Happenin’
Places › Florida › North Central Florida › Salt Springs Recreation Area
Salt Springs Recreation Area

Photo: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration / Public domain · source

Springs

Salt Springs Recreation Area

Salt Springs, FL · North Central Florida$$14.50 per person, plus tax

About

Salt Springs pushes 52 million gallons a day out of four rocky vents in the Ocala National Forest, and the water tastes faintly of salt. In the 74-degree pool, snorkelers float over tumbled limestone with mullet and now and then a blue crab. There's a campground too, the largest in the forest.

Highlights

52-million-gallon-a-day spring with a faint mineral salt tasteSnorkel the four rocky vents over tumbled limestoneMullet and blue crabs in the 74-degree poolLargest campground in the Ocala National Forest

Getting there

13851 Highway 19, Salt Springs, FL 32134

Related places

Juniper Springs Recreation Area Springs

Juniper Springs Recreation Area

Ocala, FL · North Central Florida$

Juniper Run starts at Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest and goes 7 miles through a federal wilderness area. It isn't meant for beginners, and most trips take 3 to 5…

Ginnie Springs Springs

Ginnie Springs

High Springs, FL · North Central Florida$$

At Ginnie Springs, about 8 miles from High Springs, tubes go into the Santa Fe River at Beaver's Landing and float about an hour to the Twin Spring exit. Wear water shoes for the…

Ichetucknee Springs State Park Springs

Ichetucknee Springs State Park

Fort White, FL · North Central Florida

Nine springs feed the 6-mile Ichetucknee River near Fort White, and the water holds 72 degrees all year. Manatees show up in winter. Tubing runs year-round from Dampier's Landing…

More in North Central Florida

Others worth the drive in this corner of Florida.

All of North Central Florida →
Rainbow Springs State Park Springs

Rainbow Springs State Park

Dunnellon, FL · North Central Florida

At Rainbow Springs near Dunnellon you swim in a cordoned-off area by the headsprings, where the Rainbow River begins. Everyone coming in at the headsprings entrance needs a…

Silver Springs State Park Springs

Silver Springs State Park

Ocala, FL · North Central Florida$

In the late 1870s Hullam Jones and Phillip Morrell fixed glass to the bottom of a rowboat at Silver Springs in Ocala, and glass bottom boats have run ever since. The half-hour…

Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park Caves

Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park

Gainesville, FL · North Central Florida

A 132-step staircase goes down into Devil's Millhopper, a sinkhole 120 feet deep and 500 feet wide northwest of the University of Florida in Gainesville. More than 100 feet of…

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park Gardens & wildlife

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park

Micanopy, FL · North Central Florida

Plains bison were brought back to Paynes Prairie in 1975, and a small herd still grazes the 16,000-acre basin of marsh and wet prairie south of Gainesville. They're seen most…

Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park Springs

Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park

High Springs, FL · North Central Florida

Gilchrist Blue pushes out about 44 million gallons a day at a steady 72 degrees, filling a wide bowl of green and blue water that you wade into from a sloping sand beach…

Fanning Springs State Park Springs

Fanning Springs State Park

Fanning Springs, FL · North Central Florida

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…

Part of these collections

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.