June 4-7, 2020

We arrived at Suwannee River Rendezvous campground on Wednesday night. The drive there was absolutely beautiful. We quickly got setup and went to checkout the campground. The campground is home to Convict Springs. To be honest, the spring is not that impressive as it’s small and surrounded by concrete walls. The grounds are beautiful though, and it’s right on the Suwannee River. (Yes we heard Chris sing “way down upon the Suwannee river” about 1000 times). Convict spring was used by the county prisoners back in the early 1900’s. While working on construction projects they would use the springs to clean up and spend the night if it got too late.

Thursday 6/4

On our first whole day we wanted to see as many springs as possible. We had a long list of places we wanted to go and we knew the weekend was going to being bad weather. So we loaded up for a full day of fun. Sonny was happy he got to join us on this trip.

The first stop of the day was to Telford Spring. The directions took us on a narrow dirt road. When we got to the location we didn’t see any spring. We did see a gate with huge no trespassing signs. A scuba diver at the river told us there was a path behind the gate and that’s how all the locals get to Telford spring. After talking to a scuba diver at the river, we decided to break some laws and trespass to get to the spring. Carson was NOT happy about this and lectured us the whole way. Luckily it was a short walk through the woods. The spring was gorgeous!! We had the whole thing to ourselves. Of course the water was freezing, so only the kids and Sonny got in.

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Next we headed to Peacock Springs State Park. This spring was beautiful, but not good for swimming for the kids. The cave system is supposed to be amazing to dive though.

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Our next stop was in Live Oak, about 40 minutes away. I’ve been wanting to go to the “abandoned bridge to nowhere” for awhile. It’s a bridge that crosses the Suwannee River that was closed in 1971. Since then it has become a spot for graffiti. It has trails that go all through the woods and along the river. I enjoyed taking pictures, but forgot to bring some paint for the kids to tag the bridge.

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We didn’t get far when we saw a sign for another spring. This one was called Suwannee Springs. It used to be home to cabins in 1885, then a hotel that burnt down in 1905. There are remains of the bathhouse, where the sulfur spring is.

We drove through downtown Live Oak on the way back to Mayo. Found some cool buildings.

Again, as we were driving we saw another sign for a spring. This one was called Charles Springs. I did some research and found an address so we headed there.

It was a little off the beaten path but that’s what makes an adventure right??

This spring has a cave that is small enough for the kids to swim through. They thought this was so cool!

After Charles Springs we went back to the campground to relax and make dinner. Look at Chris’ supervisor on the grill.

Friday June 5th

On Friday we wanted to go to some springs that were south on the Suwannee. The first stop was a more well known spring, Royal Springs. We have had this on our list for some time now. It has a huge jump off into the spring. It took Carson awhile to brave the jump but he finally did it. Avery didn’t want to try, and I don’t blame her.

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Next up was Little River Springs. This was probably my favorite. The water was so blue and it had a nice sandy beach area. The current where the spring meets the river is dangerous though, so we didn’t swim around there.

The last spring of the day was Chris and Carson’s favorite. They were really looking forward to this one. Troy Springs State Park. This spring is known for the remains of a sunken Confederate boat named The Madison. The boat was so much bigger than we expected and it was shocking that a boat that size could navigate the Suwannee River.

Later that night the Fazzari Family joined us at the campground. We knew we were in for crappy weather the rest of the trip, but we had fun anyway!

Saturday June 6th

We headed back out to the cool bridge and Charles spring again. It sprinkled the whole time, but that didn’t stop the kids from enjoying the water.

We had to make it back to the campground by 4 for the pigeon races. Yes, pigeon racing. The kids got to pick their pigeon, then ride with the guy to release them. None of our pigeons won but the kids loved it. We spent the rest of the rainy day in the hot tub and pool.

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We headed back early and just beat the horrible weather driving home. We had a great trip and already want to go back.

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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!!