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Ponce de Leon Springs State Park

Photo: Ebyabe / CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

💧 Springs

Ponce de Leon Springs State Park

Ponce de Leon, FL · Panhandle

About

Ponce de Leon Springs pushes about 14 million gallons a day up through two limestone vents, and you can watch them work from the surface before you ever get in. The water holds a steady 68 degrees year round and runs roughly 20 feet deep at the head, deep enough that snorkelers and divers trace the rock walls while everyone else floats the green spring run toward the woods. It is a small park in the Panhandle, the kind you build a slow afternoon around with a picnic table and a towel.

Highlights

Two limestone spring vents visible from the surfaceSteady 68-degree water year roundSwimming, snorkeling, and scuba in the basin350-foot spring run with a gentle currentShaded nature trails through Panhandle forest

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.