Wakulla Springs State Park

Wakulla Springs State Park, located at 550 Wakulla Park Drive in Wakulla Springs, Florida — approximately 15 miles south of Tallahassee — protects one of the world's largest and deepest freshwater springs, with a main pool measuring 185 feet deep and a cave system extending far beneath the surrounding limestone karst. The spring discharges an average of 400,000 gallons of 68-degree water per minute, creating a vast, crystal-clear pool of extraordinary visual depth visible to the bottom on calm days. The springs achieved unusual fame as a filming location, with multiple early Tarzan films and the 1954 horror classic Creature from the Black Lagoon shot in these waters due to their extraordinary clarity and shallow-water visual properties. The Wakulla Lodge, a 1937 Mediterranean Revival building constructed during the New Deal era, sits immediately at the spring's edge and operates as a historic hotel and restaurant serving traditional Southern cooking in a setting largely unchanged in atmosphere since its construction. Glass-bottom boat tours are the park's signature attraction, revealing the underwater spring system and occasional mastodon bones visible in the cavern through the vessel's hull windows. River boat tours cruise the Wakulla River — the spring run feeding into the larger river system — passing alligators, anhinga birds, manatees in winter, and extraordinary concentrations of wading birds in the shallow river margins. Swimming is permitted in a designated area adjacent to the main spring pool. The surrounding upland habitat supports black bear, white-tailed deer, and rare red-cockaded woodpeckers in the longleaf pine areas. The park's north Florida location makes it an excellent complement to Tallahassee cultural visits.