Stunning Blue Spring State Park With Kids

Things to Know…

• Arrive early! The park frequently reaches capacity during the week and weekends during the winter and summer months. (see “Our Experience” for more info).
• The park is open from 8 AM until sundown.
• The cost to enter is $5 per vehicle.
• You can rent inner tubes at the park.
• If you bring your own inner tube, you can pay between $1 and $3 to have it inflated for you.
• The water is a refreshing 72 degrees year-round
• There is typically a food truck on-site however, you can also purchase burgers, hotdogs, corndogs, nachos, soft pretzels, etc. at the cafe.

Where is Blue Spring State Park located?

Physical Address: 2100 W French Ave, Orange City, FL 32763

Our Experience

Y’all, Blue Spring State Park is poppin’!  The springs open at 8 AM, 7 days a week. On Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the springs. We arrived just before 8:30 and they were already at capacity. Man, this place fills up quickly!

We returned later that day, at about 4:00 and the park had started to empty out. Since we weren’t going to be there long, we didn’t bother to break out the floats. We grabbed “Smiley’s” boogie board and put floatation vests on all of the kids and made the short trek from the picnic area, down the boardwalk, to the spring. The water felt freezing when we first got in, but our bodies quickly adjusted to the temperatures. It was amusing to watch everyone’s initial reaction to hitting the water. We floated down the spring run to the exit landing, which was just a short distance away.

Our son “82” hated it, at first, most likely because it was the first time he’s ever been in 72 degrees water. “Stinky” quickly adjusted to the water and was fine after the first initial tears. Smiley was in heaven!

Day Two

The next morning, we got to the park at 7:27 which was 33 minutes before the park was scheduled to open. At that point, we were the 72nd car in line (yes, I counted). One of the rangers told me that they were going to cut the line off at 150 cars. Once the park opened, it took us about 30 minutes to reach the ranger station to pay. The admission was $5.

Fortunately, we were able to stake out a picnic table where we could leave our stuff and have breakfast and lunch. We quickly saw that most people made this an all-day event! The park filled up rather quickly, we were fortunate to have been able to claim this spot.

Click here to order this awesome float!

The park has floats that you can rent. We brought our own, however. You can pay between $1 and $3 (depending on the size of the raft) to have your raft inflated. To me, this was well worth saving all of my hot air.

The kids adjusted to the water much more quickly on day two. They loved being able to ride in our float, kick their feet in the cool water, and check out the fish that swam by. We saw several different fish in the spring ranging from gar to tilapia.

After a couple of rides down the spring run, we decided to take a walk. We spotted hundreds of fish and even a decent-sized alligator, not far from where we had been swimming.

St. John’s River Cruise

After lunch, we hopped on a boat and took a one-hour “cruise” on the St. John’s River. It was a little slow-paced for the kid’s taste. The captain was very knowledgeable and stopped several times to point out various birds along the way. We didn’t spot any manatee or alligators on the river.

After our river cruise, we took one last run down the springs and called it a day. I think it’s safe to say that we all had an incredible time. Hitting the springs is the perfect way to beat the Florida heat!