Caesar’s Head Spring

Caesar’s Head Spring can be found on the west side of the road heading southbound just 1.7 miles from Caesar’s Head State Park via US-276.  Google Maps can find it.  While I’m unable to find much information about it online, some things are fairly certain.

1.  The spring was set up long, long ago before modern times as a water source for travelers.
2.  The name “Caesar’s Head Spring” is probably because of the proximity to the state park, but likely not what it was originally called since the park has only been in existence since 1979.
3.   Whatever water is flowing from here is going to have a mixed bag of mineral content and is unregulated so anyone drinking out of it is going to be an at your own risk sort of thing.  But that was the way of the world long ago.
4.  The current name implies a “spring” but this interesting roadside attraction isn’t a full time constantly producing spring.

I’ve been to places like this before, and what I usually see are health obsessed individuals filling up jugs of water from these places as if there are magical healing properties given by drinking from them.  In this I was not disappointed when stopping here.  When I stopped there was a man at the side of the road, with a truck, loading up many, many containers of water from the spring.  I jumped out of my car to ask if this was the famous spring and hear his story.  This guy would have talked and told me his medical woes and benefits of Caesar’s Head Spring water for as long as i’d have let him.  He kept insisting I should take some water and I kept politely declining.  It felt like he really wanted me too, but stopped short of offering one of his jugs because this was his moment to load up.  Anyway the guy had a story of some incurable medical ailment that didn’t change until he started drinking the water.  His belief system was in line with what I’ve seen at other places like this, and I bet a lot of other people go there seeking the magical healing powers of the water.

He had some good information about Caesar’s Head Spring however that I wouldn’t have found online, and I share now, online.  Apparently on the day I arrived and have pictured here the “spring” was flowing really well compared to normal. He told me it would have taken him hours to fill up the containers he was filling in mere minutes on this particular day at some points in the past.  Likewise this is where I figured out there was no true spring involved, because this thing apparently has also dried up entirely for long amounts of time, which means it is probably just a seasonal aquifer situation.

While the water is likely mineral rich, it is probably also fair to assume that it is safe to drink since it was likely built for travelers, and people like this guy drink it all the time without dying.  But I think I’d likely suck it through a LifeStraw or something if I was going to drink it.  Anyway the other take away here is that if you want to visit it make sure you’re traveling southbound on US-276 instead of northbound, because the only shoulder parking, in this super twisty mountainside road area, is on the southbound lane’s side.  If you just want to spot it as you’re traveling northbound then this will be the next relevant nifty thing after going by Bald Rock Heritage Preserve a few miles back.