Gilchrest Blue Springs State Park

One of the newer state parks, this is a gorgeous place to visit!

The first time we went there, I fell in love with the spring, but not the way it was being managed. It was privately owned and operated, and it was being so over-exploited! I cringed at how over-crowed it was and how it was not being well taken care of, as it should be to protect it. Well, not many years later, I was thrilled to hear that the state of Florida had purchased it and made it a state park. I've been there a couple of times since then and it's so much better now that it is owned by the state.

We've went there just to swim and we have camped at this park. Both are great! The campground is really close to the spring, so no matter what site you get it's just a couple of minute walk to the spring. However, they don't offer full hook-ups, and there is zero phone service there. The phones were essentially useless, so keep that in mind. There's a long road leading back this spring and you lose service as you go down it. If you were to go to "town" to reach service it's going to take you 10-15 minutes most likely.

Anyway, still a great place to visit! The spring is like something out of a picture book, it's so beautiful. There was a long boardwalk that used to lead back to the river, but that was made unstable during a hurricane. They do offer kayaking from here.

When I first went to this spring, you could also go to another small spring on the grounds, called Naked Spring (pictured below). It was just a short walk from the main spring. It was so nice! Very small, total nature setting, and we loved it. We did swim in it, but on another trip there they closed it off for good (while we were there). They had decided that to protect the integrity of the spring, it was no longer going to be available to the public. You can still walk over and look at it, but they took away the stairs that were there and put up signs keeping people from going in.

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