold front, which brings them into the headspring from the St. Johns River and beyond.

Wagner says the slow season is September and October, and the busiest time of the year is between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Amenities at Blue Spring State Park are pretty standard for Florida state parks and include picnic areas with shaded benches and grills for barbecuing. The park’s main concessionaire, Blue Spring State Park Adventures, operates from within the park, renting kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, and bikes, and offering guided kayaking tours as well as St. Johns River Cruises on pontoon boats. The concessionaire also runs a canteen and gift shop selling lunch items like burgers, meatball subs, hot dogs, ice creams, and smoothies. Simple camp food and supplies are also for sale.

Accessible amenities at the park include a wheelchair lift for accessing the St. Johns River Cruises boat, accessible camping sites, accessible bathhouses and showers, an accessible fishing dock within the park on the St. Johns River, an accessible boardwalk, and accessible covered pavilions and grills for picnicking. Interpretive exhibits and cabins for overnight camping are also accessible. The spring also offers wheelchair-accessible entry into the water during the swimming season.

Things to Do

Paddling

You can rent kayaks, canoes, or paddleboards by the hour from the park’s concessionaire to head out on your own, or opt for a guided 1.5-hour, small-group St. Johns River kayak tour, during which your guide can point out native plants, birds, and more.

St. Johns River Nature Cruise

Three times a day, pontoon boats head out on nature cruises on the St. Johns River from within the park. The narrated two-hour cruises immerse visitors in the history and wildlife of the region as they cruise past cypress forests scouting for wading birds, manatees, and alligators.

Wildlife Viewing

The chance to see manatees in the wild — in a habitat where humans aren’t permitted to swim in the water with them — is the park’s biggest calling card (more on that below in the manatee section). But there’s lots more to see at Blue Spring State Park, too.

“The things you’re most likely to see here, after the manatees during the season, are things like deer, gopher tortoises, wild turkey, and the Florida scrub jay,” said Wagner. “Working here, I’ve seen bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes, black bears, and all sorts of other things.”

In addition to coveted sightings of the Florida scrub jay, birders can seek out 142 other bird species observed along the Great Florida Birding Trail within the park, including chestnut-sided warblers, Mississippi kites, and Blackburnian warblers. Along the river, look for more birds like kingfishers, osprey, and eagles.

Alligators live in the St. Johns River, but don’t worry — park rangers keep an eye on the park’s swimming area for them and will close it if necessary to relocate the reptiles.

Camping

The park has 51 campsites within walking distance of the spring, all with a picnic table, electricity, and a grill. Bathhouses are also available.

Tubing, Swimming, and Snorkeling

During the park’s official swimming season, it’s possible to swim, tube (rentals are available from the concessionaire), and snorkel within a roughly quarter-mile-long stretch of the river, accessible via a platform from the riverbank.

Scuba Diving

The Florida Dive Company is the only company permitted to take scuba divers into the park’s waters, and only outside of manatee season.

Hiking

The park’s boardwalk is the most popular place for a stroll, although a portion of it is currently closed (likely to open sometime in 2025) while it’s under construction. You can still stroll out on it during manatee season to spot manatees. The park’s longest hiking trail is the 4.5-mile, out-and-back Pine Island Trail, a rugged trail through several habitats. The Stark Trail is a fun one for elevation change, a rarity in Florida, making it popular with mountain bikers. And the .25-mile loop called the Sand Pine Scrub Trail between the main office and campground is the best place to spot Florida scrub jays.

Seeing Manatees at the Park

During the cooler months of the year, from Nov. 15  to March 31, it’s manatee season at the park. The first-magnitude spring here pumps out 102 million gallons of fresh water a day at a constant temperature of 72 degrees, which makes it a veritable hot tub for manatees looking to warm up from colder winter waters in the St. Johns River and Atlantic Ocean (the mammals are very susceptible to cold stress syndrome, which can kill them).

“We have some manatees that basically live within 10 miles of this park their entire lives, and we have some manatees that will swim hundreds of miles away and come back every single winter,” says Wagner. The colder the weather is outside, the more manatees will be in the park, he says.

Swimmers are not allowed in the water with the manatees during manatee season. But if you encounter them in the spring outside of the season, which is possible, says Wagner, try to stay at least 20 feet away and never grab onto them. The best place to observe manatees safely and without disturbing their natural behavior is always from the park’s boardwalk. During one record-breaking day recently, more than 900 manatees were spotted.

“The boardwalk hangs over the spring, and you can look down and generally the manatees are just right in front of you, swimming around. So it’s one of the closest ways to see manatees responsibly in the wintertime,” he says. “We take pride in being able to allow people very, very good views of them while not impacting the manatees’ well-being.”

Tips for Visiting

Plan to arrive early at the park. Particularly during the busy summer weekends, it’s best to arrive an hour or more before opening, says Wagner, as cars start lining up early to get inside.

Follow the park on social media (Instagram and Facebook) during manatee season for daily updates on the number of manatees sighted within the park. “If you see there are 100 manatees in the spring on a Thursday, and you look at the weather, and you see that it’s going to stay cold, you can assume that number will go from 100 to around 500 in three or four days.”

Making a reservation for a boat cruise or kayak tour will get you into the park faster on busy days than waiting in the car line. That said, keep in mind that those reservations are non-refundable, Wagner noted.

Mid-march through April is a wonderful time to visit the park, says Wagner. “Usually between March 15 and April 15 is a four-week period where we have thousands of fireflies that light up at our park right after sunset,” he says. “We do special late hours where people can stay after the park closes and walk along the boardwalk to see them lighting up.” Sometimes there are even manatees still in the spring then, so you could potentially get lucky at this time of year and see both.

Leave your radios and waterproof speakers at home: The goal is to relax in nature here, and such items are prohibited on the water.

Pop by the visitor center, or better yet, call ahead to see what special programming might be happening during your visit. Monthly ranger-led programs include tram tours through the park’s scrub habitat, full moon hikes held after hours, Jay Walks to look for the Florida scrub jay, and Junior Ranger Programs for kids in first through sixth grade.