Paradise within Reach

Florida Spring Hopping, Florida State Parks

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: "Effective Jan. 1, 2025: Foam pool noodles are the only flotation devices allowed in the swimming area. "Rafts, tubes and other flotation devices are not allowed in the swimming area." - State Park Service

Have you ever wondered if there were still places in Florida that could take your breath away? Leave you speechless in your tracks? Make you think maybe, just maybe, the heat, humidity, mosquitos, billboards, I4 traffic, golf courses are all hiding something deeper, sweeter, more rare and more precious than anything you’ve ever laid your eyes on? Have you wondered if places like that exist here, in the very state you call home? There are. And they do.

I’d wager that even the most staunch Florida humbug would stand in awe of the spring we’ll be talking about today. This week we are going to head back to the High Springs area to share with you another one of our absolute most favorite state parks in Florida: Ruth B. Kirby Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park. (Whew! Now that was a mouthful.)

Gilchrist Blue is just a 20 minute hop-skip-and-a-jump away from O’Leno State Park, which we talked about last week (you can read that post here), and we often will visit both parks on a long weekend trip.

The joy of the journey

Gilchrist Blue is just over 2 hours from both Tallahassee and Orlando, and just an hour and a half from Jacksonville, but you will swear it’s in the middle of nowhere as you make your way through some of the most beautiful stretches of rural, small town Florida toward this spring country favorite. Cattle graze and horses saunter on vast rolling pasturelands lined with wildflowers. You know the saying, “The joy is in the journey?” Well, that is certainly true in this case.

Easily one of the prettiest springs in Florida

Words escape me when I try to describe this spring. Viewing and experiencing it in person is a treasure almost too rich to put into words. It almost doesn’t seem real or possible that this kind of beauty still exists in these little, wondrous hidden pockets of Florida that have been allowed to remain somewhat wild. The deep turquoise blue of the spring takes my breath away every time I see it. It is worth every bit of two, eight, even ten hours in the car with kids to come see it, I promise.

It’s a great spring for kids because there is a large, sandy beach to play on and plenty of shallow, crystal clear water in which to splish-splash the day away. Tubes and floats were once allowed in the spring, as were canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards, as evidenced by our pictures. But this year the park system published the following on it's website

"Effective Jan. 1, 2025: Foam pool noodles are the only flotation devices allowed in the swimming area. "Rafts, tubes and other flotation devices are not allowed in the swimming area."

This is wonderful. The tubes were great for getting the kids out over the main boil area, but it definitely made it a bit crowded at times, with a lot of ownership on individuals to remember to be courteous and not hang out for too long in the center where you may be impacting other visitors' experiences. It also may have affected the safety of underwater swimmers, so we fully support the state's decision. Pool noodles are awesome too! We normally hang out around the sides and then swim the tubes over the boil for just a few minutes at a time and return to the sides.

Under the water, there are tons of fish to see swimming in and out of the large, crescent-shaped opening of the cave, and there's a convenient natural limestone ledge to rest and catch your breath on as you explore.

This is the spring that made my son fall in love with swimming underwater with his goggles on. Up until our visit here, he usually preferred to stay on top of the water as opposed to diving beneath. Ever since our visit to Gilchrist Blue, we now have a spring diving merman on our hands.

For those who want to explore past the main spring basin, there are kayak and canoe rentals on-site at Gilchrist Blue. We usually bring our own, but if we didn’t we would rent for sure. I promise you, you don’t want to miss the beauty of the Gilchrist Blue Spring run. It’s a short, easy paddle out to the Santa Fe River on the pristine little creek leading from the main spring.

It’s especially cool to see where the crystal clear water of the spring flows into the dark, tannin stained water of the Santa Fe. You can also paddle up to Rum Island Spring, which is a cute little spring in a county park just a few hundred yards up stream on the north side of the river.

For those of you up for a longer paddle, Poe Springs is just a 2.5 mile paddle up river from the Gilchrist Blue Spring Run. Though the paddle upstream is a workout, you reap the rewards of a nice long float back.

If you want to get in, go EARLY.

