In the game
Trailer 2 has a few seconds at what looks like a spring: water so clear the bottom seems close enough to touch, people in it, trees leaning over the bank. It is a very specific kind of Florida scene, and it says north Florida the way a lifeguard tower says Vice City.
Fans matched it to the spring country of Marion County, and Silver Springs is the name that comes up most, because it is the most famous spring in the state and its water is the clearest thing in Florida. It is a fair match for the type of place. Rockstar has not named a spring, and the scene could draw on a dozen others, so likely is as far as this goes. If you want to stand in that shot, though, this is where the water looks like that.
The real place
Silver Springs is one of the largest artesian springs on earth, pushing hundreds of millions of gallons a day into the Silver River. Glass-bottom boats have run here since the 1870s, when a local man fitted a pane of glass into the bottom of a rowboat and Florida tourism more or less began. Through the twentieth century it was a full attraction, with Tarzan films shot on the river, reptile shows and, in the 1930s, a boat operator who released rhesus monkeys on an island for his jungle cruise. The monkeys swam off. Their descendants are still here, wild, in the trees along the river.
The attraction faded, and in 2013 the state took it over as a park. What you get now is the spring, the boats, the boardwalks and the river, minus the rides. Standing at the head spring, you look down 80 feet into blue water at the mouth of the cave, and the boats glide over it as if floating on air. That is the detail a GTA fan will recognize.
Go there
The park is on SR 40 on the east side of Ocala, ninety minutes from Orlando. Entry is cheap; the glass-bottom boat is extra and worth it, thirty minutes with a guide, several departures a day. Rent a kayak on site and paddle the Silver River if you want the water to yourself; the monkeys and alligators are down there, with manatees in winter.
There is no swimming in the head spring, which surprises people. For that, go to the springs inside Ocala National Forest half an hour east, or to Rainbow Springs to the west. The Ocala National Forest visitor center is next door on SR 40; combine the two.
Eat in Ocala, ten minutes away, which has a proper old downtown square and plenty of choices. The honest warning: the monkeys. They are wild, they can be aggressive, and they carry a herpes virus dangerous to humans. Do not feed or approach them, and keep food out of sight on the boardwalks.
Nearby
- Ocala National Forest: the pine forest: starts at the park’s back fence; the springs you can swim in are inside it.
- Swimming holes: Rainbow and Ginnie Springs: the swimming-and-tubing springs, 45 minutes west.
- Lake George and the St. Johns fish camps: the Silver River runs into the Ocklawaha and on to the St. Johns.
Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.