Rainbow River Head Spring

March 8 and 9, 2025                                                  Most Recent Posts:
Rainbow Springs Campground                                Luck at Rainbow Springs
Dunnellon, Florida                                                     Silver Springs Land Side

If you read my last post, you saw the pictures of the head spring from the water.  I was up there 5 mornings out of the first week.    This post is about a visit I made to the headsprings on the land side.

Unlike Silver Springs there is not a trail from the campground to the headsprings, you must drive over.  But admission is free if you stay at the campground and only $2 if you don’t. 

These first 3 pictures were taken on the path up to the entrance gate.

 

I’ve shown in previous pictures from the water that swimming is allowed both at the campground dock and here at the Rainbow River headspring in roped off areas.  There is also a tubing entrance near the campground used in spring and summer. No boating, fishing, tubing, scuba or snorkeling is allowed in the last section of the river up to and around the head spring.  You can tell when you’ve reached that area because there are no longer houses on the far shore and there is a sign right in the middle of the river.  But everything is allowed on the rest of the river.  In contrast, Silver Springs allows none of these other than no wake boating along its entire length   Not that the boaters obey.

It’s quite different and really lovely seeing it from above.

My camera rescuer was swimming right here and went under those ropes in the back to my kayak which was just beyond.

I’ve only been here during the winter so I’m not sure how many of the flowers and “gardens” have been maintained by the state but there are lovely azaleas.

Here is where you would come to rent boats at the headspring for a float/paddle down the river to K.P. Hole or all the way to the Withlacoochee if you like.  Or to put in your own boat if you are not staying at the campground and want to do the entire river.

There are some really attractive sections of walkway.

It’s early in the day so all the picnic spots and tables have not been taken yet.

Beginning in the 1930’s, Rainbow Springs was a privately owned theme park with a zoo, a rodeo and gardens until like other “attractions” in Florida it fell on hard time.  It finally closed in 1974.  Luckily it was purchased by the state in 1990 and not by condo developers.  I can imagine the hoopla during those 16 years.   

It is still quite lovely with the original waterfalls and some of the plants.  The zoo and rodeo are gone and there are now hiking trails on part of the property that is being restored to its natural sandhill habitat.   The park totals 1470 acres.

The water is pumped from the river for these scenic falls.  Falling water sounds beautiful even if it is staged.

The creation of this waterfall must have really been a huge project.   They are all quite natural looking. 

I can’t even imagine what this zoo looked like in the day.  The enclosures are lovely stone.  The sign said they were built for the bobcat, racoons, birds, goats and deer.   I’m glad they didn’t maintain that “attraction”.

After leaving the zoo I came to the trailhead for the part of the property being restored to natural sandhill habitat.

There are some really wonderful big spreading trees.

I was on my way back when a light rain began to fall.

You can see the raindrops on the pretty flowers.

I had decided to have lunch at the Rainbow Cafe hoping that it would be better than most of these sorts of venues.   It has a lovely location.  Why not?

I wasn’t the only one waiting out the rain although most folks had brought their own food or were having popcorn from the cafe.   I guess they already knew why not.  Next time that is what I’ll do. Why can’t they have great food to go along with their lovely setting?

I rectified the food problem on another day by making a second trip to Sweetie’s to have their famed (and rightfully so) cranberry almond chicken salad.  Once each week is not too much to go to Sweetie’s even if I did have to go alone this time.

I just love the old fashioned and mismatched dishes and silverware they have collected.  Pretty sure they must have an actual dish washer and not a machine for these pieces.

I took half of the sandwich home so I could have a slice of coconut custard pie.  Took half of that with me too.   Now I can have lunch from Sweeties another day.

This was the best of the pictures I took of this group of women lunching together in hats from the hat rack.  Sorry for the light streak.  I was piggy backing on the owner taking their picture and he had the best spot with no light interference. 

Anybody want to join me here for hats and lunch next year?

I may post one more from Rainbow Springs with pictures from my time on the water during my second week.  Kayaking is primarily what I did during both the weeks I spent here.  I’m running out of kayaking time as my Florida winter draws to a close.

Luck at Rainbow Springs

February 28, 2025-March 6, 2025                                Most Recent Posts:
Rainbow Springs State Park Site 22                             Silver Springs Land Side
Dunnellon, Florida                                                           Silver River Scrapbook

If I seem to be hopping from spring to spring, it’s because I am.  They are my favorite parks and lucky for me Silver Springs is less than an hour’s drive from Rainbow Springs where I moved on Thursday February 27.  This post is about my first of two weeks there.

Got myself set up in site 22. 

I’d been in correspondence with my friends Laurel and Eric who full timed for many years but now have a tiny home in North Carolina.  They were spending I think a month in Gainsville in an Air B&B.   We managed to overlap for just one day.  So the day after I arrived at Rainbow, I jumped in the car and drove an hour to Gainesville to see them.  It had been far too long.

