Crystal River, FL - Manatees

We dropped our kayaks in Kings Bay, started paddling, and crossed our fingers that we were going to find Three Sisters Springs. Sometimes the directions you get for paddling places are like directions you get when you are visiting a really rural area: "go down the road a bit, make a left at the old tree stump, make a right at the third dirt road, go through the stream, open the gate...." - ever get those kind of directions? Anyway, the directions to Three Sisters were:
"Put in at the boat ramp by Charlie's Fishhouse
Paddle around Pete's Pier
Go under the bridge
Stay to the right, and it's on your right, don't worry - you'll see it, it's a small cut-through in the trees so you'll have to go single-file."
We prefer to go armed with a little more information, so after some searching online prior to our excursion, I found this great directory for Florida Springs Good thing we did, too, because the Springs were to the left and on our left, and I had a picture of the entrance to the canal confirming we were at the right place. Otherwise, I don't think we would've passed through these pilings with the 30-plus "no trespassing" signs on the embankments.

Three Sisters was beautiful - the blue, blue crystal-clear waters of springs is just breathtaking. And Three Sisters is tucked away in its own private alcove off of the river. The only drawback was that there weren't any manatees here in the afternoon. We later learned that the manatees sleep in there at night, but after being bombarded by hundreds of divers in the morning, they leave to find peace and quiet elsewhere.

Since I was now armed with a rudimentary map marking several other springs in the area, we started to paddle to find Manatee Sanctuary Springs. There we did come across three manatees and another one later as we paddled out into Kings Bay. None of them seemed to be in a playful mood, so we just stayed around long enough to snap a few photos.


To learn more about manatees, or even "adopt" one - visit Save the Manatee Club.
Kings Bay is quite shallow and there is an abundance of aquatic plants that you have to paddle through (near shore). We found out this prolific, non-native plant is Lyngbea. There were these Aquatic Plant Boats that moved around the bay collecting this stuff. Interesting boats - conveyor belts in the front, and paddle wheels on each side. Still not sure how these "tractor-boats" even floated.