Local Area Activities
Visit Jackson County, Florida
Jackson County, Florida is quietly situated in Northwest Florida one hour west of Tallahassee and one hour north of Panama City. Locals around here boast of the beautiful natural resources including rivers, caves, and history. Gorgeous historic homes and spring fed rivers are surrounded by canopy oak trees and rolling hills. Eleven municipalities call Jackson County home – Marianna, Greenwood, Sneads, Alford, Cottondale, Grand Ridge, Graceville, Bascom, Malone, Campbellton and Jacob City.
Florida Caverns Cave Tour
Located 6.4 miles, via FL-166 and Highway 90 sits the Florida Caverns State Park, which is the only state park in Florida that offers cave tours to the public. Come visit and tour the beautiful formations of limestone stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, flowstones, and draperies. Guided tours are offered year-round, excluding Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tours are every 45 minutes and are moderately strenuous. You can also fish, boat, and canoe in the Chipola River.
Blue Spring Recreational Area
Visit the Blue Spring Recreational Area just 6.8 miles via SR-71 and Blue Springs Rd. Blue Spring is open on weekends only from Memorial Day until Labor Day. Jackson Blue Spring is a First Magnitude Spring of Florida and supplies water to the 202-acre Merritt’s Mill Pond. For forty years this main spring has offered a recreation area with swimming, picniking, and limited scuba training and cave exploration. The recently revamped area has clear and briskly cool water perfect for those scorching hot days, a volleyball court, playground, benches, beach for sunbathing, boat docks, and pavilions for rent.
Cave Adventurers
Located 6 miles down Blue Springs Highway, off of Russ Rd, you can dive with Cave Adventurers, in any one of the beautiful springs in Merritt’s Mill Pond. The main spring goes back almost 5,000 feet with thousands more feet of side passages for side mount diving. In order to dive at Jackson Blue Spring, sign in at Cave Adventurers for a daily or consecutive day fee. Visit Cave Adventurers for more information about equipment rental, training, or hours of operation.
Jackson Blue Spring
Merritt’s Mill Pond is home to some of the most exciting diving locations. You won’t want to miss Jackson Blue Spring in the north section of the pond. It is one of the clearest springs and is popular for swimming, diving, snorkeling, fishing. It also has picnic area and volleyball. Dogs are allowed. Check out these two videos to the right!
Shangri-La Spring Freediving
If you are into freediving, you won’t want to miss the dive at Shangri-La Springs located on the west side of Merritt’s Mill Pond. Don’t have your own diving equipment, check out the Cave Adventurers above. More information regarding the dive type and location can be found at Cave Atlas.
Historic Marianna
Travel west 3.8 miles on Highway 90 and you’ll enjoy the historic district in downtown Marianna. It was designated as a U.S. historic district on May 23, 1997. It’s street boundaries are Davis, Park, Jackson, and Wynn Streets and contains over 180 historic contributing buildings, including the Theopilus West House, the West House and Visitor Center, the 1840 House, the Ely-Criglar Mansion, the Hinson House, and many more architectural and antebellum homes. Other historic tours include the Bellamy Bridge Tour, Spanish-Heritage Trail, Ghost Tours, and more. Visit Historic Marianna for more information about tours offered.