We hiked the La Chua trail at nearby Paynes Prairie.    It’s part of the state park where David and I have stayed and being at La Chua reminded me that I should stay there again. 

Laurel is one of the friendliest people I have ever met.  She strikes up conversations with folks everywhere and the boardwalk here was no exception.  She and the ranger shared stories as they spotted birds.

These two are wonderful birders and both of them heard and saw many more than I.

As you can see above, Laurel came prepared with her good camera with a zoom lens for the birds.   I, on the other hand, foolishly only had my phone.   It takes pretty good pictures of gators.

What wonderful people!

We went to get what turned out to be a delicious lunch in a cute spot with an outback eating area.   Did I take any pictures of the restaurant, the out door eating area, the food???   Nope.

But after that we went to a fabulous book store.  Laurel definitely has my number.  But truly what is so wonderful about these friends is that they like pretty nearly the very same things I do……..hiking, kayaking, books, travel, good food…….

If I were in Gainesville, I’d spend far too much time here.  My pictures do not do it justice.   The fabric on the reading area chairs is enough to draw me back.

All the cards are short reviews by the staff.  They really enhance the browsing experience but you can spend a lot of time in here.

I seriously believe that Eric and David are the most patient men in the world.

We closed out our day with vegan ice cream at Karma Cream.  It was delicious and some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had.  I’d spend a lot of time here too.  No wonder Laurel and Eric have come back to winter in Gainesville at least twice since they sold their RV.

I’m not sure when I’ll see them again and wish we could have gotten together more than once this winter but I count myself lucky to be one of their many friends.

Starting March 1st it was back to the river.   The Rainbow River or as I may start calling it, for reasons you will soon see, The Wood Duck River.

The park allows you to lock your kayak up at the dock thankfully and there is mine on the right side of the walkway down to the launch.   Blue appears to be the main kayak color here.  The trip to carry or tow the kayak is no where near as long as at Silver River so I took it down the first day of March and we slid in the water.

Unlike Silver Springs, Rainbow Springs has a roped off swimming area both at the campground boat launch and at the head spring area.   Swimming is there to the left of the launch.

Here it is up stream 2 miles at the head spring.  Notice the difference in the water color.  It’s clear in both places but shallower and sandier at the headspring.

 

This map will give a sense of the location.  Unlike Silver Springs the park does not own all the land on both sides of the river.  There is also not a connector trail between the campground and the head spring area.   You can kayak up or drive around.    The river goes all the way to the town of Dunnellon where it joins the Withlacoochee River.   An interesting note is that there are no manatee in the Rainbow River because there are damn dams on the Withlacoochee preventing them from coming to the mouth of the Rainbow.

These are a smattering of things I saw on the river nearly every day I was out during my first week at Rainbow Springs, 4 out of 7 days.

                              I assume this is Mr. and Mrs. Double Crested Cormorant

Many canoeing and kayaking dogs.

Great Egret ready for take off.

Also ready for breeding.

Every day dive boats came up and down the river dropping off scuba divers.  They churned up the water going both directions.   Nothing like this is allowed on the Silver River.

Commercial “water taxi” they call themselves.

The taxi drops them off in groups up and down the river with a red marker that you see to the left.  I guess they hope the power boats see them.  Not allowed at the head spring though.   This guy is first in line to jump in.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the male Double Creasted Cormorant.

And the lovely velvety smooth female.  They both have the gorgeous wings.

Rainbow Springs owns only one side of the river.  Houses line the other side until a short distance before the headspring.

There were lots of for rent signs on these river front homes in case you might like a vacation house where you can swim, scuba, kayak and even jet ski if you like.

The beautiful once endangered Wood Duck is in no danger here.  I saw them multiple times up and down the river every day.  They were the most common water fowl I saw.   Imagine that.

I saw this coming back from kayaking one morning.  They were just arriving.  I could not get over it.  I guess I see how they get them down but how do they put them back up?  I wasn’t there for that.

She actually did catch it but I wonder what she would have done had the other guy not been there.   This is obviously not his truck camper.

Back to time on the water.  Another daily occurrence…..

The picture below could never show what you can see in this  30 second video of the mad dash up the river that came toward me every single morning and then rushed back down stream around me a bit later.  They made as much waves volume as the dive boat.

All the Wood Ducks are from different days and different spots of my first week on the Rainbow River spring run.

White Ibis known by Floridians as Florida chickens.  Not sure why except they travel in flocks and are everywhere even on some people’s lawns.

They put that entire bill in the mud searching for snails and whatever else.

Another take off.  This time from in the water.  They literally run across the water.  Wish I could have gotten a video of that.

Remember the luck in my title?  Well here it comes.  
This is the head spring building from the water. 
I’m up in the spring run as far as you can go.

The spring is right below me.

