Kelly Park - Rock Springs
Spring-fed swimming hole and lazy river flowing a steady sixty-eight degrees through limestone-shaded woodland.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Kelly Park - Rock Springs goes back to 1921, when a lumber company was ready to sell this spring to a buyer who planned to blast the limestone apart for road gravel. It follows a Baltimore surgeon named Howard Kelly, co-founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital, who first saw the spring around 1910 and stepped in a decade later to buy the land himself. Listen for the surgical instrument he invented, one still used in operating rooms today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Wekiwa Springs State Park
Second-magnitude spring pumping tens of millions of gallons a day into a clear swimming basin ringed by forest.
Blue Spring State Park
First-magnitude spring holding steady at seventy-two degrees, a winter refuge where hundreds of manatees gather.
De León Springs State Park
Historic water-powered sugar mill turned cook-your-own pancake house beside a spring-fed swimming hole.
Dickson Azalea Park
Historic ravine park with a spring-fed creek, stone terraces and thousands of azaleas planted by WPA workers.
Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve
Wetland preserve of swamp, marsh and scrub habitats, laced with trails and home to gopher tortoises and alligators.
Scenic Boat Tour
Narrated pontoon cruise through spring-fed lakes and cypress-shaded canals past historic lakeside estates.