Looking for springs information

Looking to head to Blue Springs or Devils Den, Blue Grotto.

We are in Palm Beach area and weather looks bad Monday. Where do you say that the best Sping diving is for Advanced Open water people. Someone said Blue Springs with manatee. Are they still there?

Or should we just head to someplace like Devils Den, Blue Grotto or what ever???

What do you think??

Jeff

When are you going? Troy Springs is a very nice dive but it's most likely blown out now - check the Florida parks website and call the ranger.

Try giving Wayne at Amigo's a shout or look him up - he's in Ft. White. He can give you up to date info and lead you to some great places.

I dove Devil's Den and Blue Grotto for the first time last month. Both are worth doing, but Devil's Den is worth doing several times.

Since you are already in WPB, give some thought to Blue Heron Bridge too. I dove it Wed-Saturday last week and while the viz can vary day to day, it is never a disappointing dive

IMO, Blue Springs will probably be a disappointment, unless you are Cave/Cavern Certified. It is essentially just a vertical shaft for the first 70 ft. You can't go any further unless Cave/Cavern Certified.

My vote always goes for Devil's Den. It's a much better dive than Blue Grotto IMO.

Head over to Crystal River to snorkel with the manatees and then do an afternoon drift dive down Rainbow River.

We found a total lack of information on Blue Springs frustrating so we headed to Devil's Den. WOW!!! That was really cool! The gal running the place was awesome! She knows customer service! I was a bit nervous being my first spring/cavern dive. We were the only one there until we were through with our last dive and tearing our gear down. So we had it all to ourselves. Well worth the trip and price of admition. We asked around about Blue Grotto just for information sake and everyone was saying if you want depth go to the Grotto but for sight seeing Devils was where it was at.

We had thought of heading to Blue Springs, Orange City but decide to give a call to see if we could get any more information. That is when we learned of the vertical shat with no lights. We asked about manatee and was told "if their in here, your not!" I wish someone would give better description of an actual scuba site location on thier website.

So, since we were so close we headed over to the Grotto. Stopped in at the shop and saw the video. We walked over to the spings to take a look at the entry and decided not to dive. One of the factor is that even they said promoted the deep dive aspect. Well we are from the shores of Thunder Bay Michigan on Lake Huron. Deep, we've got plenty of.

Well we had the time and did not relize how close we were to Ginnie Springs, so we were on the move to do some scouting. Dang! Is this Mecca? I wish I had gotten her name but this gal was heading up some stair to what looked to be an office in the main sho, turned and asked if we needed and she dropped everything she was doing to take as much time as we needed to explain in detail almost everthing about the property. She made notes on a map and sent us out the back door to go have a look around.

I tell you Ginnie and Devil's Den have it going on!!!! There staff made a new guy to the area feel real comfortable and welcome. I will be back to both of those locations.

Woooo Hooo! No dive today and fly out tomorrow.

Thanks for all the great info!!

Jeff

Oh we already did the BHB.

See my post of this trip with reports here

www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/328629-loving-lauderdale-area-report.html

I believe Blue Springs is a state park. They are especially strict about manatees within the parks. I would have told you not to waste your time. Glad the rest worked out for you.

Thunder Bay Minnow:

I wish someone would give better description of an actual scuba site location on thier website.

Click to expand...

Check out my website: Chipola Divers' North Florida Freshwater Springs. Scroll down the page for a table of some of the more popular springs and depth, temperature, and training level of each site. Click on the spring name for photos and more information. Keep checking back because I'm going to be revising some of the descriptions of the springs over the next week or so. If you have any information that you would specifically like to see, let me know and I'll get it on there.