Silver Springs State Park
 

After living here almost two years, I finally made a day trip today to Silver Springs State Park. Easy drive under an hour just east of Ocala. What an enjoyable experience! Nice trails to walk around and a very nice on-site cafe. The highlight was the glass-bottom boat ride. Highly recommend the 90 minute ride, as the longer ride concentrates on wildlife in addition to viewing the crystal blue springs. We saw several manatee, gators, and a plethora of birds. The scenery was breath-taking. Buy your tickets on line in advance. Highly recommend this easy day trip - and then afterwards, you can visit a good restaurant in Ocala (I went to Amrit for the first time - very good Indian food and wonderful service.)

You can also rent kayaks there. I felt appropriately small as I saw gators at their level.

Years ago there some great concerts at the park.

Love that place!

Thank you - I’m going to try this!

When I was little my grandparent would take me there and I remember monkeys would always jump on the boat. Did you see any of the monkeys?

They told us to be on the look for monkeys - we unfortunately did not spot any - our guide said he usually sees monkeys about once a week, so it’s hit or miss if you will see any - we were fortunate that we spotted several manatees on my visit.

I used to live a mile down the road. We visited often. There was a water park and an animal park. Both my girls worked there. It has changed and needs some upkeep but it is still a nice place to go.

If you walk the trail on the parking lot side of the water, there are LOTS of monkeys!🐒

You may see monkeys in Fruitland Park too. They've migrated to Lake County.

I grew up in Palmora Park in Leesburg and our neighbors had a monkey named coco and every morning the monkey would come 2 houses down to ours and we’d give her a banana and she’d go back home.

Ha! You think Coco went back home when she was really going house to house collecting bananas.

Seriously, that's a really cute story.

The first time I went years ago they had rides, a small zoo, more places to eat and the glass bottom boat that took in all the river views for one price.

We went last year and I swear the same boats used when my parents took me and my sister back in the 60’s. I dug out our old family Photo albums and sure enough there was me and sis in the group boat pics taken by the captain. Was a great day.

I went kayaking with my sister and brother-in-law who were visiting here. We saw monkeys all over the place as well as crocodiles and manatees. The water is crystal clear and you can see everything.

The manatees come right up to your kayak. The alligators pretty much just lay out in the sun. They almost look fake since they barely move. Some people were trying to feed the monkeys but I heard that that's not a good idea as they can be aggressive and they carry disease.

The only thing that annoyed me was towards the end of the kayak trip there were a ton of people on jet skis, which created waves. Some of the people looked like it was their first time riding one so you have to watch out for them. There was also one group of people on a pontoon going up river that ended up getting stuck on a log. I'm not sure what they were thinking trying to get that huge thing up that little, relatively shallow river.