I see this turtle feet up and know my friend Pam V will love him so I take this picture.  Then I decide to take one with my Google Pixel camera so I can text it to her in real time.    And for the first time in 10 years, the phone slips out of my hand and I watch it head for the bottom.

I am also right across from the head spring swimming area and the water up here is crystal clear.  I put my paddle down and try to scoop the phone up to no avail.

So I yell over to the swimmers and say I’ve lost my phone but that I can see it.
One person says he’ll come and get it but he has to get permission from the rangers to leave the roped off swimming area.

This takes at least 20 minutes during which I’m trying not to let the power of the head spring shove me down stream and I have to keep trying to circle the phone to keep it in sight.

Finally I see the swimmer with his goggles coming for me and he grabs the phone, seen here under water, and hands it to me.

This is the only picture I thought to get of him as he sawm back inside the restricted area.  What a great kindness he did me.

When Google says their Pixel is waterproof they are telling the truth.  When it came out of the water, it was still on and looked fine but I turned it off,  took it back to Winnona, put it in a bag of rice for 48 hours and it works just fine.

The next day I explored a narrow stream running into the Rainbow River just above the campground.  For years I could paddle it up to its source passing numerous small springs that created it including several at the head.   There was a cabin there.

Then one year there was a beautiful wrought iron gate across the stream about half way to the house with a fence prohibiting anyone from portaging around it.  I guess the home owner had some trouble with inconsiderate people or the house was sold to someone not so willing to let people experience his gorgeous setting.

Here’s the story from this year.   Because of all the springs on this little stream the water is amazingly clear.   It is also shallow with a white sandy bottom.

So clear this turtle looks like he’s on top of the water but not so.  I’ve never been able to photograph a turtle swimming under water before.

If the gate and fence are still there, Mother Nature has made them unnecessary.
Yes I tried to go under the tree there on the right but the limb on the bottom makes it impossible.  Perhaps someone willing to portage who is either as short as I am to get under the tree or willing to bend himself in half, could go on down the stream.   I was sufficiently deterred and turned around.

Here’s a short video of what it feels like to float back down in this gorgeous place.

Fish are easy to see too.

Emptying back out into the river.  Worth the trip even if it was shorter.

Yes mostly I see male Wood Ducks.  Made me wonder if the females are on the nest.

You can see this Tri Colored heron fishing in video 1 and taking flight in video 2.

Warning that they are zoomed in so as not to disturb the bird and they are a bit jerky in spots as I tried not to float away.  You can see how fast the water is moving.   But still…….he’s great to watch on video if you can’t see him in person.

There they are again.  They are so striking I cannot not take their picture.

I was thrilled to see several Swallow-Tailed Kites and be able to get this picture from the kayak.

Lovely Spring Run Spiderlilies grow along the river bank.

These Wood Duck Boxes are up and down this 5.5 mile river.  Perhaps that’s why there are so many Wood Ducks. 

I usually paddle up to the spring head and back to the campground dock but on this day I turned down river.  Here is K. P. Hole county park where anyone can launch a boat and not have to take it a mile down a sandy trail.   You can see this spot on the map at the beginning.

Thus, notice all the people.  Even bus loads from tour companies and groups.

No spring run would be complete without a beautiful Bald Cypress tree and its knees.  This is a LOT of knees.

Wood ducks down here too.  By now I think maybe you can see why I think perhaps it should be called the Wood Duck river.

I did take some breaks from paddling the river to give my shoulders and arms some rest.  On this day I hiked the park Nature Trail.  It’s a 3/4 mile loop but I’ve always felt that going one direction on a trail is a totally different hike from going the other.  So I do it in one direction and then turn around and go back the way I came.  Sometimes twice to get 3 miles.   Or combine it with walking the campground loop.   There isn’t much hiking here at all. 

Still, it’s a lovely trail and I’m glad they have it.

The trail is often covered with the giant cones of the Long Leaf Pine.  Watch where you step, they can trip you up.

                                                         Big Cones

I love to look up and see them in the tree silhouetted against the sky.

On Thursday I drove down to Dunnellon to meet my friend Amy at my favorite restaurant there, Sweetie’s Cafe and Tea House.

I met Amy last year when I stayed at Cedar Key RV Resort.  We were the two non Trump folks in the park as far as we could tell.   It’s a bonding experience.

So I contacted her when I knew I’d be relatively close by and we had a wonderful time getting caught up.  

Sweetie’s is too cute.  We should have donned hats for our lunch.   I totally forgot to get pictures of the food.   But I’ll rectify that in my next post.

Isn’t Sweetie’s the perfect name?

I’m going to try to get the second post from Rainbow up in a couple of days as I am now back at Silver Springs State Park until March 25th.   If you are in the Ocala area,  let me know.  I can’t meet you at Sweetie’s for lunch but there must be some place nearby.