Tubing down the Rainbow River

One night talking with some of Duane's family they had said that they went tubing down the Rainbow River and it was a blast.  This got me thinking that this would be something fun to do with the kids and so I started checking into it.  There are many places along the Rainbow River to rent tubes to do a float and most have either a 2 hour or 4 hour float that you can do.  I thought 4 hours in the river was a bit much for our first adventure, so we decided on the 2 hour float.  I did some checking of prices with the many facilities and came across Dragonfly Watersports. It was on $10 per person for the float and $5.00 for parking.  It was not in the Rainbow River State Park itself so there was more of a chance that it would not fill up as quickly. As with all of the other State Park's here in Florida, it is first come, first serve and when the parking lots fill up the parks are closed.

DragonFly opens at 9:00am and the last launch is at 2:15 pm so I wanted to get there before the rush.  Dunnellon, FL is about an hour and a half from Windermere, so I made the kids get up early and told them to sleep in the car on the way over.  We started out about 7:30 am.  When we arrived we were the first people at the place.  The paperwork and registration was very small and we were heading off to the bus that would take us up the 2.5 miles to where our adventure would begin.  The water was COLD!!! but after a little time it became very comfortable and it was really cool how the water was so clear you could see the bottom of the river.  The floor of the river is covered in what looks like grass (pic) below was taken with my camera looking down into the water. Many time we were able to see the fish that were following us on our float.  The kids really enjoyed it and I think next time we may go for the 4 hour or try one of the spots that actually dumps us into the Rainbow River State Park.  The scenery was just beautiful and we were able to see many types of wildlife, no gators though, which was good because I don't know if the kids would have continued down the float had we seen any.  The float ends back at the place we parked so there is not a lot of hiking the tube around.

Rainbow Springs State Park Tube Facility

10830 SW 180th Ave. Rd. Dunnellon, Fl 34432

(352) 465-4035

Opens in April on weekends only and then after Memorial Day is open through the weekdays.  Thursday - Monday

Kelley Park / Rock Springs - Apopka, FL

Kelly Park

400 E Kelly Park RD

Apopka 32712

http://www.orangecountyfl.net/dept/cesrvcs/parks/ParkDetails.asp?ParkID=22

Open Monday - Sunday - 8am - 8pm (summer) 8am - 6pm (winter)

While Cody was attending the YMCA summer camp he told me about this really cool place that they would go tubing at.  I looked into it and thought this seemed something very Florida like so off we went.  Everyone I talked to said get there early, because once the parking lot is full there is no more admission.  So we left the house around 7:30 am and off we went.  Before we got to the entrance of the park I saw tub rental places offering some pretty good prices so that you would not have to swim the entire time, but float.  They charge a deposit as well as a rental fee for each of the tubes, but you receive your deposit back when you bring the tubes back after you are done and it an all day rental.  After tying these to the back hatch of the van we were off.  This is really important to get because there are NO tube rentals in the park itself.  We paid a nominal fee of $1 per person at the entrance to the park. There were tons of people flowing in and I was glad that we decided to go early because about an hour after we entered (right around 10) the park was already closed.

The water was cold due to it being a spring but after a few minutes of the heat it was very refreshing.  You walk you tubes through a walkway to the top of the float and are able to jump into an area where the spring flows in.  It is about 25 foot deep and helps your body get acclimated to the temperature of the water.  I would definitely suggest bringing something to float on as the entire float is filled with very large, very sharp rocks that are not very knee friendly.  The float itself was about 25 minutes where you then flow into a larger area that is used for swimming. This is a nice area if you have smaller kids or do not want to do the floating.  There is another passage way after this that you can continue down if you would like.

Want to stay for the entire day?  No problem.  They have areas that you can set up a canopy and bring your picnic baskets and coolers.  In addition to this they also have a concession stand that offers many good items without breaking the bank.  Don't like to much sun?  There were many shady areas that you can hang out in from the tall forest that surrounds the area.  Tired of swimming?  There were also trails that you could hike in or large areas that you could toss a ball or frisbee around to work up a sweat before going back in and cooling off.