We first visited Marianna back in October when we went camping to visit the Florida Caverns. We knew we wanted to go back and explore more. It is the cutest little country town.
We stayed at the Florida Caverns RV Resort. The campground is located on Merritts Mill pond. The pond has beautiful cypress trees and crystal clear water. It is formed by Jackson Blue Springs about 4 miles upstream. There is a dam that separates the pond from Spring Creek on the other side.
We were lucky and had The Fazzari family join us on this trip. Avery became obsessed with their dog Sully. She didn’t leave him alone the whole time!
After we got in and got settled we took a trip to Turners Landing on spring creek. This is an area we stumbled across the last time we were in the area and we knew we had to go back. The creek (which is still fed by the same blue spring) has a strong current and cold water! There is also a rope swing and a knocked down tree that the kids jumped off.
We knew we had to come back to this creek later in the trip!
The next day we drove about 25 minutes to Chipley, FL and visited Falling Waters State Park. This park’s claim to fame is the highest waterfall in the state. The water falls into a 100 foot deep sink hole. It is huge! The water levels weren’t that high so the waterfall was more like a trinkle. 
After we left the state park we drove about another 20 minutes to go to Cypress Spring. The only way to access Cypress Spring is by boat or kayak. After fight for parking spots, we unloaded all the kayaks and floats. It was about a mile upstream to get to the spring. 
Once we got close to the spring the water got colder and even more clear. The people who go to this spring know how to have a good time. They had whole setups with tents and chairs, boats and music, grills and drinks…lots of drinks. 🥴
It’s easy to tell how the spring got it’s name. It’s lined with huge cypress trees. There is a rope swing and a wood ladder on a (very) tall tree where you can jump off. The big kids went straight to the rope swing. I thought they would chicken out but both Darcy and Carson went on the swing without hesitation. 
The littles enjoyed staying warm in the tube. They did get in a couple times by jumping off a huge fallen tree. 
The oldest kids even enjoyed the rope swing. 
After staying for awhile we started the mile back downstream. Much easier this time! It really was a beautiful place! 
The next day we went back to Spring Creek to do some kayaking and tubing. There are a couple companies that rent out tubes and shuttle you back, but we had all the equipment so we just parked one truck at the take out point. We started at Spring Creek Park and took out at Magnolia Road Landing, another county boat ramp.
The entire trip is about 3 miles. Two miles on the creek, then 1 mile on the Chipola River. The downstream current is so fast we didn’t have to paddle to move, just to steer. The kids were all in tubes floating along. Carson had his face in the water the whole time.
There was a nice little stopping point where the kids got to swim and explore. There was another large cypress tree they could jump off. Carson found a watch (he found Costa sunglasses the day before-more on that later) and Drew found a “treasure” that he brought home.
We went back to the camper to fuel up and headed right back out to explore another spring. We got to another public boat ramp and put the kayaks in the water. This time we were on Merritts Mill pond. We thought we had to paddle 1 mile upstream to get to the spring, but it was a lot further. We padded for over an hour in a very strong upstream current. Carson was having trouble and it turned to frustration. I gave him the Costa sunglasses to wear in hopes of cheering him up. Suddenly I heard him screaming, and I turned around expecting to see him in the water….he didn’t flip but he dropped the sunglasses. He. Was. Devastated. He cried his eyes out. He was so excited that he found those glasses the day before. They were gone. We then tied him to Chris’s kayak and kept (struggling) paddling. We finally reached Blue springs and everyone was a little annoyed (except Andrea who fell asleep on the ride😉). The kids got to jump off a platform into the spring a couple times. Then we noticed a storm off in the distance and headed back. We all were a little panicked about making it back before the storm. The winds definitely changed and the paddle back that was supposed to be easy wasn’t. We still made it back in half the time it took to get there. There are no pictures of this trip if that tells you anything about how it went. 🤣🤣
Everyone slept well that night!!
On our last day we wanted to check out some caves at the Hinson Conservation area. They weren’t open yet so we walked around downtown Marianna. We saw some really neat old buildings with advertisements and a lot of historical plaques. 
After the conservation area opened we headed out with our trail map. Part of the Florida trail goes through here as well. It was a big bust. I don’t think anything has been taken care of since hurricane Michael ripped through. We did see some rails from an old railroad. We also saw lots of pecan trees, as the land used to be a pecan orchard. On the way home I had to stop and take a picture of this abandoned house. I loved the flowers growing on it.
We packed up and headed home. It was a fantastic trip and I already want to go back!! 
Keath Family Adventures 