The
water is cold; I'd suggest a full wetsuit (skins
won't do) and maybe gloves. Those of you with
full-footed fins will get cold feet! Boots, one
way or another, are highly recommended by yours
truly. Blue Grotto starts pretty much like a big
water filled pit in the ground. There are thousands
of tiny minnow type fish that can easily drive
you nuts if you're attempting to sit still and
do drills. There are a lot of larger fish as well
that don't seem to mind the divers being there
but tend to swim away if you try to touch them.
At 50' down, there's a natural limestone platform
that someone carved a big peace sign into; it's
called Peace Rock. Looking up towards the ceiling
(as the grotto 'curves' down under ground) you
might catch the yellow safety line that only Advanced
divers are supposed to cross. You will be told
in your intro to Blue Grotto that the silt/mud
is easily disturbed and can screw with visibility...pay
attention to that. Because of Blue Grotto's shape,
it's easy to forget how far you are from the bottom
(yours truly accidentally stirred up the mud once).
Beyond the yellow safety line, there are some
natural type caverns that a guideline cuts through,
and the caverns go down as deep as 100 feet. I
didn't make it past peace rock for the most part.
If you really care to search, on the other side
of the mouth of the caverns from Peace Rock there's
a small limestone bump in the floor with the letters
'ES' carved into them (and, considering who my
instructor was, I would suspect there's an 'S-Dog'
carved into them,too). :)
Yes
another dive, this one to me was not the best
in the world but my dive buddy thought this dive
was a pretty good one. However, do not take my
word for it because you may enjoy this dive! Devil's
Den does have an extremely beautiful camp ground
and the Den itself is another beautiful site to
look at. The site you dive is very neat, Devil's
Den is a huge below ground, above the water cavern
that you enter from a entrance hole that travels
horizontally in the ground that runs into a flight
of stairs that takes you to a dock below. While
in the cavern you will notice the huge hole at
the top of the cavern that allows sunlight in
the cavern that lights up the whole cavern. The
diving in the cavern consist of numerous tiny
caves on just about all edges inside the cavern
that lead to another way out on the opposite end
of the cave. When I say cave, do not think this
is a cave dive because it would be impossible
to get lost inside the cavern because the caves
are too short and the caves do not branch out.
If you are thinking about diving this site try
it because if you do not like it there is another
site right down the street which is Blue Grotto.
Again, the water is cold; I'd suggest a full wetsuit.
The bigger fish seem to be more numerous at Devil's
Den than Blue Grotto. I actually managed to touch
a catfish! Silt wasn't as much of a problem at
Devil's Den when compared to Blue Grotto, but
visibility was still limited (there does seem
to be a *little* silt, but I didn't see anywhere
where it could have been originally...the floor
was almost completely rocky). Devil's Den is more
of an underground cavern, looking to be about
half full of water, with a hole in the roof allowing
a little natural light in, and you enter through
a stairway on one side...so the entrance to Devil's
Den is super cool looking. I've seen it on the
Internet or heard it said that the deepest part
of Devil's Den is 45 feet...I never went below
25 feet, as the deeper parts seemed to me to be
more suited for those who like to cave dive. True
cave divers might like it, except that some of
the more adventuresome divers will find some of
the holes grated off (supposedly, never got that
far in myself to see this). Bring a light! Watch
your buddy here, too...with the limited visibility
it can become difficult to see your buddy. I'm
not claustrophobic but Devil's Den just seems
smaller than Blue Grotto.
The
Ginnie Spring basin is a large, bowl-shaped depression
measuring over 100 feet across and 15 feet deep.
A 150-foot long run connects the basin to the
nearby Santa Fe River. The chief attraction here
is the Ginnie cavern, whose wide, open entrance
can be found at the bottom of the basin.
Ginnie
cavern is among the handful of sites that experts
consider sufficiently safe to allow exploration
by divers who lack formal cavern or cave diver
training. Certified divers of all experience levels
may take lights into the water with them at Ginnie
Spring and use these lights to explore the underwater
cavern. The cavern's upper room is illuminated
by light from the entrance. Looking back toward
the entrance from this room provides a breathtaking
view. Like most of the cavern, the upper room's
walls are composed of an extremely light and highly
reflective limestone, which adds to its natural
beauty.
Moving
to the back of the upper room, divers pass through
a large opening into the amphitheater-sized area
called the "Ballroom." Although surface light
is clearly visible from most places within the
Ballroom, divers will want to carry dive lights
to see everything there is to see. The Ballroom
provides divers with the opportunity to examine
many of the unusual geologic formations that are
unique to the Florida Aquifer. The Ballroom's
ceiling contains an excellent example of spongework--a
gigantic, limestone Swiss cheese. Midway between
floor and ceiling, divers will find evidence of
a bedding plane--a distinctive horizontal crack
that is crucial to the movement of underground
water. At the northwest corner of the Ballroom
is a beautifully carved phreatic tube--a perfect
example of the most common form of underwater
cave formation. Nearby, a larger bedding-plane
formation collects air in mercury-like pockets
on the ceiling.
