Wekiwa Springs — Crystal Spring Swim, Wekiva River Paddle & Rock Springs Run Trails

Barely half an hour north of downtown Orlando, Wekiwa Springs State Park protects one of Central Florida's great spring systems — a sapphire boil of 72-degree water welling up from the aquifer and gathering into the tea-dark Wekiva River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic waterway. This is an active day built around the water: a morning swim in the spring pool, a paddle down the cypress-lined Wekiva River and its tributary Rock Springs Run, and afternoon hiking on the sandhill and hammock trails that thread the park's 7,000 acres of longleaf pine, scrub, and swamp. Wildlife is everywhere — white-tailed deer and gopher tortoises on the uplands, turtles and wading birds along the river, and, more often than not, an alligator sunning on a distant bank. It is the quintessential Central Florida wild day, close enough to reach before the parking fills yet a world apart from the theme parks.