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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 Springs24 places

Florida 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.