Big Shoals State Park in Hamilton County, Florida

Photograph: Big Shoals State Park, Suwannee River 5.jpg by Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Hamilton County attraction

Big Shoals State Park

Hamilton County · North Florida & First Coast

The largest set of rapids in Florida, Class III when the river is high, under limestone bluffs on the Suwannee.

QUESTIONS THAT NAME THIS PLACE

Are There Waterfalls in Florida?

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Big Shoals State Park is at 18738 Southeast 94th Street in White Springs, north of Lake City, and it holds something Florida is not supposed to have: whitewater. The Suwannee drops over a shelf of rock here in the largest series of rapids in the state. When the river runs high, usually when the Okefenokee Swamp is pushing water down, the shoals become Class III whitewater with real rocks, hydraulics and holes in them. At other levels the rapids are either drowned under the flow or reduced to water threading between exposed rock, so what a visitor sees depends entirely on the river that week. Tall limestone bluffs line the banks, carved into caves, flowerpots and terraces by the water. On the north shore, which takes the day-use charge, the Woodpecker Trail runs 3.5 miles paved and suits cycling, the Big Shoals Trail leads to the bluff overlooks above the rapids, and the Long Branch Trail runs 2.4 miles over rolling ground. On the south shore, which is free, 4.6 miles of the Florida Trail run from the Bell Springs trailhead to the shoals, with one primitive campsite. The main entrance closes when the river comes up. Leashed dogs are welcome

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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