Manatee Springs State Park
July 23rd, 2008
I would have to say at this point, this is one of our favorite parks. We’ve been here twice within the last 2 weeks. 
Park admission is $4.00 per car load with up to 8 people and well worth every penny. The park has everything one could ask for. Beautiful scenery, the clearest water you will ever see, camping, wildlife, picnic areas, playgrounds for the kids. canoeing and kayaking, snorkeling and scuba diving. There is also a few pavilions with picnic tables but the park ranger told us that you do have to reserve them in advance if you’re looking to get one.
There are canoes available for rent as well as kayaks. The canoes are $12 per hour and the kayaks $10 per hour. The canoes have a maximum of 3 people. Prices for kayaks and canoes include paddles and life jackets. There are also snorkel sets available that include a mask, fins, and a snorkel for $3.50 an hour if you’re interested. I would recommend at least renting the snorkel set if you don’t have a set of your own. The water is beautiful and clear as can be, but in order to see down into the 25 foot crater of the spring, you’re going to want at least a mask.
If you’re a licensed scuba diver you can take a trip down into the cave at the bottom of the crater. We’re not too sure how far back this goes and from what i can see from the videos on youtube, it doesn’t go very far. Either that or the divers just didn’t go that far into it. Still looks like a great place to dive though.
If i had to recommend a time to visit the park, i would say about 5pm until 8pm (closing time). The kitchen
closes at 5pm so after that a lot of the people seem to head out for the day from what we can tell and it isn’t so packed. A plus side to visiting the park this late in the day is that if yo don’t feel like swimming, you can go for a jog, walk, or bike ride along the miles of trails that the park has. We would recommend that instead of a bike ride or a jog, you take a walk. I took off for a walk, I would say around 5pm, and encountered an armadillo that was searching for food along the trails and after walking from the spring back to the North End Trail System. If you want to walk the Trail System i would get here a little earlier than 5pm and then sign in and grab a trail map. The North End Trail System contains 8.5 miles of trails for you to walk through and enjoy a variety of different plant and animal life so you’ll be out there for a while.
On my way back to the spring i encountered about 5 deer that I startled as I was walking along the trail. The 
deer ran off about 200 feet or so away from me and stopped while I took a few photos of them so they are pretty tame and will let you stand by and admire their presence. Even though they are tame and don’t mind you being close to them, please do not feed the deer. they are wild animals. A couple of visitors that were camping at the park said the deer will walk right through the camp ground so if you’re staying out there in the camp ground, keep an eye out and you might get lucky. Speaking of the camping at the park, the park offers 60+ camping sites that range from RV lots to tent lots that are a pretty nice size as well. you won’t be on top of your neighbors at this park and the camp sites are very well maintained so we would definitely recommend a camping trip to this park as well.
This is one park that we will be back to time and time again on those hot summer days to get out, get wet, and enjoy Florida as it was meant to be. I’m also pretty sure that we’ll be bringing the lighting equipment with us and locating a model or two to spend a couple hours with us at the park. It’s that gorgeous!
For more photos from Manatee Springs State Park, please visit the Manatee Springs State Park Photo Gallery