Salt Springs Recreation Area

On Veteran’s Day this year, since National Parks had waived the fees for the weekend, my buddy and I went up to Ocala National Forest and stopped at a few places, the highlight of which was Salt Springs Recreation Area. I had lost my goggles during my triathlon the day before, so I decided to take out my snorkel and mask and try them out a week before starting my PADI Open Water Diver Class. I also brought along my booties and flippers to try those out. We parked at Salt Springs and walked down to the spring. The area was completely empty except for a couple swimming in the water, who left shortly after we arrived. I took some pictures and watched the fish jumping out of the water, though every time we started recording video the fish would stop jumping, then start up again once we stopped the video. They obviously knew what we were doing.

We returned to the car and I swapped my camera phone for my GoPro and swapped my sandals for my booties. I headed down to the water with my fins, mask, and snorkel in hand and stepped into the water before putting on my fins. I spit in my mask as a defogger and washed it out, then jumped in the cool water. There were hundreds of fish swimming around and tons of plant life for them to eat and hide in. I swam over to where the boils were, but they were pretty small. I tried diving down into some of them, but they were pretty cramped and with my fins on, it was hard to readjust myself. Almost all of the swimming area was less than four or five feet deep and with the plants there, some of it only had a couple feet of swimming room.

The spring was really nice though, and with nobody else there it was exceptionally peaceful. I expect most springs to be devoid of people throughout the winter, especially those that are farther from civilization. After about an hour of swimming, we left the water and headed back to the car to dry off and warm up before moving on to other locations for the day.