Blue Spring State Park in Orange City

Today we spent the day at Blue Spring State Park. I had arranged for our nature club to take a one-hour eco-boat tour (perfect length of time for the kids). After that, we had a picnic, took a short nature walk, and went swimming in the spring. We had a great day there!

Blue Spring State Park is located at 2100 W. French Ave., in Orange City. During the winter months, it is a refuge area for manatees, as they huddle into the spring for its constant 72 degree temperature. In the summer, swimmers and divers take to the spring. It's a beautiful state park! It offers camping, kayaking, boat tours, picnicking, swimming, and more. They also have a camp store there, where they rent tubes for use in the spring. There is also a little store where you can get some food and supplies.

Much of Blue Spring State Park is boardwalk access, which makes it accessible for wheelchairs and strollers. There are plenty of picnic tables, bathrooms, nature walks (a 10 minute boardwalk one, and a 4 mile one) and there is a house/museum that can be toured for free. There is a park entrance fee, which at this time is $6 per vehicle.

There were actually two manatees in the swimming area today. The large one came out and swam where swimmers were, then headed off to the river. That was quite exciting for everyone!

This park often has manatees swimming around in the spring while people are in there. You are not allowed to touch them, but it's awesome to see them swimming around. In 2024, they did some renovations and there is now a new boardwalk that is really nice. There are two entrance points into the spring. If you go down to the end one, you can float back to the beginning, which takes around 10-15 minutes and it's so nice! You can also get in the end entrance point and go back to the spring head. It is rocky heading back that way, so you may want to take water shoes. The rocks really hurt the feet!

This is also a great place to camp, with the spring trail making it just a couple of minutes to get from the campground to the spring. If camp there, take bikes, because there is a great paved bike trail system right outside the park. You can take a nice ride on it in the morning and then hit the spring to cool off once you get back.

During the off season months, this spring is loaded with manatees. Sometimes there will up to 500 manatees or more in the spring at once. It's awesome to see!

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