Manatees, Gators, Fish and a Pig – Kayaking at the beautiful Silver Springs State Park in Florida

When researching campgrounds, we always go to Trip Advisor and type in the name of the town to find things we might want to do in the area. (Check out our Trip Advisor profile and our reviews here). We were booked at an RV park in Eustis when we arrived in Florida in November. One of the Trip Advisor suggestions was Silver Springs State Park near Ocala, which would be less than an hour’s drive from where we were.

Aliyah had also read up on this park when doing her Virtual Junior Ranger program through the Florida State Parks website. If you are homeschooling (or even if you aren’t) this is a great informational program for kids to learn all about these state parks and what there is to offer. Check that program out here (it’s totally free)! They send you virtual badges for completing activities. And Aliyah was able to compile a list of state parks she wanted to visit. Pretty neat, free program.

We scoped out the website for the park and found out we could rent boats right there at the park and could go for 1 hour, 2 hours, or a whole day. One hour seemed too short and the thought of a whole day just made our butts hurt thinking about it. We settled on two hours and it was probably the perfect amount of time. Taken from SilverSprings.com here is the list of tickets you can purchase currently:

There are four of us so we wouldn’t fit in a canoe, nor did we want to pay for four individual boats so we could all be separate. We ended up reserving Tandem Clear Bottomed Kayaks, so we could split up two and two. Plus, I’ve always seen those Facebook pictures of people kayaking through crystal clear water in a clear kayak. We wanted to give that a try for ourselves. We had never done anything like this so why not make the most of it!

Check out these great deals from Amazon! (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you!)

Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.

Upon arriving at the park, the staff had a very organized procedure of checking you in at a little hut where they then guide you to the life jacket and paddle stand. The attendee then gives you a map of the water and the path you should take in your allotted time. A few feet away they have your rented boats ready to go and you are off!

We had wanted to try these kayaks, yet each person we went by we heard them say something about how they weren’t worth it. I’d say we may second that opinion. The kayaks could use some Windex was probably the main problem. You couldn’t really see through them well. Since people renting them are getting in and out of them barefoot, the dirt from their feet mixes with the water on the kayak making them dirty. How clear do you think this is?

However, in using my shirt wiping some of that away, and angling my phone outward instead of down, there was a time when fish were swimming near us and we could see them very clearly through the kayak. I’d say that made it worth it in itself. We wouldn’t have seen that from above.

We do have a waterproof camera that we could have brought and held underwater to see up close, yet forgot. Here is the one that we have. So far we have mostly used it just for swimming and capturing Aliyah’s somersaults, however, this would have been a great time to bring it! It’s great for capturing photos and videos underwater and works way better than when I put my phone in a waterproof case and just end up with photos of my face!

This place was truly breathtaking. Being new to seeing palm trees, this was like a paddle through the jungle. There were palm trees, vines, you name it!

While we only rented the boats and kayaked while we were there, there are walking trails along the river. We saw quite a few people from shore making use of these trails. I’m sure there were nice views along there as well.

For us, the first excitement was seeing an alligator swimming. We were told they kept to themselves most of the time unless provoked, so we definitely kept our distance. We’d never seen one up close, so it was amazing to finally see one (at a safe distance).

Later in our paddle, we were able to see a couple more. They were up sunbathing on logs along the river, along with turtles in some spots. These were easier to keep our eyes on.

The water here was just beautiful and everything you see in the pictures. That crystal-clear turquoise water is real y’all! Up north we were used to water that you look in and can’t see the bottom. This was so much different than that and really was unlike anything we’d ever experienced. There were some spots in the shade where you couldn’t see the bottom, but other spots were so clear it was like looking at glass.

We paddled around the river bends trying to soak it all in. There were quite a few other paddlers, and along the first part of the river, they would pass us heading back to turn in their boats. Each one would say how awesome it was up ahead when the river widens as the manatees are all over. One guide said they had just seen 15 of them! We couldn’t wait to hopefully at least see one.

They weren’t lying. Once the river widened, it was only fifty feet or so until we could see our first manatee underwater, and then another behind it, and another behind that one. They seemed to just be floating deep underwater and not moving.

We probably should have been a little more prepared by researching these animals and knowing what to expect. I, personally, was clueless. Would they come up for air? Would they swim fast to move away? Would they be in pairs or alone? I had no idea.

It wasn’t too long later that this one surfaced up beside the boat showing himself to us. We also saw several come up and put their nose above the water. It was so amazing to watch and such a great learning experience for us all. Check out this pretty cool video of one manatee.

It just got closer and closer to our kayak. This was when it would be good to have done some research on whether to expect it to bump our boat or swim off or what to expect at all. It was so close!

How freakin’ cool is that? It is probably needless to say, but we escaped just fine and had such a great time watching these guys. We probably saw between 6 and 10 while we were out there. This is something we will not forget for a long time.

On our paddle back through jungle-like territory, we were also met with a wild pig. It was very hard to get a good shareable picture of him as he was rustling around in the woods so much. But we will still add it to the list of wildlife from the day! We were in a bit of a hurry to get back at that point before our two hours were up, so we didn’t stay long to observe him.

The palm trees, the clear turquoise water, and the swimming manatees really made this excursion all worth it. We would do this again and highly recommend it to anyone visiting this part of Florida. They do say November through spring is the best time to see the manatees, so keep that in mind if that is your purpose for your trip. Silver Springs State Park – check it out.