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NATURAL BEAUTY >> ICHETUCKNEE
SPRING FOR IT
Ichetucknee Springs State Park Rollin’ On the River W R I T T E N B Y M A R L O W E S TA R L I N G
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n all my years donning orange and green at The Orange Bowl and then Hard Rock Stadium, I never fathomed I would see that meandering lazy river again — much less call myself a student at the University of Florida. Herpetologist Archie Carr called it “the most beautiful landscape in the world.” Miami Herald reporter Al Burt wrote that “the Ichetucknee’s waters bubble up out of the ground and flow like melted diamonds across a sandy bottom through a natural forest” in his book “The Tropic of Cracker.” Both are right by me. My first encounter with Ichetucknee Springs State Park was in 2008 when my family and almost our entire Hurricanes tailgate group road tripped up
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OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
July/August 2020
to Gainesville from Miami for the Miami vs. Florida football game (which ended badly for Miami fans). Awkwardly, my dad was the only one in Gator gear: a proud UF alumnus who was back in his college town. They would tell you that the most memorable part of the trip wasn’t the game; it was our slow float down the Ichetucknee. We rented inner tubes off the side of the road, tied them to the tops of our rental cars and even skipped the tram, opting for a scenic (and lengthy) trail walk to the dock. I was only a mere 9 years old, my brother 4 or 5, but I can remember the way the water glistened, the way the canopy filtered sunlight above our heads, the way our laughter echoed off the longleaf pines and limestone formations as the turtles sunned themselves on logs.