Put-in: Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, $2/boat launch fee
Take-out: Suwannee River State Park, $5.35/car parking fee
Camping: Holton Creek River Camp - one of a network of camp sites accessible only to hikers and boaters that occur about every 20 miles on the Suwannee. These sites offer screened-in huts with electric lights and fans, grills, fire pits, bathrooms, and hot showers. The camphosts here were amazing and lent us cooking supplies and brought us coffee in the morning. For a limited time, all of these river camps are free.
Points of Interest: 1. Holton Creek is about a mile after the river camp and provides
a half-mile paddle up a quick-flowing stream; don't expect much from the springhead.
2. Just before Gibson Park (about 15 miles from the start) is a first-magnitude spring
encircled by impressive limestone cliffs. You can scale the cliffs to swing out over
the spring on a rope.
3.About 2 miles before the takeout is a series of five sinkholes connected
by small passageways. When the water is low, you can walk all the way to the back; when we went, we
got very wet. Cliff diving is also available at this spot for the brave and/or stupid.
Scenery: Much of the river is lined by high limestone cliffs and you frequently run across large white-sand beaches. These make for a very beautiful paddle. Wildlife seems scarce this time of year, though we did see an otter, a number of turtles, one alligator and a bunch of herons; the camphosts reported seeing a small black bear.