Swim in an Underwater Cave at Ichetucknee Springs

In April of this year Skylar researched several Florida Springs. Over a long weekend we made it to five – including Ichetucknee Springs. The Iche had so much to offer for nature lovers.

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Ichetucknee Springs Park is located on over 2,500 acres of land near Fort White, Florida. Eight springs feed into the Ichetucknee River. This park opens at 8 am daily, and when we visited it cost $6 per vehicle for up to 8 passengers.

The entrance fee is a steal for everything the park has to offer including river tubing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, springs swimming, snorkeling and diving.

There is a north and south entrance to the park. We visited the south entrance first. The General Store is located here and offers hot and cold food and souvenirs. Here is where you can also rent various tubes and buy tickets for the tram and shuttle service for floating down the river. Tube rentals started at $5.50 when we visited. Visitors can bring their own tubes but they must be smaller than 5 feet wide according to the park’s website.

We walked down to Dampier’s Landing on the river from the General Store. The river water was surprisingly clear, but it makes sense when you know eight different springs feed into the river. We watched those floating down the river before checking out the north entrance.

Launching from the north end tube launch to the south end take out is over a 3 hour float. Visitors can also launch at the mid point and at Dampier’s Landing for shorter amounts of time.

Tip: Before you plan to visit Ichetucknee Springs check out the Florida State Parks website. Certain times of the year the south take out entrance is closed to vehicle traffic and visitors must use the tram and shuttle services if floating or paddling on the river. There are also times during the year where the north part of the river is closed to allow it to recover – during these times one can float from the mid point to the south take out only. The website has instructions for those renting tubes and those bringing their own tubes. Visiting the website will help one decide when to visit, where to park and determine if a tram or shuttle ticket will be needed.

At the north entrance visitors can rent kayaks, canoes or stand up paddle boards. Visitors can launch their own boards/kayaks/canoes at the north launch, but we decided not to after learning that you can not access the springs from the river. Instead we decided to go on two short hikes to visit the Ichetucknee Headspring and the Blue Hole.

The trail to the Headspring was less than a five minute walk. The water was beautiful and is great for snorkeling and swimming. We were saving our energy for the Blue Hole so we didn’t end up swimming at this spring.

Next we took the .5 mile trail to the Blue Hole, which is the largest spring at Ichetucknee. The Blue Hole pumps out over 65 million gallons of water each day. Forty feet under water is a cave system which the water flows from. This creates a strong upward current and makes it quite challenging to swim down into the Blue Hole. Divers can access the caves at the Blue Hole. This attraction is only recommended for strong swimmers, and those visitors enter at their own risk.

Skylar and I both enjoyed swimming over the Blue Hole and watching others take the plunge into the cave. I’d say we were surprised by the force of the current.

By the time we figured out the path of least resistance we were so tired and couldn’t swim far enough down into the cave – I’m not going to lie, it was a challenge! After 5 mins or so swimming around the hole we would have to swim back to the entrance to rest before trying again.

Next time we would bring flippers to help us fight the current. Even though we didn’t make it into the cave it was fun watching others who could make it down into the cave. If you are not a strong swimmer or have no interest in swimming in the underground cave you can watch others from above on the landing.

For video footage of our time at Ichetucknee Springs check out the video below on our YouTube Channel Explorcation:

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If you are planning a trip to any Florida natural spring Florida Spring Life is a great resource for maps, pictures, videos and blog experiences.

Thanks to Linda for accompanying us on our Florida natural springs tour and for helping us document our time at the springs.