Plan on visiting during the cold months.  On cold days, manatees leave the river and head to the springs where the water temperature is warmer.  The springs maintain a consistent year-round temperature of 72 degrees.  

Consider visiting on a weekday. Even during the winter, the springs get pretty packed.  The manatees at Blue Spring State Park are pretty popular!  If you visit during the week, it’ll be a lot less crowded, which not only makes getting into the park easier, but it also makes viewing them a little more enjoyable.  If you go on a weekend, you might feel rushed.

Check Facebook.  Each morning, an employee hops in a kayak and counts how many manatees there are in the spring run.  Then, the staff posts the number of the Blue Spring State Park Facebook Page.  The number can range anywhere from 0 to hundreds of manatees.  At the time of publication, the highest number of manatees counted in the run was 729 on 1/17/23.  We visited just 2 days before and saw 625 manatees!

My rule of thumb for this is, if the weather has been cool for a couple of days, it’s a pretty safe bet that there will be several manatees in the run.  I check the numbers the day before and plan my trip for the next day.

Get there early.  Honestly, if you wait until they post the number of manatees on Facebook, you may end up getting there too late.  People drive from all over to get a glimpse of the manatees and the park often reaches capacity by 10:00 (sometimes earlier).  Plan on getting to the park close to 8 am (when it opens).  Once all of the parking spots are filled up, the parks moves to a one out, one in system.