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De Leon Springs State Park

Photo: Ebyabe / CC BY 2.5 · source

💧 Springs

De Leon Springs State Park

De Leon Springs, FL · Central Florida

About

De Leon Springs pushes out close to twenty million gallons a day, holding 72 degrees whether it's January or August, in a wide circular pool ringed by cypress and moss-draped oaks. The real reason people come is breakfast at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill, where you cook your own pancakes on a griddle built into the table, then walk down and swim off the meal in the spring. Come in winter and you may share the cove with manatees drifting in from the cold St. Johns to warm up.

Highlights

Cook-your-own pancakes at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill72-degree swimming year-round in the spring poolWinter manatees take refuge from the St. JohnsPaddle the spring run into Lake Woodruff's wildlife refuge

Getting there

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Florida Springs

Florida sits on top of one of the largest gatherings of freshwater springs on Earth, and they run a constant 68 to 74 degrees no matter the season. Some are first-magnitude giants pushing hundreds of millions of gallons a day, others are quiet blue sinkholes you can have to yourself at dawn. These are the ones worth the drive: the glass-bottom boat tours, the lazy-river tube runs, the cavern dives, and the winter springs where the manatees come in from the cold.