We are lucky enough to be able to camp during the week so we got a campsite at Wekiwa Springs for Sunday thru Tuesday. *Just a note here to say that Wekiwa is the correct spelling, although it is pronounced Wekiva – with a v.
The Wekiwa State Park is in Apopka, Florida which is just north of Orlando. The park requires day visitors to the spring to register ahead of time. That is because the crowds can get out of control. Everyone wants to go here to cool off. Read more about that here.
This does not apply to camping. A few other state parks with springs have implemented the same thing for day visitors. Florida is simply full of people. Not everyone can visit at once. Wekiwa has a super long turn lane to enter the park to accommodate all the Springs traffic.
When we arrived to camp, around 3:30 on a Sunday, we got right in. It was a bit rainy so we drove down to see the spring. I was surprised by how far it was from the campground, and how large the spring area is.
I wish I’d taken more photos, but the day we stopped to get water our hands were full of water bottles. The time I was there to swim I brought nothing but a towel. You can find lots of online pictures of this spring.
Swimming at Wekiwa Springs
First of all, there is a very long parking loop for the spring. At the very end of the loop are pavilions. Toward the center of the loop are entrances to paths or boardwalks that lead down a hill. Also there are two long stairways that pass thought the big grassy area. The Spring can accommodate a lot of people. The vehicle reservation number is 330 max. That is 330 parking spots x’s how many people in each vehicle? A lot of people.
There is a nice concession shop where we bought some bottled water. It’s also where you can rent kayaks, SUPs, and canoes. I walked to the launch area, which is pretty nice with crystal clear, shallow water. I’d love to kayak in cooler weather. The cost is $40 for 2 hours.
Because the spring area is so far from the campground – over a mile – my son dropped me off to swim. Even though it is the end of September, it is very hot in Florida still. I thought about riding my bike to the spring, but there were not many bike racks.
When I went to swim, I chose to go around to the left side and entered the spring at the steps. There are more steps on the opposite side. The main deck area below the grassy hill had some kind of construction happening so I couldn’t access the left hand stairs except to walk in dirt through the woods.
The whole spring area has a small ledge around the edge where people can sit. Even though there are warnings to not jump or dive, that is what people were doing. There are no lifeguards at the spring.
Neither step area is large, and for some reason people like to hang out on the stairs. I had to bypass people going in, and couldn’t even get to the railing when coming out. And I was swimming on a Monday – can’t imagine the weekend crowds.
Once I got into the water it felt so nice. The best way to enter a spring, which stays close to 72 degrees (22C) year round, is to just go in quick. I couldn’t touch bottom, so I swam out toward the center, but I still couldn’t touch! There was also a bit of a flow coming outward from the spring area – where the water bubbles up. So trying to swim back toward where I entered took some effort. I was in the water for about 20 minutes without standing up once! (I am 5’5″ for reference.)
The water on the opposite side – the right side as you walk down the hill – seemed more shallow. The water itself was not as clear as I had hoped. People must keep it churned up. On the other side of the bridge overpass, at the far end of the spring, is the river area where everyone kayaks. That water was very clear.
The Wekiwa Campground and Our Site.
We camped in site #6 in a loop that had many full hookup sites. We have two gray water tanks and hooked up the bathroom tank to the drain. We emptied the black water tank before we left. State park campgrounds with full hookups are pretty rare, so we loved having it available. They do have a dump station as well.
Our campsite was long enough to easily fit our camper and truck. We set up a screen house also because the mosquitos were bad. All around us were very tall pine trees, including one right beside the camper. We couldn’t put our awning out all the way because of it. It wasn’t a big deal. Just be aware that site #6 has this tree.
The loop contained a lot of nice sites but a few had a view that included a (sometimes noisy) main road off in the distance.
The other loop contains sites that do not have full hookups, except for a select few. Both loops have “glamping” tents. Glamping is “glamorous camping” but these accommodations didn’t seem too glamorous to me. Maybe they are nice inside, I don’t know.
Many campgrounds are adding some of these options which are great for anyone who doesn’t want to tent camp and doesn’t own an RV. We saw tiny houses for glamping when we camped at Anastasia State Park.
Complaints?
This was a nice campground and we would probably go back. I’d never go on a weekend in swimming season. Having full hookups is a big draw for us. Even though we were not there during peak swim time, the campground was full, and a bit noisy with kids. Just up from our site there were a bunch of tents and a family camping. They blew up a swimming pool for the kids to use right at the site. They played music and gave the kids rides around the loop on a little motorized bike. I’m all for kids having fun, but I’m glad my campsite was not next to that! By Tuesday when we left, the campground was pretty empty.
We saw a couple of dogs off the leash, which was annoying especially since we had Skittle the cat with us.
Occasionally the campground personnel use a blower to clean off the campsites when someone leaves. They did that here at the site next to us. I’m not sure why except to maybe blow away the big pine needles. I prefer no blower noise. If you are a camper, what are your thoughts on that?
My idea of camping is peace and quiet. This is a family oriented place with the springs for swimming. We only live about an hour away, so it is very likely we will return when the weather is not hot. I’d like to kayak and check out the bike trails. Further down the road there is a lake that we never got to see. We stayed for 2 nights and one full day. It’s hard to do it all in that short amount of time.
