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Kelly Park Rock Springs

Photo: ThePinewall / CC BY 4.0 · source

💧 Springs

Kelly Park Rock Springs

Apopka, FL · Central Florida

About

Rock Springs pushes about 26,000 gallons a minute of 68-degree water out of a cave at the head of Kelly Park, and the run it feeds is the whole point: you drop in at the boil and let the current walk you a quarter-mile downstream past limestone ledges and overhanging palms. The water glows that gemstone teal-green where the light hits the sand, and the float lasts roughly 25 minutes before a short paved walk back to do it again. Bring your own tube or float under five feet, get there early because the lot caps and fills by mid-morning, and plan to be wet all day.

Highlights

Natural lazy-river tube run down Rock Springs Run68-degree water year-round, about 26,000 gallons a minuteTeal-green spring water over limestone and sandBring your own tube or float under five feetArrive early: the parking lot caps and fills by mid-morning

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.