Kayaking Holmes Creek – Cypress Spring, FL
I am so excited to share this place with you guys today! We wanted to ry something new and different while we were at the beach. I discovered this lovely gem, Cypress Spring, from a sweet family I follow on social media and I had no idea this place even existed.
Cypress Springs is located in Vernon, FL and is located off of Holmes Creek. It is only accessible by kayak, canoe, or boat. Because of this, we decided to rent kayaks from Snaggy Bend Outfitters. The kayaks we got from them were awesome! A single kayak is $35 for the day and a double is $40. The outfitter will put you in about 20 minutes (paddle time) from the spring and the scenery along the creek are incredible. I felt like we were paddling through the Amazon!
Side note: you paddle upstream to the spring so it takes a little will power to get there!
At Cypress Springs, the early bird gets the worm! This place is extremely crowded in the summer and the earlier you get there, the better. We were at Snaggy Bend Outfitters at 8am when they opened and made it to the spring around 8:30-8:40. They highly recommend making reservations during the summer. We went on a Friday and had a good hour or so before a guided tour of 25 came paddling up. We had no problem with this, but it was so nice only having to share the spring with one other person.
Scenery
Once you get to the spring, it is like you are in another world. It has the most beautiful, crystal clear water you have ever seen! There are huge trees growing up and out of the water and even laying in the water. To truly see this place, you MUST bring a mask or goggles! I would also highly recommend having an underwater camera. A GroPro or Lifeproof phone case would be perfect! I already had a Lifeproof phone case that captured the incredible images above. This was also handy being in a kayak, I didn’t have to worry about my phone getting wet.
Temperature
To share a little secret with you, the water in this spring never gets over 68 degrees! While we were there, it was 64 and that is NOT something you can ease into. We had to just dive in and it literally took our breath away at first. The rope swing comes in handy when you need to go in quickly. 😉 Even though it was 89 out side that day the water was still so cold! You will get use to it and it’s not bad at all.
What to Bring
- Cooler
- Goggle or Mask
- Underwater camera or phone case
- Towels
- Something to float on (noodle, tube, etc)
Fun Fact
While we were floating around the spring we had the pleasure of chatting with a gentleman that was there filling his 18-wheeler up with the water from the spring. It was so interesting to learn that he was pumping water for Nestle! He said they just recently started pumping water from Cypress Spring but I thought it was so neat to know where the water comes from before it runs through a filtration process!
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