Weeki Wachee River put in is behind Weeki Wachee Springs attraction located on US 19 and FL50/US98. Turn in the parking lot, go to the left and back side of the paved parking lot. There is an entrance to Weeki Wachee Canoe and Kayak Rental Go With The Flow ( Tn 352-597-0360). Go through the gate. River access is $5.00 and you can carry or use one of their carts to get your boat down to the water about 200 yards away. Weeki Wachee springs is about 200 yards upstream of the put in but you cannot paddle all the way into the springs due to spring protection. The gate closes at 3 pm so leave your vehicle outside of the gate. Allen said he thought Weeki Wachee Springs and River put in area was all now state park. He/we were comfortable leaving our boat and gear unattended at the put in while we set shuttle. All people around were either paddlers or park officials.

Take out is Rogers Park and boat ramp just off Shoal Line Blvd/ Co Rd 597. Our trip was on Friday and there was plenty of parking at the take out. It may be different on weekends or busy seasons. There is no parking fee at the put in area or take out that I saw.

The shuttle route is left out of Weeki Wachee parking lot, left on Cortez Blvd., left on Shoal Line Blvd. to river bridge. Turn left just past the bridge for the entrance to the park. This is the first and only bridge between the put in and gulf.

Appx 1.5 miles from take out river appears to fork. Stay left for main channel. Canals are to the right for housing developments. Tide begins to affect the river this far in. We saw several manatees in a large pool/spring down in this area.

Down stream current is good until 1.5-2 miles before take out due to tide. Water quality is also excellent until this area. Water is still clear but begins to darken a little.

River distance is appx 5 miles, shuttle is appx 8.

We did our own shuttle due to inflexibility of outfitter. They only picked up at 2 and 3 p.m.

Click here for pictures

We met at the put in at 10:30, paid fee, unloaded boats, carried to the put in, set shuttle, put on and made it to the take out about 4 pm. We probably would have been to the take out by 3 pm with leisurely paddling and a lunch stop but we took a wrong turn at one of the forks and wasted appx 1 hour until we found the error of our ways out of the canals. Had we not made the mistake in route and been at the take out earlier we probably would have paddled below the take out towards the gulf. If you are unfamiliar with the area and you go below the bridge it would be a good idea to google up and print a map of this area or have a gps. There are forks and canals in the river before it gets to the gulf.

This is a beautiful run definitely worth doing again. We saw lots of fish, some bird life, turtles and manatees. All of this run is river like in that it is tree lined with widths 50 to 100 feet and had good down stream current for the most part. There were not a lot of good places to get out for a lunch stop. I only saw one small sandy beach area which was about 2.5 hours after we put on. Most of the banks are lined with trees, roots and grass.

January 15, 2010
By Dickie Tillman

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