Little River Spring is a county owned site located in Branford, Fl. It's about a 20 minute drive from Peacock Springs State Park. There are no fees to dive here. The spring is located along the Suwannee River. Only during really heavy rains does this cave flood or reverse. It usually has a pretty good flow coming out of it. The basin is very shallow and does not allow much of anything for open water diving. But cave divers can enjoy this system that stretches over 2,000 linear feet under the Suwannee River. This is primarily a clean cave, but there are several side passages you can get into that are very silty. There is a small cavern area that is good for cavern diving, but not really a lot of places to go. All of the springs and sinks in North Florida are 69F year round. So wear appropriate thermal protection, especially for dives requiring decompression.

Depths are in the 100 ft range. There is a deep section down a side tunnel that can reach 125 ft. An interesting feature is the passage which leads from the cavern area into the main branch of the cave. It corkscrews down from 50 ft to 100 ft of depth via what we call a chimney. A very interesting cave formation just beyond this chimney is "Table Rock". It's a rock that looks just like a table top. Continuing into the cave, you reach a T in the line. They both lead you to the same place, just from different tunnels. They seperate, but T back in at another neat feature called The Florida Room. It's located about 900 ft inside where the walls just open up into this long and wide phreatic tube for about 300 ft in distance. Then it reduces to smaller passage which leads to the Dome Room and Well Casing (or Last Room). In the Well Casing, which is over 2,000 ft back, you will see someone's well casing coming straight down from the roof through the 10 ft tall room and down into the floor that someone drilled.

Little River Spring is another of those must see sites while in cave country. Currently, you may use scooters and dive solo here. They've discussed letting the State park system take over it. So one day this may change. There is a small dive shop in Branford, but most people stop off for fills in Live Oak, Fl. at Cave Excursions or Dive Outpost.

http://www.tfn.net/Springs/LittleRiver.htm

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

Written by  Allen Wooten.

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