Silver Springs

Located in the central and charming Ocala, Florida, Silver Springs State Park has been a natural landmark since the 1870s. As Florida’s first tourist attraction and one of the largest artesian springs in the world, the park quickly became renowned for the Glass Bottom Boat tours: guided boat rides where guests could travel around the spring on a vessel with a clear bottom to view life underwater. Today, visitors still enjoy the Glass Bottom Boat tours on top of the same crystal springs that have been inviting admirers for decades and sustaining a wealth of aquatic life.

Silver Springs is often called the gateway to the Ocala National Forest, the second-largest, most southern National Forest east of the Mississippi. The springs feed into the Silver River, a 4.5-mile stream that flows east from the springs to the Ocklawaha River.