Obscure Florida: Salt Springs
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/One-Tank-Media-Master/Salt-Springs/i-4g5pp8M/0/XL/Photo%201-XL.jpg)
Located within the Ocala National Forest, Salt Springs State Park features an active spring that contains four boils into which visitors can swim. The deepest of the four is 36 feet from the water’s surface to the spring bottom. Check out the details after the jump!
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-may-obscure-florida-salt-springs
This is a great place, I have hiked through here with my family. Highly recommended.
Love Salt Springs. Also should drive through Cross Creek and have lunch at the Yearling! Old school Florida at its best.
It really is great. I travel right by here on trips to Ocala for work, and often times stop for a quick swim to soak up some nature. Very convenient.
A good paddle is the Salt Springs run to lake George and Back. I think it is technically Salt Springs bay or something like that. An 8 mile round trip it includes views of gators, birds and the occasional otter. There is also a shell mound about 1/2 mile from the lake where Timuncuans used to stop for lunch. It is not a burial or village mound.
Launch at the marina. There is a $5 parking charge. Or you can launch from the Salt Springs Rec area park for free .......after the Rec area admission fee.
In the winter manatees often cavort in the spring run. Not so much in the summer.
People used to cavort at the lake end of the run. It is often the location of the Red Neck Yacht club. People take their boats out there tie up in "sand bar" manor and cool off. Lawn chairs, BBQ grills, etc often are set up in the shallows.