Hey Florida travelers, Chrissa here and Silver Springs is probably one
of the most stunning places that you can go kayaking in Central Florida.
In this video I'm going to go over all of the details and why you're going to
want to head up to Silver Springs during your Florida vacation. Let's get into it.
Silver Springs is located just outside of Ocala, Florida which is about an hour and
a half north of the major theme parks in Orlando. This beautiful park is open seven days a week and
all year round including the holidays from 8 a.m to sundown. The cost of admission
into Silver Springs is only two dollars and kids under six are free.
There are a number of things that you can do in Silver Springs and one of the most popular
is to take a glass bottom boat tour. These world famous glass bottom boats have been a
part of Silver Springs history since the 1870s and gives you an amazing underwater view of
several of the springs throughout the park. There are two tours that you can take: a 30 minute tour
and an extended 1.5 hour tour that is available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 11am, 1pm,
and 3 p.m. If you are interested in doing the extended tour, there are limited spots available
so I recommend that you reserve them online before arriving. Also you do have to make sure
that you are at the park at least 15 minutes before the boat departs. If you don't want to
be stuck to a schedule you can always do the 30 minute tour which is what I did. For the 30 minute
tour you don't have to make any reservations and they run several boats throughout the hour so the
wait is only around 10 minutes or so for the next one. If you're lucky you'll get an awesome captain
like we did named Bill who is not only informative but entertaining as he toured us around the many
spring heads in the area. Throughout the tour Bill pointed out several turtles and fish as he took us
from spring to spring. The star of the entire tour was definitely the Mammoth Spring which is
the main spring that feeds the river. This spring is the largest limestone artesian spring formation
in the world and it releases enough water to fill four olympic sized pools in one hour. There are
many things that have been found at the bottom of the Mammoth Spring including seashells as well as
authentic mammoth bones. By the way if you're finding this information helpful don't forget
to hit that like button and subscribe if you would like to get more ideas like this to do during your
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If you want to spend even more time on the water there are several miles for kayaking and canoeing.
You can rent the kayaks and canoes either hourly or for the entire day. If you do choose the all
day journey allow for at least three to four hours to complete it and you have to make sure
that you arrive at least by noon to ensure that you have enough time to make the trip.
There is return transport available that you can get for an additional fee I have to say that the
water here in crystal springs is absolutely beautiful and probably some of the clearest
spring water that I have ever seen. It's so clear that as you're kayaking you can see all the fish
and turtles as they swim underneath you which was so cool. If you get to the spring as they opened
like we did you'll almost have the entire river to yourself. So it's a great way to avoid the crowd
as the day goes on the river tends to get more and more crowded. So if you're new to kayaking
and would like to have more room to paddle I highly suggest getting to the springs as
early as possible. The other thing that I really loved about this spring is that if
you choose a two hour rental it's the perfect amount of time to make the round around Ross
Allen Island and be able to paddle down the Fort King paddle trail. This paddle trail is absolutely
stunning and it makes you feel like you're almost being transported to a different world.
One of my other favorite parts about kayaking in Silver Springs is that there's a family
of manatee that call these springs home and we were lucky enough to be able to see them
as we were traveling back up the river. And just look at how absolutely beautiful they
are! I just love manatees and it's so nice to be able to see them out in nature.
In addition to the glass bottom boat tours and paddling down the river there are several miles
of trails that you can hike through. The closest one to the entrance of the park is going to be
Ross Allen boardwalk that takes you all around Ross Allen Island. If you don't already know
there's also wild monkeys that roam the trees in Silver Springs and we walked around the boardwalk
trying to find them while we were there but we didn't see any of them. Our tour guide on the
glass bottom boat tour told us that they tend to move farther down the river when a storm comes
through. And since a storm just came through the day before they were nowhere to be seen.
So either way the boardwalk is still an incredibly beautiful walk through the island
and I loved the parts that walked along the river. If the boardwalk is just not enough hiking for you
there are several other miles of trails that you can walk through like the half mile creek trail
that starts near Twin Oaks which is an event center for the springs. This trail is nicely
covered and well maintained which made it an easy walk through to dry off after paddling.
If you're looking for another great place to kayak in Central Florida make sure to check out my video
about kayaking down the Wekiva River that just popped up on the screen. Until next
time everyone I hope you have an amazing day and go out and enjoy some Florida sunshine!