Ichetucknee Springs State Park covers 2,241 acres about four miles northwest of Fort White, and it is a National Natural Landmark. It centres on the six-mile Ichetucknee River, which runs through shaded hammocks and wetlands to join the Santa Fe.
Like many rivers in this part of north Florida, the Ichetucknee is not fed by rain running off the land. It is fed by springs boiling up out of the aquifer through a series of holes, which is why the water is so clear and so consistently cold. The park holds hardwood hammock and limestone outcrops.
The land has an industrial past that is easy to miss. Phosphate was mined here from before the start of the twentieth century, at first with mules and wheelbarrows, later with boilers, pumps and steam shovels. By modern standards that early phase was relatively gentle on the ground.
Through the 1950s and 60s the Loncala Phosphate Company owned the land around the springs, and during that period people worked out that you could float down the river on an inner tube. Students from Gainesville started coming, and tubing became the thing the place is known for.
Florida bought the property from Loncala in 1970 for $1,850,000, which is how a phosphate holding became a state park.
Loncala sold specifically out of concern for protecting the spring-run ecosystem, and after the river was cleaned up and facilities built it was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1972.
Tubing is still the main event and it has a season: end of May until early September. Kayaking and canoeing are allowed in certain areas, and because the water is remarkably clear the swimming, snorkelling and diving are all worth doing. The river holds 72 degrees Fahrenheit year round, which in a Florida summer is the entire point.
The wildlife is the other draw: white-tailed deer, raccoons, wild turkeys, wood ducks and great blue herons above the water, and below it turtles, water snakes, alligators, river otters, bream, bluegill, largemouth bass, alligator gar, mullet and catfish, with West Indian manatees moving in during the winter months.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
