Tree canopy at Crab Creek Spring on the Chassahowitzka River
I recently spent a few days camping near and exploring the Chassahowitzka River (pronounced Chaz-wits-kuh), or Chaz as the locals call it, along Florida’s Nature Coast in Homosassa Springs. As a destination, this is an area that certainly lives up to the name of Nature Coast. For this trip, I also selected a time frame where manatees would most likely be in residence before warmer weather encouraged them to head back out to sea.
My friends and I had campsites at Chassahowitzka River Campground on W. Miss Maggie Dr, which conveniently also has the only public boat ramp on the river and is just a short walk from the campground, particularly handy if you’ve invested in wheels for your kayaks. If you have to park a vehicle and launch at the boat ramp, there is a fee or $7 for vehicles with trailers or $5 for vehicle only. Although there is quite a bit of parking available at this location, the area can fill up quickly and become congested on a nice day.
Kayak launching area.
Our group rolled our kayaks down to the sandy beach launching area next to the main boat launch. This is a busy area, so take care to look out for motor boats coming in and out of the ramp area as well as fishing lines being attended to by those fishing from the docks. The Chassahowitzka River Store also rents canoes and kayaks in case you don’t have your own boat.
Fish in solution holes at Seven Sisters Spring on the Chassahowitza River.
Once our kayaks were launched, we paddled upstream a few dozen yards and made our way into the Seven Sisters Spring to a feature known as the Solution Holes. This natural formation is created by springs eroding their way through the limestone karst over time. They’re breathtakingly beautiful when the sun illuminates them like a sapphire. This location is a favorite with locals and on this trip we even observed a young girl swimming underwater between two joined holes over a distance of about 12′.
Kayak and house at Crab Creek Spring.
We continued upstream for a short distance taking in the view of the houses and another campground before turning around and heading back downstream. We passed our launch point and veered right to explore Crab Creek Spring. This spring has a strong volume of water pumping from it, but it also has a lot of sand debris and underwater vegetation that makes it hard to see down into the spring. A large house sits on the bank nearby.
Spotted sunfish at Snapper Hole on Chassahowitzka River.
Venturing farther downstream and taking care not to get swamped by motorboat wakes, we came to a spring known as the Snapper Hole. This is a favorite of local fisherman, and we were not to be excluded. In our short stop here I managed to pull 3 Spotted sunfish out before unhooking and releasing them back to fight another day. My teammate caught and released two small bass.
Next we tackled the entrance to Baird Creek and paddled up to Blue Spring before pushing onward to The Crack. To find The Crack you have to get out of your kayak at the entrance to a small spring run and wade about 100′ to this unique spring fissure. In the fissure you can see fish and the limestone walls of the spring. On this trip a couple of campers had set up a tent on the banks of the spring, but that didn’t deter the newcomers from taking a dip in the spring.
The Crack on Baird Creek
After visiting The Crack we decided to paddle back to the campground for lunch and do some more fishing from the docks. Read part two for the conclusion of our Chassahowitzka River adventure.
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