Last Updated: May 2026
Florida’s springs are among the most striking natural features in the eastern United States — year-round 68°F water, extraordinary clarity, and ecosystems unlike anything on the coasts. Silver Springs is the largest artesian spring formation in Florida, and for much of the 19th and 20th centuries it was one of the most visited tourist attractions in the entire country. The state took over management in 2013, converting it to Silver Springs State Park. What remains is a rare convergence of natural wonder and layered American cultural history unlike anything else we encountered in Florida.
A Spring with an Extraordinary Past
Following the Civil War, Silver Springs became a tourist destination for Northerners traveling south by steamboat. The spring’s water is so extraordinarily clear — visibility exceeds 100 feet in places — that operators in the 1870s began offering glass-bottomed boat rides, an attraction that became the site’s signature for more than a century. Tourists peered down through the hull at dense schools of fish, snapping turtles, and the sapphire-blue spring vents far below.
In the 1930s, an enterprising operator introduced a “Jungle Cruise” to capitalize on the lush riverbanks, and brought rhesus monkeys to populate an island in the spring run — figuring correctly that the water would keep them contained. He did not know that rhesus monkeys can swim. They escaped, established feral troops along the Silver River, and have been there ever since. Their descendants — now numbering in the hundreds — are a genuinely wild primate population living in a Florida state park, thriving on a diet of native fruit and the occasional tourist’s dropped sandwich.
Hollywood discovered Silver Springs around the same time. The crystalline water and tropical vegetation made it a perfect stand-in for African and jungle settings in the era before CGI. Johnny Weissmuller filmed multiple Tarzan movies here through the 1930s and into the 1950s. Creature from the Black Lagoon used the spring for its underwater sequences. The long-running television series Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges, was filmed extensively here through the late 1950s. ABC held ownership through the 1960s into the 1980s, and the park continued operating as a private commercial attraction — complete with water ski shows and animal exhibits — well into the 21st century.
Environmental pressures eventually caught up with the business. Nitrate runoff from surrounding agriculture and failing septic systems degraded water quality, reducing the clarity that had defined the attraction for 150 years. Algae blooms, once absent, became recurring problems. Tourist revenues declined. Florida’s state parks system absorbed the property in 2013, retired the commercial attractions, and has been working since on ecological restoration. The glass bottom boats are still running.
Glass Bottom Boats & Paddling the Spring Run
We skipped the glass bottom boat and rented a canoe instead — two hours on the Silver River, moving slowly through water so clear the bottom appears close enough to touch even where it’s eight feet down. The spring run is a narrow, languid channel overhung with cypress and live oak; paddling it feels less like Florida and more like something from another continent. Fish in extraordinary numbers cruise just below the surface, visible without a glass bottom boat or even a mask. We spotted great egrets, great blue herons, anhingas, white ibis, and several alligators resting along the banks — none alarmed by our presence at canoe distance. Turtles stacked three deep on every fallen log.
The Campground
Silver Springs State Park’s campground is one of the better ones we found in Florida. Our site was large and private, with 50-amp electrical service and water; some pull-through sites also have sewer hookups. The one trade-off is internet — there was none, which forced a genuine rest day that turned out to be welcome. We’d like to return and stay longer to dig into more of the park’s wildlife and its deep, strange history.
Visitor Information
Silver Springs State Park is located at 5656 East Silver Springs Boulevard, Silver Springs, FL 34488, about 6 miles east of Ocala. Open daily 8 a.m. to sunset. The campground has full-facility sites with varying hookup options; reservations through the Florida State Parks system are strongly recommended.
Glass bottom boat tours run daily; check the park website for schedules and pricing. Canoe and kayak rentals are available at the park concession. The Silver River State Park (an adjoining but separately managed park) offers additional paddling and trail options.
Practical Tips
- Rent a canoe or kayak. The glass bottom boats are iconic and worth doing, but paddling the spring run yourself gives you the wildlife encounter at your own pace. The monkeys are most often spotted from the water on the lower Silver River.
- Keep distance from the rhesus monkeys. They are wild animals and can be aggressive, particularly if they associate humans with food. Florida Fish and Wildlife actively manages the population. Watch from a distance and do not feed them.
- Bring water shoes for the canoe launch and river sections — the spring bottom is sand and rock, perfectly comfortable, but you’ll get wet.
- The spring water stays 68°F year-round. In summer that feels refreshing; in January it is cold. Swimming is permitted at designated areas, but gauge your willingness in advance.
- No hookup sites have sewer in all sections — check the site map when reserving if full hookups are important to your setup.
- Cell service and wifi are limited. Treat this as a digital-detox destination and plan accordingly.
