Walk the brick path behind Kings Bay Lodge on a weekday afternoon and it dead-ends twice within four blocks. Once at a parking lot behind The Crab Plant, where the trail simply stops at a canal. Once behind the lodge itself, where a boardwalk stub was clearly meant to continue out over the bay and never did. The Kings Bay Riverwalk has been under construction, on and off, for close to four decades. This fall, the project is finally down to its last stretch, and that last stretch is waiting on a single question that has come up repeatedly over the years: can Crystal River finish its waterfront promenade without tearing out one of its only two public boat ramps.
That's not a hypothetical for anyone who launches a boat from 3rd Street, and it's not background noise for anyone planning to walk downtown for Rocktoberfest on October 3 or Scarecrow Fest on October 10. Both events sit a few blocks from the exact corridor this fight is about.
Where the Brick Path Actually Stops
The finished sections of the Riverwalk are genuinely pleasant. From the public parking area off NW 1st Avenue, the trail crosses North Citrus Avenue, follows the sidewalk along US 19 North, and picks up brick paving that passes Charlie's Fish House and a view of King's Bay before splitting into a gravel connector lined with rustic fencing. It loops past the historic Kings Bay Lodge, a fish camp founded in 1957 by a group of fishing buddies from Tennessee and home to one of Florida's few spring-fed swimming pools, fed by a third-magnitude spring that flows straight from the pool's depths. From there it winds behind houses, through a stretch of green space, and stops.
That's the honest state of the trail as of this spring. It's not a rumor. It's what you find if you park near the trailhead and walk it yourself, coffee from Cattle Dog Coffee Roasters in hand, and follow the totem poles and crab traps until the concrete just runs out.
The Phase That's Moving, On Paper
One piece of the project is actually progressing. As of late July, the city confirmed that one of the final two Riverwalk phases is under construction and on track to wrap up by January, extending the promenade further south along Kings Bay. The Citrus County Chronicle reported that Crystal River still needs roughly $17.2 million to complete the whole Riverwalk, with about $9.5 million of that unfinanced even after accounting for grants the city has already secured. City financial advisers told council in June that Crystal River likely has the ability to close that gap by combining Community Redevelopment Agency revenue with other financing tools, without putting a new property tax in front of voters.
The other piece, officially Phase II Segment 2B and described by the city as the final segment of the entire project, is not moving nearly as fast. In May, council approved a roughly $52,000 preconstruction agreement with contractor A.D. Morgan to start planning that segment, with construction expected to begin sometime in 2027. But planning isn't building, and the segment can't go to bid until one specific design question gets answered.
Two Boat Ramps, One Design Decision
Here's the design question. Under the Riverwalk plan currently on the table, finishing the final segment requires removing the boat ramp at 3rd Street, one of only two public boat ramps left inside Crystal River city limits. Losing it would cut the city's public ramp access in half.
That tradeoff has split the council. Councilmen Robert Holmes and Chris Ensing pushed back on the current design at a July meeting.
"The thing that bothers me the most is getting rid of that ramp."
Rather than sign off on the agreements needed to move forward, council directed staff to find out whether engineers could redesign the segment to save the ramp, with findings expected at an August 7 workshop held alongside a separate discussion about a proposed new City Hall. That workshop has already come and gone. What hasn't surfaced yet, at least not in anything published since, is a public answer to whether the ramp survives.
This isn't a new argument dressed up as fresh news. The tension between finishing a continuous waterfront walkway and keeping working boat access on the same shoreline has resurfaced repeatedly over the Riverwalk's nearly forty year history. What's different now is that the money question, for once, isn't the obstacle. The design question is.
What's Already Working While the Fight Continues
None of this touches what's already functioning at Kings Bay Park, which sits at the Riverwalk's northern end and isn't part of the disputed segment. The park has a free public kayak launch, a fishing pier, picnic areas, a playground, and restrooms, and several commercial outfitter operations now run their tours out of it. The existing multi-use trail loop already runs through the park for anyone who wants a walk, a jog, or a bike ride that doesn't require the unfinished southern stretch at all.
Further south, inside the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, Three Sisters Springs keeps its own separate rules and seasonal boardwalk access regardless of what happens with the boat ramp debate downtown. The two projects are geographically close but administratively unrelated, and it's worth keeping them separate if you're trying to follow either one.
Two Saturdays Before Anyone Decides Anything
Whatever happens with Segment 2B, downtown Crystal River isn't waiting on it to fill its fall calendar. Two big Saturdays are already locked in, both within easy walking distance of the finished sections of the Riverwalk.
- Rocktoberfest, Saturday, October 3, 5 to 9 p.m., Town Square. Billy and Stephanie open at 5 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by Jasmine Cain, a rock musician with more than thirty career awards who covers everything from classic and modern rock to pop and metal. Free and open to the public.
- Scarecrow Fest and Jeep Car Show, Saturday, October 10, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., downtown. Now in its 35th year, the festival brings craft and food vendors, pumpkin sales, a petting zoo, horse rides, inflatables, face painting, and a costume contest, with J.R. Lewis Outlaw Country playing live from noon to 3 p.m. Registered Jeeps have to be in place by 9 a.m. and stay put until the roadways reopen at 3 p.m. Town Square picks back up that evening with Ridge Country Band at 5 p.m. and the Rick Lynn Band at 7 p.m.
Stone Crab Jam follows on November 7, presented by the Kings Bay Rotary Club Charitable Foundation, and the Riverwalk's finished sections will be carrying foot traffic to and from all three events well before Segment 2B breaks ground on anything.
If dinner's part of the plan either weekend, Vintage on 5th sits in the heart of historic downtown and is an easy walk from Town Square without needing a car move.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
Nothing about your boat ramp access changes this month or next. The 3rd Street ramp is still there, the January-finishing phase doesn't touch it, and the redesign question raised at the August workshop hasn't been settled in anything public yet. What has changed is that the city's financial advisers told council in June that Crystal River likely has the ability to finance the remaining work, which leaves the design of the final segment as the open question. That's worth tracking if you use that ramp, and it's worth tracking if you'd rather see the promenade finally connect end to end after forty years of stops and starts.
Either way, the next two Saturdays give you a reason to walk the finished stretch and see for yourself where the bricks currently give out.
Coldwell Banker Next Generation Realty pays attention to projects like the Kings Bay Riverwalk because they reshape how this waterfront actually gets used long before any of it shows up in a property description. If you want a neighbor's eye on how Crystal River North keeps changing, Sugarmill Woods is worth bookmarking.
