Wekiwa Springs State Park
Apopka, FL · Central Florida
Forty-two million gallons a day rise here at a steady 72 degrees, filling a kidney-shaped pool that fades from concrete-apron shallows to a 15-foot cavern at the boil. Most days…
Photo: Ebyabe / CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Springs
Blue Spring State Park
About
Manatees come in from the St. Johns River to Blue Spring in Orange City for its 72-degree water, and on one January day in 2024 the count reached 932. In 1970 it was 14. They're most reliable from mid-November to mid-March, January above all, and you watch from the boardwalk along the run, since the water is closed to people while they're in. In the swimming months, April to mid-November, tubers carry their tubes up the half-mile boardwalk and float a quarter mile back to the takeout. Every day-use visitor, even on foot, needs a Florida State Parks reservation, bookable up to 60 days ahead.
Highlights
Winter manatee refugeBoardwalk along the spring run72-degree spring waterTubing season April to mid-NovemberThursby House, built 1872Day-use reservation for every visitor
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14 placesBest Florida Wildlife
Go in winter if you can. Manatees crowd the warm springs from mid-November through March, and the wading birds are thickest on the same cool, dry mornings.
24 placesFlorida Springs
Every spring on this list stays between 68 and 74 degrees all year, and from mid-November through March the manatees move into Blue Spring and Three Sisters. You watch them from the boardwalk.
26 placesFlorida State Parks
This list has 26 of Florida's 175 or so state parks. Book Blue Spring before you drive: it needs a day-use reservation.
7 placesWhere to See Manatees in Florida
Seven places to see wild manatees in Florida, picked for how many turn up on a cold winter morning. Go between mid-November and March, after a cold snap drops the bays and rivers below 68 degrees.