Convict Springs in Mayo, Florida

On our recent spring hunting expedition, we decided to stop off and take a look at Convict Spring since we were in the area visiting other springs. It was a little hard to find, because it's literally in a campground. The GPS took us into the campground and then we didn't know where to go from there. We found out that it is back behind the building where there's a cooking shack and office. We walked around the building to the back so that we could see Convict Spring.

It's named Convict Spring because of its history. Long ago, it was the site where chain gangs were housed. The spring today looks like a swimming pool and from a distance doesn't look bad. But when I walked up to it, I had no interest in taking a dip in that spring. It did not look appealing at all. In fact, it looked drab and dark. We took some pictures, felt the water, and after looking around, we left, having just looked at Convict Spring without getting into it.

If you are a spring hunter, you will want to put it on your list to check out, even if you don't find it appealing enough to get into (like us). But at least you will have seen it. I have seen pictures where people are swimming in it, so maybe on other days it looks better than it did the day we stopped by. If in the area again, I will stop and see how it looks that day. If it looks nice enough, I will get in.

We do RV camping, too, and I didn't even find the campground that it's at appealing. All of the RVs are out in the open without shade or privacy. I wouldn't want to stay there. But at least we saw Convict Spring, even if we all shook our heads no about taking a dip into the murky-looking water! Other people have went swimming there and seem to love it, so it must be nicer on certain days.

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