hunter spring park

This is a small city park with several picnic areas, BBQ areas, and some swimming. The actual spring is only about 75 ft offshore and you can actually swim out to see the spring. Above the spring the water is crystal clear and you can swim down to the actual spring opening at about 15ft deep. I love to snorkel out here just for an afternoon cool off. I only live about 10 min away so I am there 20 times a year in spring and summer. Picnic areas are nice but better get there really early if you want one on a weekend or holiday. Outside showers and inside bathrooms. Put your canoe/kayak in the water here easily. Parking is pretty tough on busy days, best time for me is 9am-11am.

Free to visit, good place to park and enjoy the water. If you own your own kayak/canoe this is a great place to put in and tour the King's Bay attractions

02/08/2015- swam with the Manatee yesterday ! Air temp 74 degrees, little breezy so it was cold when you get out to the water. Amazing number of Manatee in the county, your sure to see several if you visit in the next couple months. You can swim/snorkel from the park- I recommend taking a noodle in case you need to rest a little. Take a picnic lunch and a snack if you plan to be there for a while.

Nice place to launch the kayak right next to a manatee pool. But no pets allowed. Most of the park is a parking lot. There are no facilities there but there is also no admission.

We took a ride and checked this place out for our next trip. It is a small area and I have heard you need to get there early to beat the crowds but it looks like a nice and easy access to launch your kayak into the Crystal River and head out toward the springs.

River Ventures leaves their kayaks here so this is where we launched from. It's a nice little park with a swimming area and bathrooms. There wasnt much else there though.

A nice local town park on the water. Great for a short stroll. Well looked after. Even in winter a nice place to relax and visit.

Nice place with parking and a Canoe/Kayak launch. Park here and spread a blanket on the grass and have a picnic and swim in the springs. There are also gazebo's with tables. This park is where I launch from to go to Three Sister's Springs when it is colder out to see the Manatee's.

Easiest kayak launch around. You can explore the canals or go out into the Kings Bay. See manatees nearly everytime out. Great for beginner kayakers. Sunbathing, swimming (water nearly always warm) or picnics. This is where the locals go. Nice park.

We like putting the kayaks in here as we can use the restrooms before starting out. It does not cost anything. And it is a nice paddle to 3 Sisters. My only complaint is that there is no trailer parking. There is also swimming and picnic areas.

This is a nice park where it's free to launch a kayak or canoe. Not far from Three Sisters Springs! Just a 20 minute paddle and you're there!

Very small "beach" area which is all grass. Sometimes you get lucky and see a manatee swimming by. Gets very crowded on weekends. The water gets full of an algae/grass type material that is just gross to walk on. Although the water is mostly clear and you can see a ton of fish it gets stirred up easily. A place for locals, not tourists.

Yes there were steps to get into the water but it was absolutely disgusting. Our dive instructor blamed the horde of people tromping around for stirring it up but it they didn't create the tons of floating algae. It looked like green spinach in the water. The water was green. It clung to everything. It was trapped in the velcro of the dive BCD. It clogged the snorkel that we were required to switch to from our regulator. It was just nasty. We told our instructor that we really didn't want to be in such nasty water and he said that if we didn't then he would fail us on on the diving course. Given that I just read a review from March of 2012 and that person complained about the algae, I would say that our experience is not unique. Our son got sick a few days later and now we are seeking a specialist for him. So I don't recommend getting your face in that water.

This place gets crowded - go early! We arrived around 9:30am to set our kayaks in the water and there were only a few other cars, by the time we came back after noon the parking lot was packed. There are bathrooms, picnic tables, shade, an outdoor shower by the kayak launch, and a swimming area. Lots of families enjoying themselves. It was nice to be able to shower off after kayaking and have a snack in the shade before heading home.

We used Hunter Spring Park as a launch site for kayaking, the park was very nice with clean restrooms and convenient showers. It also have places close to the launch to load/unload your boat. The park is free. We also arrived before the park opened on Sunday and were loading up to leave when a park employee came to empty trash and what not, and he let us into the park early since we were there. Which was awesome because we got to be on the water when it was empty.