ChickenFried
Contributor
I've been meaning to post this trip report for a few weeks now and finally got an opportunity to do a writeup, so sorry if this is a bit late.
Back in early November our dive club, the Greater Ozarks Dive Society, contacted Diane at Bennett Springs State Park about reserving a date to come and dive the springs. For those of you that do not know, only one group of up to 6 divers a day is allowed to dive the springs. By that time most of the choice weekends were already spoken for and we were given Saturday, December 27th. Originally we had all 6 spots filled; four of us who dive together a lot and two that were friends of one of the divers. But because of the flu going around and the inability to contact the two other divers, only three of us ended up going. By the way, from northwest Arkansas this ends up being a 3 hour drive. A little bit more than I was anticipating.
The weather that day was a little on the brisk side. The air temperatures were between 31 F and 35 F for most of the day, and there was on and off light rain most of the day. We arrived at around 10am and checked in with Diane. She went over all of the rules with us and ensured that we were indeed all certified to dive the springs. As others have mentioned on this board you do not have to be cave or cavern certified, just AOW I believe. If you meet with Diane, make sure and pay attention to all of the rules. She will quiz you!
After, the check-in we drove down to the spring and started setting up our tents and equipment. I would highly recommend a tent and some sort of propane heater. There was a little bit of a breeze that day and without the tent we likely would have been sitting in the trucks mostly. With only 3 divers we could only dive 2 at a time, because at least one person had to be out of the water on the surface at all times. This is another rule that the park has. Because of this, we didn't get as much diving in as we would have liked. When the divers came out, they had to take a surface interval before the other diver could go down with one of them again. I would highly recommend 4 or more divers for this trip, otherwise you'll only end up with one or two dives at best.
The springs themselves were awesome! When you enter the water you descend into an underwater hole that is approximately 50' in diameter. The water itself was crystal clear on this day. There was no trouble at all with visibility. You will feel a little bit of the flow of the springs at this point, but it shouldn't be too bad. The hole itself goes down approximately 30' or so before it starts angling back towards the cave entrance. This area is where most of the fish seemed to like to hang out. Right in between the bright areas and where it got a little bit darker. There certainly was a lot of fish in there that day. Going down further there is a bit of a restriction that you run into, and then it opens up to 30 feet more or so down to the bottom. At the bottom you are 85' down and it is fairly dark down here. Right at the bottom is the cave opening, otherwise known as the popcorn room. The flow is coming out of here pretty strong. On the day we dove it was 95 cubic feet/sec and you could feel every bit of it down there. Shine a light into the cave and it soon becomes evident why it is called the popcorn room. Pretty neat.
We were all diving wet that day and we each had 7mm suits, gloves, and hoods on. The water did not feel cold at all (it stays about 55 F year round). In fact I did not get cold until I got out of the water and exposed the inside of my wetsuit. Then it didn't take long at all to start getting chilled. If I had a drysuit, I'd probably dive this dry, but wet is certainly doable.
All in all, we had a great day of diving. We're going to make the trip there one more time this season and I can't wait. I've linked to some pictures of the springs below. They are not mine, so I am linking to them instead of posting them directly here.
https://www.facebook.com/GreatSouthernDiveco/posts/442347712586676
Back in early November our dive club, the Greater Ozarks Dive Society, contacted Diane at Bennett Springs State Park about reserving a date to come and dive the springs. For those of you that do not know, only one group of up to 6 divers a day is allowed to dive the springs. By that time most of the choice weekends were already spoken for and we were given Saturday, December 27th. Originally we had all 6 spots filled; four of us who dive together a lot and two that were friends of one of the divers. But because of the flu going around and the inability to contact the two other divers, only three of us ended up going. By the way, from northwest Arkansas this ends up being a 3 hour drive. A little bit more than I was anticipating.
The weather that day was a little on the brisk side. The air temperatures were between 31 F and 35 F for most of the day, and there was on and off light rain most of the day. We arrived at around 10am and checked in with Diane. She went over all of the rules with us and ensured that we were indeed all certified to dive the springs. As others have mentioned on this board you do not have to be cave or cavern certified, just AOW I believe. If you meet with Diane, make sure and pay attention to all of the rules. She will quiz you!
After, the check-in we drove down to the spring and started setting up our tents and equipment. I would highly recommend a tent and some sort of propane heater. There was a little bit of a breeze that day and without the tent we likely would have been sitting in the trucks mostly. With only 3 divers we could only dive 2 at a time, because at least one person had to be out of the water on the surface at all times. This is another rule that the park has. Because of this, we didn't get as much diving in as we would have liked. When the divers came out, they had to take a surface interval before the other diver could go down with one of them again. I would highly recommend 4 or more divers for this trip, otherwise you'll only end up with one or two dives at best.
The springs themselves were awesome! When you enter the water you descend into an underwater hole that is approximately 50' in diameter. The water itself was crystal clear on this day. There was no trouble at all with visibility. You will feel a little bit of the flow of the springs at this point, but it shouldn't be too bad. The hole itself goes down approximately 30' or so before it starts angling back towards the cave entrance. This area is where most of the fish seemed to like to hang out. Right in between the bright areas and where it got a little bit darker. There certainly was a lot of fish in there that day. Going down further there is a bit of a restriction that you run into, and then it opens up to 30 feet more or so down to the bottom. At the bottom you are 85' down and it is fairly dark down here. Right at the bottom is the cave opening, otherwise known as the popcorn room. The flow is coming out of here pretty strong. On the day we dove it was 95 cubic feet/sec and you could feel every bit of it down there. Shine a light into the cave and it soon becomes evident why it is called the popcorn room. Pretty neat.
We were all diving wet that day and we each had 7mm suits, gloves, and hoods on. The water did not feel cold at all (it stays about 55 F year round). In fact I did not get cold until I got out of the water and exposed the inside of my wetsuit. Then it didn't take long at all to start getting chilled. If I had a drysuit, I'd probably dive this dry, but wet is certainly doable.
All in all, we had a great day of diving. We're going to make the trip there one more time this season and I can't wait. I've linked to some pictures of the springs below. They are not mine, so I am linking to them instead of posting them directly here.
https://www.facebook.com/GreatSouthernDiveco/posts/442347712586676
