Blue Spring Part II

Blue Spring is a lovely place...the waters are cool....cold if you're hot...and clear and sweet.  Swimming in the spring is an exhilarating experience.  There were a wide variety of fish that swam with me, from catfish to gar...it was all there.  There was a warning of alligators, but there were none to be seen, and believe me, you'd have seen it.  Lots of people swimming, tubing and enjoying the spring here.  I used my underwater camera casing to take up close and personal photos of the gar.  They were not shy at all.  See for yourself!

A view from the bottom looking up and out of the water

At the water's edge

This is a wonderful area to paddle a kayak or a canoe, to snorkel and scuba dive, and to just enjoy time with family and friends.  There is a concessionaire that will rent you a float if you don't have one, and will blow up any float you do have for a nominal fee.  There is a grill that will cook you up a hod dog or hamburger.  There are pick-nick pavilions there and there are a few nature trails you can hike on of varying lengths.

From this state park you can take a lovely day trip to a place called Hontoon Island.  Once you get there, you have to take a short, park provided ferry ride over.  On the island itself, there is a small museum with a video and several artifacts to see.  This was a native American island.  Here they found remnants of a past culture.  Shell middens, pottery, tools and the like.  There are several trails to walk on, you can do primitive camping here, and if you have a live aboard boat, you can dock and get water and electric from the park service and do boat camping.  It was a lovely day trip.  Very hot in the summer, but would make a great active day in cooler weather.

Looking across the way to Hontoon Island from the main land.

Another view of Hontoon from teh mainland.  You can see the ferry in the distance on the right side.

The trails are full of interesting plant and animals species, and plenty of things to discover.  Spending the day at Hontoon is lovely!  We ate our lunch at one of the picnic tables overlooking the water, enjoyed the museum and trails, then made our way back to the ferry...because near where we were, is another day trip state park...Lower Wekiwa River State Park.  This park has serious hiking trails attached to it and a lovely boat launch area for kayaks and canoes.  The water looked lovely, and there were many bird species in the immediate area near the boat launch.

As you can see, if you're camping at Blue Spring State Park, you have many natural venues to visit in the area. Plan on spending a few nights...4 or 5 and see it all.  From this point, we moved on to Tomoka and there were so many things to see and do, three days of camping wasn't enough to really take it all in.  Tomorrow, I'll tell you about Tomoka and it's surrounding environs.