WATER & COAST
Blue Springs Recreation Area
Jackson County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
The county swimming spring at 5461 Blue Springs Road, Marianna, and the only first-magnitude spring in the Chipola River basin.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Jackson Blue Spring pushes out around sixty-four million gallons a day, and that water is what fills Merritt's Mill Pond below it, a reservoir of 202 acres that the pond fishing is built on. The spring itself is the swimming hole: clear, cold, and walled into a basin with a sand beach beside it. There are volleyball courts, a children's playground, new boat docks and boat rentals through the operator. Hours as posted from March 21, 2026, run Monday to Friday from ten in the morning until 5:30, and on weekends from 9:30 until six, but this park has historically run on a summer season rather than year round, so telephoning ahead is the sensible thing before driving out. Cave diving on the pond system is arranged through a local outfitter rather than the county. Launching your own boat is covered by the entrance fee, and the pond it opens onto runs four miles east from here
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