Get your fins wet in cave country first by visiting Peacock Springs. This beautiful cave system located on wooded park property is open to cavern and cave certified divers. Peacock Spring is a labyrinth of more than 28,000 ft of surveyed underwater passage and is popular for cave training. The site offers visiting divers to the area an opportunity to get acquainted with the karst system that predominately makes up the North Floridian aquifer. There are three separate cave systems on this property.

Peacock I Spring (which also includes access holes via Waterhole, Olsen, Challenge, Cisteen, and Orange Grove Sinks) is the main system. Depths are mostly in the 70 ft range. Visibility is normally 60+ ft. Open water certified divers not carrying lights are allows in Orange Grove Sink only. A special treat for cave certified divers experienced in the system is the Grand Traverse (Mile Run) where you can actually traverse from Orange Grove Sink and come out the Peacock I Spring head which is 4,700 ft in distance.

Peacock III Siphon is located down the run of Peacock I, but is not connected. Visibility in this cave is usually 30-40 ft and runs an average depth of 70 ft. You can swim 1,400 ft of penetration before the cave gets small. There is a large side tunnel that experienced trimix divers can take which will lead you to depths of 190 ft.

Bonnet Spring is located at a separate entrance and is an advanced cave dive due to the small size of the main passage. Visibility is probably 60+ ft, and depths are only about 40 ft. It's not uncommon to swim 3,000 ft of distance on one dive due to the shallow depths. Cave certified and 100+ cave dives are required to dive this hole.

There is a room in this cave system called The Crypt. Appropriately named because it's a room that the only way in is through a low rocky entrance, like a crypt. One year, I put a skeleton toy in that room. Months later, someone came in and tied a noose around its neck and hung it from the ceiling. There is a picture of it in the photos.

Stay within your level of training and equipment. Cave diving can be a very deceptively easy way to die. Don't become another statistic.

Additional Information:

http://www.floridastateparks.org/peacocksprings/default.cfm

http://www.abfla.com/parks/PeacockSprings/peacocksprings.html

http://www.floridacaves.com/peacock.htm

http://www.geocities.com/cavedivingx2/peacock.html

http://underwaterflorida.homestead.com/peacock.html

http://www.caveexcursions.com/

http://www.diveoutpost.com/

Written by  Allen Wooten.

Add comment

Comments, reviews and questions