Ruth B. Kirby Gilchrist Blue Springs is one of the most popular springs in the area. Because of this, the park closes due to capacity nearly every day of the year, and once it reaches that capacity it will not reopen, no matter how many people leave throughout the day.

Now, before you get all grumbly about that, this is a GREAT thing! It’s a small park, with a history of being OVERloved by visitors. The state park system caps daily visitors because they care about the experiences of the people who come to enjoy the springs and, more importantly, to protect and preserve the fragile ecosystem of the Gilchrist Blue Spring system and the Santa Fe River it flows into.

Platform at Gilchrist Blue Spring from when the park was privately owned.

While it was a private park, Gilchrist Blue Springs had a jumping platform and floating dock that some nostalgic visitors still wistfully speak of today. It was removed by the state park system as part of ongoing conservation efforts inside the park and along the Santa Fe River.

The park has also recently prohibited walking, swimming, and tubes in the spring run that leads out to the Santa Fe in order to let the natural submerged vegetation that is supposed to line the bottoms and sides of the run reestablish itself. You can only kayak/canoe/paddleboard the run these days.

It’s truly incredible how quickly nature can heal herself when given the time and protection to do so. We visited for the first time in the summer of 2020 and then again in the beginning of 2021. The vegetation that grew up in the stunning spring run because visitors are no longer allowed to tube or walk, only kayak/canoe, is just amazing.

Plan to stay for dinner

Remember how earlier I said that once the park reaches capacity, it will not reopen at all for the rest of the day, no matter how many people leave? You want to plan for that. Because even on the busiest day, visitors will begin to trickle out by 3pm if not earlier. When we last visited, we were delighted to realize that by 4:30 or 5pm we had virtually the entire park to ourselves!!

Sure there were some campers lingering, but the vast majority of visitors had left to head home and get dinner. Had we packed burgers, hotdogs and some charcoal, we could have had an amazing picnic dinner and some quiet evening swimming in our own (virtually private) paradise until the park closed at sundown. Unfortunately, we failed to plan for that ahead of time. Don't make our mistake!

Luckily the kids were having such a good time we were able to get back in the water and play a bit more before leaving. We got everyone on the kayaks and paddleboards... even the kids' Gaga! Some of us dabbled in some paddleboard yoga in the late afternoon sun while we had the space and quiet to do it.

Camping at Gilchrist Blue

There is a little campground at Gilchrist Blue, but our advice would be to skip it in favor of another campground nearby (like O’Leno). The plus side of camping at Gilchrist is that you do not run the risk of arriving after the park has closed for capacity (since you’re already there!). Other than that, however, we are much more fond of coming for a day trip and staying elsewhere.

The campground at Gilchrist is very small (only 23 sites total), and as such, it's extremely difficult to find availability. It's also very tight. While the close quarters are necessary in order to offer accommodations to as many people as possible on the relatively small space available, you really have to be ok with being on top of your neighbor. The other downside is that the whole campground is directly visible from the public day-use parking lot. So everyone who comes to the spring, parks just a stone's-throw away from your camper, with no barrier or privacy. That’s not something we’re crazy about, especially with kids.

A home run every time

All-in-all, this state park gets an A++ in our book. Our kids now remember it by name, and the friends we took with us last time can't wait to go back. This is a spring you should visit as part of a multi-destination trip to the High Springs area of Florida. We'll be writing posts soon on the others that you can hit on the same trip, including Ginnie Springs, Ichetucknee Springs, and several of the local county parks along the Santa Fe River, along with O'Leno of course. Let us know if you have any questions about Gilchrist Blue that we didn't cover in the comments! We hope you enjoyed this post and wish you happy adventuring wild Florida families!

Just the Details:

Ruth B. Kirby Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park

7450 N.E. 60th St.

High Springs, FL 32643

Phone: 386-454-1369

Get directions

Hours:

8 a.m. to sundown, 365 days a year

Entry Fees:

$4 to $6 per vehicle

Camping Fees:

Tent and RV.........................................................................$18/night

Click here for Reservations

Some more of our favorite pics from our adventures at Ruth B. Kirby Gilchrest Blue Springs State Park.

Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park