Camping at Blue Springs State Park, Orange City, Florida

We did a quick 1-night exploration visit to Blue Springs State Park which is located in Orange City, Florida a bit north of Orlando, Florida.  Please note that you are now in Black Bear Country and they do provide information on what to do if you encounter a black bear.  Thankfully I did not encounter one – especially when I was walking the dogs.

NOTICE:

A new day-use reservation program was implemented at Blue Spring State Park on July 15, 2026. The window for advanced reservations opens July 8, 2026. All day-use visitors will be required to have a reservation to enter the park.

We spoke with a few people at the park and found that they thought the reservation program was a good idea because previously there were long lines as much as an hour before the park opened, and sometimes you waited over an hour only to be turned away because the park was at capacity.

My thought was for us to spend a night at the campground and then we could do some exploring of the park such that we could come in the future for several nights of camping.  I think that worked out pretty well for us.

Park Details

Blue Springs State Park

Address: 2100 W French Avenue Orange City FL 32763

Park (386) 775-3663

Park 8 a.m. - sundown

Park Office 8 a.m.–5 p.m.

Cell phone service (Verizon) was good at this park

Campsite Details

30 amp and 50amp electric, also has a couple of 110 outlets

Picnic table, Fire ring

Gravel campsite

Our campsite was partially shaded, campsite #36. Lot of trees in this campground providing shade.  I provided my details on whether a campsite was sunny or shaded for some of the campground further in this blog post.

Water/Electric

Dump station

Back in sites (I don’t recall seeing any pull through sites but there might be a few)

Checkin is 3pm

Checkout is 1pm

Quiet hours 11pm - 7am

One of the bath houses was currently under renovation and not available.  The bath house that was closest to our campsite was functional.  Jim mentioned that the men’s portion of the bath house wasn’t as clean as he thought it would be – however, I thought the women’s was fine.  They do not have a lot of showers or bathrooms in the bath house.

The dumpsters for trash are near the exit of the campground.  The dump station is more centrally located in the campground (not sure if that is good or bad) – see map for location.

Our campsite was #36.  The numbers are painted on the roadway (nice idea, never seen that before).  I know some folks want to know if the sites are private, how much space is between the campsites, etc - and in this particular case, there is a good amount of space between the sites.

The Spring (Lower spring entrance)

First, I will mention that there is no swimming in the spring after hours.  Before you say, awww, but I want to swim later in the day (or night), let me mention part of the reason for this statement is for your safety.  Apparently when night comes, the alligators do swim into the swim area and catch their dinner – you probably don’t want to be part of that, do you?  I don’t and I will say that I did see an alligator (probably 8-10 feet) outside of the swim area, but still in spring water (meaning, not that far from the swim area).  The volunteer that we talked to indicated that they do come in at night to the spring area, but don’t like to be there when people are out swimming.

Second, as can be expected in Florida springs, the water is a nice cool (or cold) 72 degrees year-round – so expect that colder water.

I am not certain that these are Florida gar, but they are some type of gar - they were all just floating there like they are sleeping and there were a lot near and in the swim area at the lower entrance.

Other things?  Well, if you want to bring a tube and float around – several people were doing that.  Some were swimming with snorkel gear.  I did see a couple of people putting on wet suits and dive equipment, so I am assuming that is allowed as well.

This photograph is looking towards the upper spring entrance.  This is the staircase down into the lower spring entrance.

 We didn’t get into the spring water – 72 is a bit chilly for this Floridian and Jim mentioned that it wasn’t hot enough for him yet either.  Keeping in mind that we were there for less than 24 hours – I suspect that if we stay longer then we will be jumping in.  Unfortunately I did not make it to the upper spring entrance, so it will not be in this blog post (hopefully next time I can do that walk).

During the months of November through March – the spring is just for the manatees – no swimming allowed.  I was surprised to see several manatees swimming around while we walked up to the spring along with the Florida gar.

Single manatee hanging in the swim area.

Mom and baby swimming by the stairs to enter the lower spring area.

This is the barrier between the swim area and the manatee area which takes you out to the main portion of the St John's River (also where I took the sunset photographs).  This was taken fairly early in the morning before the crowds were in the park.

The lower spring entrance is where the camp store is located.  They have a place called the “Blue Spring Canteen & Gift Locker” which has gifts, apparel, swim rentals, lockers and deli sandwiches. 

They do have “Blue Spring Adventures” where you can rent a canoe or kayak.  In addition, you can take a Riverboat Cruise.

Hike from campground to the Spring

The dogs were eager to take a walk so we found the trail that takes you from the campground to the spring (day use) area.  It’s not a long walk, but if you have a lot of things you’re taking with you – I suggest having a wagon or something to tote your stuff because it is a good 15-minute walk – and that depends on where your campsite is located.

The boardwalk

There is a nice boardwalk along the St. John’s River that can be caught next to the lower spring swimming area.  We walked down towards the Thursby House and enjoyed just relaxing a bit.  I did walk through the Thursby House which was built in 1872 by Louis Thursby - it's a 2 story house, but you can only access the bottom level.  The majority of it is not furnished but apparently didn't take a photo of it (oops).

The alligator......(just one, but that's all it takes!)

The girls take a break by the picnic table in the shade.

Sunset

There is an area that is near the Blue Spring Landing where you can catch the sunset if that’s of interest to you (park near the Thursby's house).  There is a large parking area here and you’re near one end of the boardwalk as well.  Since we have had a lot of stormy weather, the sunset this evening had some rather large clouds that made it interesting.

The rope you see across this photograph is the boarder for the manatee protection area.

I'm not sure but I think I see a face in this cloud below.

Campground Map

If you look by campsites 15 & 16, there is a black line - that's where the other bath house that is under renovation is located.

While this isn't all the campsites, it does give you an idea on some of the sites as to which are sunny, partial shade, shady.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the entire campground - but these are the ones I did survey.
 

19, 21, 25, 26, 27- sunny

20-mostly shade

28 – shady, does appear to be level

29-mostly shade, has path to site 31

30 – not private, but shade

33 – very shady

35 – partial shade

32 – sunny

31 – partial shade

36- partial shade

37 – sunny

38 – partial shade

45 – shady

50 – partial shade

Also, just a note, we did hear trains from the campground.

MAP

The "You are here" is pointing to the entrance to the walk from the campground over to the lower spring entrance.  They don't give you a nice brochure when you checkin - just a xerox black and white page that gives you rules and a campground map - so I took a picture of one of the signs to have a nice colorful map.

This isn't ours, but I thought it was kinda cool to see one that had ours names :)
 

To see all the photographs from this camping stop, click here.