Blue Springs State Park

Blue Springs State Park located at 2100 W. French Avenue, Orange City Florida. Got2Dive Blue Springs early! On Sunday May 6, 2012 we arrived at 9:00 a.m. at Blue Springs and we where among last group of divers to get in the park early. 

The Park opens up at 8:00 a.m. and scuba divers as well as scuba instructors with their students are already lined up waiting to get into the Park. The State Park limits the amount of divers in the spring head. A group of forty  consisting of six divers or less per group is the maximum. When the  maximum group of divers is met no more scuba divers are allowed to dive until the other groups pick up their certification cards and leave the park. This park system continues through out the day. Blue Springs will not allow scuba divers in the water no later than 3:00 p.m. and all Scuba Divers must be out of the Spring head by 5:00p.m. 

Scuba Diving season in Blue Springs is not year round due to the West Indies manatee season which begins around mid-November through March. Towards the beginning and end of the manatee season it is possible to see them there in the springs while diving.

This shore dive has you walking about 500 yards from the parking lot to the entrance of the water. It is quite a walk in my 5mm wet suit and all my gear on my back. So what I like to do is bring a garden utility cart and pull my gear already assembled to the water entrance and lock it up during our dive. This is a great way to get your gear to the waters edge and not get over heated or exhausted in the Florida heat.  


Besides one of Florida's unique fresh water dives. It is a fresh water shore dive, a cavern and cave and it is one of the most inexpensive scuba dive sites around! The Park charges $3.00 dollars per diver to dive the spring head. It's the BEST deal to try out some new scuba gear,  camera or to just get wet in between salt water dives. 

It is a must! Add this to your Got2Dive plan...Blue Springs!

 Got2Dive Plan for Today!

How To Scuba Dive and Camp Florida

Our Base Camp was Devil's Den located at 5390 NE 180th Ave, in Williston Florida.  Depending on your camping needs Devil’s Den has everything from very simple cabins with a double bed, island to eat at, mini fridge, 2 stove burners, kitchen sink, bathroom, and spiral staircase leading to the loft upstairs with another double bed. 

The view from the Cabins

As for Got2Dive we opted to try tent camping and scuba diving for the first time ever.  Devil's Den camp site has a different area for tents and even RV's with  picnic tables and outside grills. There are clean bathroom facilities with hot showers for those tenting at the Den. With all these camping options available there is something for every type of camper.

So you say not all your family or friends are scuba divers. No worries there are other things to do for those non certified Scuba Divers. Devil's Den is also a great place to snorkel or to just visit the cave. The huge oculus in the ceiling above dripping with the green leafy vines is an awesome site. It is really a cool geological formation with the honeycomb limestone walls and fresh crystal clear water makes it an amazing  place to check out, snorkel or Scuba Dive. There is also a swimming pool at Devil's Den and right next door there is horseback riding at Two Hawk Hammock that offers trail rides.

                                                                                                

Inside the Cave 

Devil's Den is the perfect scuba diving base camp  to the other local  fresh watering holes such as Blue Grotto, Ginnie Springs, Manatee Springs and Paradise Springs just to name a few. Our group of divers wanted to hit 40 Fathom Grotto as our second dive destination while camping in Williston.






Devil's Den is a reasonably priced Scuba Diving Camping mini weekend escape for the entire family, friends and scuba diver. Got2Dive and Camp!


                                           Camping Diving Video Highlights

40 Fathom Grotto

Got2Dive This Florida Sinkhole

40 Fathom Grotto Dive Video Log

In this video: Good Roll Model  & SeaDragon Girls Scuba Club 

 Our Scuba friends, Scuba Diving instructors Felicia and Michael Berg from Good Roll Model invited us to scuba dive along their guided "40 Fathom Grotto" tour with the SeaDragon Scuba Girls, an all female Scuba Dive Club from Rockledge Florida.

Forty Fathom Grotto is a very unique scuba dive site located in beautiful Ocala Florida. First of all you just can't show up and Scuba Dive 40 Fathom Grotto because it is a private training facility and is not open to the general diving public. You must have a Grotto qualified scuba diving guide such as Good Roll Model, Inc.

What is a Fathom you might ask, well the term fathom is a form of measuring depth or length. There are six feet in one fathom (6 fathom's x 40 = 240). So the name "40 Fathom Grotto" is actually the total depth of the Grotto measured in fathom's, 240 feet of fresh water crazy deep!

A bottle of rum wedged on a ledge in the Grotto

Got2Dive This Unique Sink

Forty Fathom Grotto is considered the ultimate
training facility in the eastern U.S. for Advanced
Open Water Scuba Diving certification and Deep Scuba Diver specialty training courses.

The Grotto is a 240 foot deep "naturally" formed limestone sinkhole. The Fathom sink  like all sinkholes is a part of a slow, natural process of erosion in Florida's limestone when the ground above collapses from the flow of water underneath creating a sinkhole.

40 Fathom Grotto's limestone walls are embedded with fossils, sea biscuits, sand dollars and shells that experts say are from 30 million years ago! 

Back in the day before 40 Fathom Grotto became a  Scuba Dive Training Facility, and was cleaned out, it was commonly used as a trash dump. Not all the trash has been removed from the sinkhole. During our scuba dive exploration of the Grotto we saw boats at 111' to 142', some vintage cars such as a 1955 Chevy,  a 1965 Vette  and a 1969 Pontiac. Also an airplane and Satellite Dish at 99 feet.

Baby Blue 55 Chevy at 115' 

Water temperature in the Grotto can range from a seasonal low of  65° to a high of 72°. The day we were diving the Grotto Saturday January 15th 2012 the morning air temperature was 57° and the water temperature was 71°.  It is recommended to wear a 7mm wetsuit. I actually wore my 5mm wetsuit with a hooded vest and I was very comfortable even at my maximum depth of 125' feet in the Grotto I never got cold during our dive.

Suzuki Motorcycle at 42' makes a great photo opp.

You won't find pristine visibility in 40 Fathom Grotto. The visibility in the Grotto is subject to local rain fall, algae bloom and surface duck weed that prevents sunlight from penetrating the Grotto water. And it is all apart of the uniqueness of this fresh water dive experience. 

What is so awesome is that you are descending and all of a sudden a satellite dish and an airplane seems to come from out of no where at 99'. Or as you are swimming along the limestone walls a Suzuki motorcycle suspended by cables just appears in front of you. This is what makes 40 Fathom Grotto fun and unique to explore! We had a fun-tastic two tank dive with Good Roll Model and the SeaDragon Scuba Girls!

Fire Truck being gutted of electrical to be submerged in the Grotto

I highly recommend that you add 40 Fathom Grotto to your Got2Dive fresh water dive plan. You won't be disappointed!