Manatee Springs State Park

Manatee Springs is a sprawling state park in Northwest Florida with a first-magnitude spring, which releases 100 million gallons of water every day. This churn keeps the spring at an ever-cool 72º Fahrenheit, and visitors are welcome to swim in it year-round.

For more than 10,000 years, the springs have attracted swimmers and people looking to cool off from the muggy Florida heat. There’s even proof of early Paleo Indians inhabiting the area, with artifacts dating back at least 9,000 years evidencing that Indigenous Americans lived and raised families there. When the Spaniards arrived in the 1500s, however, they greatly displaced and disrupted the Indigenous cultures in the area.

In 1774, naturalist, botanist, and artist William Bartram explored the area and spotted a manatee carcass along the shores of the Suwanee River. He aptly named the land “Manatee Springs,” and 200 years later in 1971, it was designated a state park. Today, Manatee Springs lives up to its name—not with dead manatees, but with live ones.

Manatees swim into the Gulf of Mexico and into Florida’s many springs in search of warmer climes during the winter months. The river bottom at Manatee Springs State Park is covered in grassy kelp, manatees’ favorite dish. Other native animals include the large mouth bass and speckled perch, as well as the odd alligator.

Manatee Springs is a warm water refuge for manatees. Despite their size, manatees have surprisingly low body fat, and require warm temperatures to survive. With Florida’s growing population and aging power plants going offline, however, warm water habitats are disappearing. This can be catastrophic to the manatee population, making refuges like Manatee Springs more vital than ever for their survival. The Manatee Springs spring run is closed to boat traffic to protect the manatees.

Kayaking and canoeing is allowed year-round, and manatees, who are notoriously friendly, are known to swim up to the boats and allow kayakers to pet them. Lucky visitors may even spot a baby manatee or two, as the warm waters double as a nursery during calving months. You can also stroll down an 800-foot boardwalk, which is encompassed by a cypress forest and overlooks the gorgeous spring.

Visitors can also scuba dive, cave dive, fish, camp, glamp, picnic, boat, and take ranger-guided tours. For hikers and cyclists, the park has more than 8.5 miles of nature trails and safely connects to the 32-mile Nature Coast State Trail.