Hello,
Does anyone know whether one can swim in the spring waters at Blue Spring park during first week of Jan? I heard the Manatees coem in there as its cold other places, so....?
Thanks-Preeya

Preeya, I've been once and from what I recollect, there is no swimming with the manatees. I recall that there were little tributaries, nothing very deep. But maybe someone else knows better, like I said it was awhile ago.

There are a lot of manatees at Homosassa and Crystal Springs right now on the west coast. Guided pontoon boats with your own wet suit is $50/person.

Hmmm, I'm not able to find any info on Blue Springs park online about swimming and canoeing activity details. I know swiming with Manatees is allowed, but I read that there are other areas where u can swim, just wanted ot know if its possible during Jan first week.

Sorry I meant to say, I know swimming with Manatees is not allowed, just allowed swimming in other places.

preeya, I'm not sure if you're asking if the manatees are in right now, and that you know you can swim with them at Blue Spring. Amid so much confusion (in my mind of course, nothing that you did to cause it), I just thought I'd mention that the manatees are indeed already in the springs on the west coast. The weather is nippy and they are seeking those warmer waters. Wish I had more info about Blue Spring for you. Cheers!

We were there late in late January last year, and we LOVED it. There was no one swimming, it was about 60 to 65 out the day we were there. We stayed all day, and had just assumed we would be there a couple of hours.

The reason why was there is a woman who runs a boat tour and it is terrific. Worth every penny. She knows the place inside/out and will bring you down all the tributaries. You can see many, many species of birds that she will point out to you and also lots of other animal life. The swimming area was restricted by ropes, I believe, and was not large. You could view the manatees very, very close up- almost touching range.

JJ5...can you provide me with more info about this woman and her boat tour? Email me directly if you wish. We will be in the area in May and this sounds like something we would very much enjoy. thnx.

JJ5-
Here it is a year later and I'd also like to know more about that tour at Blue Springs. Have you any additional info?
We'll be there this February.
Thanks.

I saw in the Orlando paper today that there were "84" residents there at present. Don't think they will let you swim with the creatures. You can however get very close just using the old eyes. The water is warm and they love it. The spring is not all that long just a couple of hundred yards from the St Johns River. Really not that much room for that number of large anmmals. Check this site out ---http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/default.cfm

I just saw this now.

The parkland for picnic etc. area is not that large, so if you are in the park- you won't miss it. Go beyond that toward the river; there is only one boat landing and the boat is docked there.

When we were there she had 2 or 3 tours a day, depending upon the day of the week, I think.

I don't think you might want to swim in Jan. but I do definitely recall that you could swim in one roped section when I was there. I did see people in the water. It was not just a tiny tributary but a big wide area that looked like a small lake. It was probably a widening of the river at that point.

But there were numerous tributaries that this lady knew and took. I would google the entire park name. Blue Spring State Park. Getting to its entrance we went through residential areas. There was a long entrance road.

I just asked my guy, and he says there was absolutely a roped area for swimming but when he asked, they said that was there because it kept out the alligators. Eek!

Preeya, it is not a big, big place as far as parks go and there were about 15 to 30 people in the place total when we were there. The tour was tops, an experience I still remember vividly.

jj5
I live in the area, take a quick check of the link I provided and you will see there is no swimming with the manatees. They allow swimming at other times. At times you can stand at the viewing area overlooking the spring and watch as people dive into the spring itself. As to the long road leading to the park, I have seen it backed up all the way to the main highway (US-17/92), and the Park officials will also close the park when there is no more parking. This is normally on the first weekend that there is really a big cold snap in FL (like this weekend). The 'gators are well mannered, they respect the "do not pass the rope sign" -- !!

I didn't think you could swim with the manatees, but that you could swim. We saw people swimming.

I guess we were really lucky that we had no crowd at all there. And it was a nice Dec. day a couple of weeks before Christmas, about 60-65 degrees out. And we did see groups of manatees both by the observations points and throughout the tour.

They are so large and slow- well, I don't think you would want to be next to them swimming in any way. I wouldn't want to be anyway, and I'm a good lake swimmer.