At
the very back of the Ballroom (a maximum depth
of 50 feet), is a large, welded grate. This grate
prevents divers from entering the dangerous, silty
and maze-like cave system that lies beyond. Nevertheless,
most divers enjoy pulling themselves up to the
grate, so that they can experience the "in-your-face"
force of the 35 million gallons of water a day
that pass through the opening. A large-diameter,
heavy duty guideline runs from the back of the
Ballroom to the cavern entrance. This helps ensure
there is never any doubt as to which way is out.
Devils
Spring System: The Devil Spring system is
home to three separate springs: Devil's Eye, Devil's
Ear and Devil Spring ("Little Devil"), which together
produce nearly 80 million gallons of water daily.
Ginnie Springs enforces a strict No Lights rule
here. Only certified cavern or cave divers may
enter the water at the Devil Spring system while
carrying dive lights. This helps prevent untrained
divers from going any place where their lack of
training, experience and specialized equipment
could get them in trouble.
Devil
Spring (also known as "Little" Devil) is a four-foot-wide
fracture at the head of the Devil Spring system
run. It is 50 feet long and almost as deep. Divers
who descend to the bottom of this crack will be
rewarded with a breathtaking view as they look
skyward. Even from the very bottom, it is not
unusual to look up through the clear water and
be able to count the leaves on the trees over
head.
Devil's
Eye is a round opening, 20 feet across and equally
deep. At the bottom is the entrance to a small,
intricately decorated cavern. Certified divers
may enter the cavern and explore up to the limit
of what they can see, using available sunlight.
Devil's
Ear is a canyon-like opening located where the
Devil Spring run joins the Santa Fe River. At
the bottom of this opening, water gushes from
a cave opening with nearly fire-hydrant-like force.
Although the water in the Devil's Ear basin is
generally crystal clear, it is common for it to
be covered with a thin layer of tannin-stained
river water. This phenomenon enables divers to
sit in the basin's clear water and look up at
the sun and trees through a unique, stained-glass
effect created by the river water.
Near Ponce de Leon, FL. This is also a commercially
owned spring, with a dive shop, lodges, camping,
bath houses, and a restaurant. The spring is 200
feet across and about 50 feet deep at the cavern
entrance. There are platforms at 15 feet, with
an air pocket between them. There is a handrail
inside the cavern, leading 400 feet back to a
depth of about 115 feet. The rest of the cave
is blocked off. The best time to dive this is
a weekday or very early in the morning. Many instructors
were using this spot as a checkout dive the last
time we were there, and it got very crowded. Proper
certification is required for the cavern. Night
dives are allowed in this spring.
Everything
about Vortex Spring, located outside the panhandle
hamlet of Ponce De Leon, is huge. At 200 feet
across, and better than 50 feet deep, the spring
basin is a yawning blue chasm. Inside, schools
of one- to two-foot Japanese goldfish, grass carp
and largemouth bass flock to divers and snorkelers
for food scrap handouts. The spring pumps out
a healthy 25 million gallons of water per day,
making it a big attraction for non-divers who
flock here in summer to cool off in the 68-degree
water.
The
deep Vortex cavern is a dramatic threshold linking
the dark subterranean world of caves with the
sunny spring basin. A buoyed line leads from the
center of the basin down to the cavern entrance
at 60 feet. Just inside, there's almost always
a large bubble of trapped air you can poke your
head into. Just don't take a breath there; the
"air bubbles" in Florida caverns often contain
significant amounts of methane, and usually not
much oxygen.
From
the cavern entrance, a plastic-pipe "guideline"
runs down the floor of a large, open, junction-free
passage to a locked steel grate. Certified cave
divers can get a key to this grate, but for openwater
divers this barrier is a reminder that they should
have turned around long ago--the grate is 300
feet from the surface, at a depth of 110 feet.
Although
you may see open-water divers going up and down
this passage, be aware that doing so without proper
training is risky. Open-water divers should stop
at the cavern entrance, and certified cavern divers
should penetrate no deeper than 65 feet into the
entrance or to the limit of natural light.
This
spring is located near Ponce de Leon, FL, and
is touted as one of the "finest freshwater dives
in Florida". There is a diving concession (with
air), rentals, and a limited snack bar. There
are also restrooms and hot showers. The maximum
depth is about 50 feet, but one of the caves goes
to a depth of 90 feet.
Ringed
by cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss, Morrison
Springs exudes an ambience of not just the Old
South, but primordial Florida. Considered one
of the finest freshwater dives in the state, the
large open pool slopes gently to a limestone brink,
where it drops off to depths of approximately
50 feet.
Morrison
Springs actually has two caverns, a ledge-like
cave at approximately 50 feet, and a deeper cavern
with a small entrance at about 60 feet.
The
shallower cavern is the more open of the two and
a nice introduction for cavern students just getting
their fins wet. The deeper cavern has a small
entry fissure that gushes water with the force
of a fire hydrant, but leads to a wide room at
90 feet. Open-water divers should not swim past
ambient light in either opening.
Divers
traveling any distance to Morrison should call
first, especially in the spring when rains cause
the Choctawhatchee River to swell and flood the
spring with tannin-stained water that's exactly
the color of Coca-Cola. Once the river recedes,
the spring quickly returns to normal and is re-opened
to divers. Bonus: If the spring has flooded recently,
check the floor of the deep cavern for squirming
masses of cave eels.
