Escape to Florida's Shimmering Natural Springs

Florida’s Nature Coast hides its wildest wonders in plain sight. Turn off the main drag at an unassuming roadside bait shop or just past a delightfully kitschy mermaid statue and enter a world of limestone basins brimming with crystal blue water. Here, in pools that maintain a consistent temperature of 72 degrees year-round, families float beneath jungle-green canopies and snorkelers peer into subterranean caverns. Manatee sightings are all but guaranteed, and, if you’re lucky, you may even catch a glimpse of an elusive mermaid.

Roni and Jeff Huber set up camp at Mary’s Fish Camp, right near the famed Weeki Wachee Springs. In space #5, they were perfectly situated near the camp’s deck—a great spot to watch the sun set into a vast tangle of Florida marsh—and the spring-fed Mud River, where soon after arrival, they saw an angler pull a red fish from the water. 

“He’s like, ‘You guys want this?’” Jeff recalls. So while the man cleaned the fish for them, Jeff prepped a hot skillet, perfuming the campsite with a sizzle of garlic in olive oil. “He was so happy giving it away. It made both our nights.”

Since 1946, Mary’s, a slice of Old Florida in Spring Hill, has fostered such moments. Out along a bumpy road, feathered in layers of subtropical vegetation, a few cabins, a camp store and 17 RV spots sit on sandy soil under the shade of pines and palm trees. The main draw, as in so many places in Florida, is the water. But we’re not talking beaches and a purring Gulf. Rather, this is fresh water from springs (such as Mud Spring, which feeds the river’s headwaters), bubbling clear and crisp, winding through mangroves and seagrass beds. 

With more than 1,000 natural pools, Florida has more freshwater springs than any other state. The unbelievably clear views of fish and lumbering manatees in blue-green water feel so otherworldly it’ll make a person ask: “Is this real?” To that question, we say: there’s only one way to be sure. Travel with us along an unofficial “spring belt” up the marshy, wild Nature Coast off Highway 19 to check out five spring systems that capture the essence of this spellbinding side of Florida.

Read More: Explore another side of Florida in the untamed Ten Thousand Islands.

Right off the highway, a mermaid statue rises from Weeki Wachee Springs State Park alongside a coil of waterslides and a vast parking lot. It feels like an amusement park. But slip into the emerald waters buoyed for swimming, and you might share the water with a manatee drifting past in the distance too.

The long-running and beloved mermaid shows here are a physical feat of grace and buoyancy. Performers swim against a cave-like backdrop that only nature could design, with fish and floating tufts of seagrass as part of the show: (Roni and Jeff Huber first met more than 30 years ago as underwater performers here, and their daughter swims as a mermaid today.)

The largest cave system in North America runs through this spring, a meandering network that tunnels right under the highway.

TRIP TIPS

Where to Camp: Mary’s Fish Camp

Where to Eat: Upper Deck Cafe

When Gulf temps drop, Crystal River becomes manatee mecca for the steady 72-degree springs. Some sections of Kings Bay, when the humped backs of manatees gather, look like “cobblestone streets,” says swimming guide Lacy Countryman, of Family Adventure Charters.

Between 400 and 600 manatees follow the springs here (with the record-breaking 2021-2022 season tallying 1,333). It’s one of the only places in the country to legally swim with the giants, which can feel a human heartbeat more than several feet away. During peak season, Florida Fish and Wildlife will often close parts of the springs for manatee protection (usually just a few acres). Guides can direct you to ample areas where the namesake “crystal” waters, Countryman says, feel like “swimming in an aquarium.”

TRIP TIPS

Where to Camp: Sun Retreats Crystal River

Where to Eat: Vintage on 5th

Detour off Highway 19 about 20 miles to Rainbow Springs State Park where the landscape is an oasis of every green hue and shape, with speared palm fronds and the gauzy, melancholy drape of Spanish moss over cypress trees. What began as a privately owned, nature-based theme park in the 1930s thrived through the golden age of Florida tourism in the 1960s.

But when the interstate diverted traffic from this rural area, it closed by the 1970s before becoming a state park in 1990.

Gina Smyth of Melbourne, Florida, says her family comes to the campground for peace and quiet. “No matter what you do, you almost can’t get away from fast-paced life unless you do this,” she says. Her family likes to ride bikes, kayak and paddleboard, and with her boys, Keaton and Maverick, “we love to find bugs,” she says. “They get so excited and the water feels incredible.”

TRIP TIPS

Where to Camp: Rainbow Springs State Park Campground

Where to Eat: Blue Gator Tiki Bar & Restaurant

Head north on Highway 19 through Hernando to Citrus Counties, and you’ll likely spot the “BEAR CROSSING” signs posted between hurricane evacuation directions and those to the Great Florida Birding Trail. It’s as if they’re saying, “Don’t forget: We’re in nature.”

The Chassahowitzka Springs form the headwaters to the Chassahowitzka River, or “the Chaz,” as locals call it. The name comes from a Seminole word for “land of hanging pumpkins,” a wild gourd that once grew on its banks. Caves formed here too, where experienced snorkelers dive (carefully), while others opt for a float from the Chassahowitzka River Campground and fishing for spotted seatrout, redfish and blue crab trapping, as herons and bald eagles look on.

TRIP TIPS

Where to Camp: Chassahowitzka River Campground

Where to Eat: The Chassahowitzka River Lodge, Bar & Grill

Make a pit stop off Highway 19 at the legendary Mullet Hut to see Viktor, who makes folk-art herons with palm wood and rebar, as well as a mean pot of boiled peanuts and paper-wrapped smoked mullet to go. Then look for the giant roadside manatee at the entrance to Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

A boat ride on Pepper Creek delivers guests to boardwalk trails through a Florida jungle for spotting great blue heron, white pelicans and manatees, as well as some species cared for in captivity, such as the Florida panther and black bear. Marvel, too, at the glowing turquoise hues of the springs, “Nature’s Fish Bowl,” it’s been called, and the underwater observatory that floats within the main spring. Then walk the paved Pepper Creek Trail, less than a mile, back to the visitors center.

TRIP TIPS

Where to Camp: Sun Retreats Homosassa River

Where to Eat: The Freezer

This story was originally published in the Nov/Dec issue of Wildsam Magazine.