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Fanning Springs State Park

Photo: Ebyabe / CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

💧 Springs

Fanning Springs State Park

Fanning Springs, FL · North Central Florida

About

Fanning Springs pours about 65 million gallons a day into a wide, 72-degree pool that runs a deep turquoise toward the boil and a pale aquamarine over the shallows. A swim platform and ladder drop you straight into water clear enough to count the limestone ledges, and a boardwalk carries the spring run out to the Suwannee River, where manatees move up on the coldest winter days. It once ran first-magnitude and now sits just under that line, which makes it an easy, uncrowded stop on a North Florida springs loop.

Highlights

72-degree spring pool with a swim platform and ladderSnorkeling over limestone ledges and a clear boilBoardwalk along the spring run to the Suwannee RiverWinter manatees in the run and riverSecond-magnitude flow, about 65 million gallons a day

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.