Madison Blue Spring State Park

A couple of months ago, we booked a stay in a cabin at the Suwannee River State Park. After that, I saw that USA Today readers had voted Madison Blue Spring the best swimming hole in the country. In the country! And it won by a large margin. I took a look and found out that Madison Blue Spring was about half an hour from where we were going to be staying, so we made it part of our plans to check it out! Boy, am I glad we did.</p>

I can see why Madison Blue Spring State Park has been rated so highly. It's absolutely gorgeous! The spring is beautiful, has a lot to look at if you enjoy snorkeling (as I do), and it is surrounded by a beautiful nature setting that leads out to the river. The water is a wonderful 72 degrees that feels great on a hot day, and it's beautifully crystal clear, too. You can snorkel around to see the spring head, a wonderful cypress root system that is down in the water, rocks, lots of fish, and more. We even saw a turtle swimming right by us. I love it when we can snorkel and see a lot, and this place was perfect for it!

There are restrooms and a place to change there, as well as some picnic tables. This spring is off the beaten path and kind of in the middle of a bunch of farms in Lee, Fla., but it is so worth the trek to get there! It's a state park, so the fee to enter was $5 per vehicle. Diving is also allowed there. If you are taking small children, there are not a lot of shallow places for them. Once you leave the steps, the spring is quite deep.

When we first arrived, there were just a couple of people there, but they didn't stay long, and then for a while we had this beautiful spring all to ourselves. What a great time! Two thumbs up for this beautiful place!

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