Juniper in January

As part of our Florida-exploring road trip adventure, Monica and I stopped at Juniper Spring in the Ocala National Forest. It was about an hour and half drive from Gville down 75 and through Ocala and through the forest. Juniper isn't a first magnitude but the nearby Alexander Spring is... unfortunately we didn't have time to make it to both. Alexander is in the same forest but is 40 miles away and was a bit out of the way of our Merritt Island-bound route. Instead, we enjoyed a VIP trip to Juniper and had the entire spring to ourselves:

First view of the spring. The brown shack in the distance goes along with a big water wheel and a waterfall that goes out the little spring run.

Relaxing and soaking in the sun before jumping in :)

The little minnows came up and nibbled on your fingers... we were even able to scoop them up with our hands!

Finally in the water! Checking out the spring (with camera in hand)... the spring head was at max depth of probably 25-30 feet and the rest of the basin was shallow and covered in seagrass.

Monica's first adventure into a spring!! Using a camera like a pro :)

Monica cruising across the deeper part of the spring.

After about an hour or two of swimming, jumping/cartwheeling off the platform, we walked explored some of the aboveground trails, warmed up, and had some lunch and soaked up some more sun. Then back in the car for the rest of the drive down to Merritt Island.