re: Crystal River, Florida

FYI, link was to the damage along the Econofina back then.

Review of the springs and current state.

Along Ecofina Creek in Washington and Bay counties there are 11 springs or spring groups comprised of 39 individual vents, most of them within a mile of State Road 20 (Hwy 20). The entire area was heavily damaged by 2018's Hurricane Michael. We recently visited to see what shape the parks and springs are in today along the Ecofina.

Anyway, that's if the OP headed over there instead of Crystal River!

OMG! Deal's is one our "go to places" when we go to football games.

I had not! Know where Two Egg is, but that's great.

FYI..

Jackson Blue, in Marianna (45 minutes from Tally) while public, is still a great, convenient spring in the area to swim, nearby kayaking etc.

Looks like they've done a lot of great new work after the hurricane and improved the park. You could also visit nearby Florida Caverns State Park!

i did ecofina kayak .

If you come down during the summer plan a scallop trip. It is a blast. Gin clear water, easy snorkeling and usually there are folks at the dock who will clean them for you.

We ended up going to Tallahassee and staying with my cousins for a couple of nights before heading down to the Crystal River area. We hiked in Bald Point State Park with them on that Sunday. We Stopped at Manatee Springs on the way down, which was beautiful.

We stayed on Lake Hernando in a tiny house bnb right on the water. Beautiful lake with tons of moss live oaks, and bald cypress, lily pad forests everywhere in the lake. The bnb provided kayaks so we kayaked around that lake.

We rented a kayak and snorkel gear and kayaked in King's Bay in Crystal River to 3 Sisters Springs. Found some Manatees and snorkeled with them. Such an awesome experience. My gf was in heaven. We did some cool hikes in the area as well.

We stopped at Rainbow Springs on the way back to Tallahassee, and then popped into Cedar Key for a couple of hours. Both cool places.

On the way back to Alabama we stopped in Marianna at Florida Caverns State Park. Very cool cave, and saw 3 black racers, and a bobcat on one of the trails in the park.

It was a great trip full of cool wildlife and beautiful springs, swamps, and wetlands.

I haven't uploaded a lot of the pictures yet, but here a few.



Bald Point State Park:












Manatee Springs:



















View from Airbnb:

= =

Kayaking on Lake Hernando:










Snorkeling with Manatees/3 Sisters Springs:







Rat Snake my gf almost stepped on:






Osprey nest on top of a church steeple in Cedar Key:






Rainbow Springs:








Water snake around Marianna:



Black Racer and Bobcat at Florida State Caverns hiking trails:

Ocala National Forest is a great place for Natural springs. Great paddling and even just swimming in the natural pools.
Silver Springs(home of monkeys), Rainbow River, Juniper Springs, Alexander Springs, Jenny Springs, Salt Springs. Devil's Den near Gainesville is super cool. There is even Ponce De Leon and DeFunkia on West side of Tally worth checking out. Springs are a hidden FL treasure in the summer.

I forgot to mention that there is a great New Orleans-themed restaurant in Crystal River. Its called Seafood Seller. Good authentic Louisiana fare, and our waitress was a sweetheart.