Wekiwa Springs State Park

Wekiwa Springs State Park is a lovely place to visit, it has a great swimming area, canoeing, camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding and fishing, it was once inhabited by the Timucuan Indians.

Wekiwa Springs has been a state park since 1970, and covers more than 8000 acres. There are 16 miles of hiking trails, 37 miles of biking/hiking trails and roads, 8 mile horse trail, and a 7.5 mile canoe trail.

This lovely park is very easy to get to from Orlando. From the central Orlando area, head North on I4, take exit 49 and head West for 1/1.5 miles, then turn Right on Wekiwa Springs Road. The entrance is then just 4 miles on the Right Hand Side, many locals visit the park in the summer months, so the spring area can get rather busy

Once inside the entrance, drive around to the right and park up. Just down from this car park is the huge spring.

There is a large enclosed pool that the springs boil up inside, the pool is at least 100 feet in diameter. The springs produce more than 42 million gallons a day at a constant 72 degrees. You are allowed to swim within the pool and there are steps down to water. The water ranges from around 3 feet deep to more than 15 feet deep. We would also recommend taking a snorkel as there are many fish (blue gills) and some turtles within the pool area. Try and swim over the top of the spring if you can !! the force of water is tremendous.

If you like a longer walk, then go back to the car, and from the car park follow the road around to your right, this then takes you up towards the parking at Sand Lake. Sand Lake has restrooms and a really lovely picnic area. There are a lot of trails in this area, so it may be a good idea to get a map from the ranger station.

There is a fantastic variety of wildlife to be seen within the park boundaries, these include alligators, herons, limpkins, ibis, buzzards, osprey and kingfishers. (There are many kingfishers at the Sand Lake lakes – we were sat down, and they were flying all around us). The American bald eagle and the Southern Black Bear are also residents here, although we did not see any on our visit.

Within the flatwoods, there are fox squirrels – these creatures are very large when compared to our grey squirrel, foxes and bobcats are also inhabitants of these woods. We really didn’t have enough time to explore the park fully, but we did enjoy what we saw, it is definitely on our list for a full day on our next visit, and from the few hours we spent here, we would not hesitate to recommend a visit.