Check the water before you drive.

• How busy today. A transparent score for whether a park is running busier than usual, and roughly when the crowds arrive.
• Hours you can trust. Opening hours and sunset are worked out per park in its own time zone, so a park shut for the night says so.
• One-tap crowd reports. Got in, turned away, line at the gate, lot full. No account needed. When a park is full, the nearest open alternatives.
• Conditions, parking and access. Water temperature, UV, feels-like and the forecast, plus water entry type, ADA parking, restrooms and amenities.
• Silence where we have nothing. Most lakes here were found by their public shore and have no posted hours or lifeguard. Those get no status at all, rather than a badge implying we checked.

Where there is a status, it is an icon plus words, never a colour on its own:

• OpenLetting visitors in right now.
• Full / turned awayVisitors report being turned away at the gate.
• ClosedAn official notice says swimming is closed.
• Status unknownNot enough data yet.

Parks never publish live capacity, so we score the day instead. We never claim a park will fill; at most we say it is busier than usual. Each park starts at zero:

• WeekendSaturday or Sunday.+2
• Holiday or holiday weekendUS public holidays and the long weekends around them (Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day…).+3
• College or local eventUF home games, spring break and other calendar events near the park. Some events count more.+1
• Forecast high 90°F or more95°F or more adds two extra points (three in total). Hot days fill springs fast.+1
• Rain chance 50 % or moreRain thins crowds, so the score goes down.−2

0 or less is a normal day. 1 to 2 is somewhat busier. 3 or more means go early. Parks with a known typical busy time also get a time, which moves 25 minutes earlier for every point above 2.

A park is only marked Full or Closed once it has actually stopped letting people in: an official closure, the park’s own hours, the swim season, or visitors reporting they were turned away. An active closure or a gate shut for the night always wins over the score, and the park reopens by itself when the notice ends.

• One tap, no account. Pick what you saw. Your device gets a random ID so we can rate-limit without knowing who you are.
• Reports expire after 2 hours. Conditions change fast, so stale reports would mislead.
• 3 matching reports in 30 minutes = confirmed. One “turned away” shows as Reported; three makes it Confirmed, which overrides the outlook. When a full status is over 30 minutes old, people at the park are asked whether it is still true.
• Contradictions are shown, not hidden. A newer “got in” after a “turned away” lowers our confidence and both stay visible.

The things you can report:

• Got in
• Turned away
• Line at gate
• Crowded
• Water high
• Water murky
• Gator sighting
• Launch closed
• Lot full
• Overflow lot open
• Ramp blocked
• Wheelchair available
• Accessible restroom closed

We only call something verified when an official page says it. Everything else is labelled so you can decide how much to trust it.

Verified

Stated on the park’s official page, with a link to the source.

Unverified

OpenStreetMap details, accessibility we could not confirm, and anything a visitor reported.

Typical

Values like “spring water is typically 72°F” when there is no live gauge. Never presented as a live reading.

Lifeguards: most freshwater swim areas have none. We show “yes”, “no” or nothing at all; assume no.