This summer, we've been spending many of our Saturdays here at Spring Creek in Marianna Florida, it's only about an hour's drive for us and it's unbelievable that we've only just found out about this spot on the creek this year, even though we've visited Marianna so many times before! We always knew about the crystal clear Merrit's Mill Pond, because you pass it along the main road through the town, and there is a park off of the highway at the spillway, but there's no real swimming access there, you can launch a canoe or tube from that point, but mostly it seemed people just fished there, so we thought there was no other access, or at least we never knew how to get access to the part of the creek on further down. Until one day my husband got curious and did some investigating. He did a little research on our computer and with some help from google maps satellite, he found the creek, and followed the creek on both ends, and looked for a cleared out area with parking, and he found one, then he followed that road to the highway, and figured out the road name and how to get there. What in the world did we ever do without the internet?! We were no doubt, lost a lot and asking for directions a lot too, I think.
After over 22 years of living in Florida, we are thrilled to still be finding new places to go and explore....This has quickly become our favorite place....we've made some wonderful memories here so far.....
I'm always in awe of all the beauty that God has created in nature....
I like that the water here is so clear (I don't do murky water)..... it comes from Blue Springs, and flows into Merrit's Mill Pond, and then into Spring Creek...this spot on the creek is not to far down from the spillway, but I guess it's far enough down from the Spring that the water is not so freezing like a spring is...so it's refreshing, but not too cold. On further down, Spring Creek eventually flows into the Chipola River....
The water is fairly shallow, with some places being a little deeper to wade in and swim around in....we wear our water shoes in the water because of all the shells that are on the bottom of the creek. Walking up and down the creek has been so much fun, and sometimes we walk with our tubes up creek and float back down. We were amazed by all of the seashells that were everywhere on bottom of the creek, we'd never seen anything like it.....some of the shells are an aqua blue color and there is also limestone slabs in places underneath the sandy bottom.....it's a very unique place...
This summer we definitely found our happy place..... "Life is Better at the Creek"
Marianna is a growing small town with a lot of historic places to see, it's also home to the Florida Caverns State Park, and Blue Springs State Park ....we've been to both places before in the past, but that was before digital cameras, so my pictures are not really shareable....maybe it's time for us to revisit those places, with my digital camera!
My husband was able to snap these photos, with his phone at the end of the day... most of the swimmer's had gone home by then.
Well, I hope you enjoyed relaxing a while with us on the creek!
Thanks for stopping over for a visit!
