Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

A montage of my swimming hole exploits from 2017-2019:

April and May always seem like that final, agonizing hour of a long car trip where you’re so close, yet so far from your destination. In this metaphor, the car trip is non-summer and my destination is swimming hole season. After a particularly exhausting winter (i.e., busy season at work), I needed a reprieve, but the weather in North Carolina has been doing the high 60’s/low 70’s and partly cloudy thing for most of the month. There have been a few 80 degree days in Raleigh, but the mountains take longer to warm up. California is also not really an option for swimming holes until around July because the snow in the mountains is still melting, so I decided Florida would probably be my best bet for a May swimming hole excursion. I had gone spring-hopping in northwest Florida in fall of 2015 with my friend Cade , at which time the weather was disappointingly cool, but there were a couple of springs on the to-do list (Blue Spring State Park and Alexander Springs) in the east-central part of the state that we didn’t get to. I used the Farmer’s Almanac extended forecast and picked a week that was predicted to be warm and sunny. I spent last weekend booking flights, a motel, and a rental car. There were motels that were closer to the swimming holes I wanted to visit, but the beach was only about 30 extra minutes away, and I found a Priceline deal for a beachfront “resort” (i.e., motel-quality place expanded to resort size). I figured no one from Raleigh would be interested in coming to Daytona Beach when we live two hours from the beach, so I came down by myself.

I flew into Orlando yesterday and picked up my rental car, a brownish-black Kia Optima with an alignment that felt like a house of cards in an earthquake. I got to Perry's Ocean Edge Resort, my home sweet home for the next couple of days, around 4:30 PM. I checked in and dumped my luggage in my room, which ended up being pretty decent for $80 a night at a beachfront property (with the Priceline deal). My room per se wasn’t beachfront, but I could see a partial view of the ocean through the cottages next door. I walked around back and was tempted by the beach.



However, I also felt like crap from travelling and was super hungry, so I opted to get dinner first. Luckily, there was an iHop right across the street, so I didn’t have to drive. I felt much better after getting a turkey-bacon sandwich and some cupcake pancakes with copious sprinkles, so I sunscreened up and spent some time on the beach, followed by a dip in the pool. I didn’t have much trouble passing out after I returned to my room and showered.
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The plan for today was to visit Blue Spring State Park near Orange City, FL, and then maybe go kayaking at Wekiwa Springs State Park depending on when I finished at Blue Spring. I had also made plans to meet Kris and Elizabeth (two my of friends from Southern Miss who are now married and living near Orlando) for dinner. I had been anxious about being able to get into Blue Spring State Park, since they have a reputation for reaching capacity and having to turn people away, but I called a couple of days before, and they said they don’t usually reach capacity on weekdays until school is out for summer. In other words, I decided it was not necessary to get up at the ass crack of dawn to get there.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I would say Blue Spring was the better of the two springs I visited today, as I tend to prefer the more untouched-looking springs. However, it was so undeveloped that there is no entry or (full) egress from the water in the swimming area, which makes it annoying when you want to get out and take a break. The cave was cool with its intricate weaving of tree limbs and rock shelves, and it looked super deep. I would say Wekiwa, while lacking in natural appeal, was probably a more user-friendly swimming area, as it was basically a public swimming pool fed by a spring. Wekiwa is not something I would make a special trip for, but it was a decent time-filler after the main attraction (Blue Spring), and I did appreciate the more open canopy after getting a tad chilly at the mostly-shaded Blue Spring. All in all, I had a good time today, and it was great to finally get an ample dose of swimming and sunshine after all the monotony and blah weather of the past few months.