mulefeathers:
What is the attraction? From the pictures it doesn't look there is much to see. Might have to try. It is beyond time to get wet.
The biggest attraction for me is the simple fact that the site is far more naturally beautiful than Vortex. There aren't homely fiberglass faux caves, fish aquarium gravel, goldfish, carpet ect all over the place. Its a larger basin surrounded by a cypress canopy with a very nice lower cavern. There is also a spring run that runs ~ a mile to the river that can often be dived to observe some of the idigenous local inhabitants.
mulefeathers:
Please do not take offense to the question. Just have never been there and the pictures really did not show anything. I guess the real question would be do you need to be cave certified in order dive in the cavern? But I am all for saving $32
If you have good dive buddies and they(and you) are comfortable in your gear and bouyancy; you may consider looking at the caverns. The shallower of the two caverns has a silty bottom and some small offshoots that can get you in trouble, don't enter them unless you are trained. The larger cavern has a sand/shell bottom that doesn't kick up and quite a bit of flow, so its always pristine. You can see ambient light from anywhere within and there is no going cave. Its safer than the cavern that Ginnie advertises as OW friendly.
It is an overhead environment and care should be taken as such. There isn't a direct ascent in case of emergency.
mike_s:
on some other caverns, the opening is large. on some it's somewhat small. Morrison cavern has pretty much two rooms. The first room really isn't in the cavern but halfway down the hole and on one side. the room opening is about the same width/height of the room. the room is about the size of a VW mini-bus. You can swim in/out w/o problem and no current. It is overhead though.
The second room is what most folks consider the cavern. It's a larger much larger room that reaches water depths of about 90+ feet. I'd say the ceiling of the room is maybe 50 to 60 feet. maybe the room is about 40' by 50' with a ledge that drops off. (someone correct me if they have better measurements).
Care should be taken when entering as it's a tight fit and the current can be strong. The spring produces something like 25million gallons of water per day, which is a lot of water moving out of that hole. You can feel it going in/out. When you come out, you need to make sure that you're holding on to the rope so that the current won't whisk you up and out and exceed the ascent rate.
They are both caverns, the shallower one is quite a bit more dangerous as it doesn't have much flow, it has offshoots, and it has a silty bottom.
I'd say the larger cavern below is more like 80x60x60.
Vortex pumps 28 million gallons a day, I believe Morrison pushes something like 32, or maybe is it in the 40s? Can't remember for sure.
DawgDiver:
Maybe it's changed but when I was there last summer there was no rope to hold onto at the cavern entrance.
It was there, you probably just missed it as its typically tight to one side of the entrance. Still there the last time I dove the site as well, in Jan?
wjefferis:
This is my two cents of advice. If you are not cave certified you really have no business entering the lower cavern. It is a tight entry in and defintely a cave dive by all definitions.
The larger cavern is cavern, not cave. The shallower cavern does have some offshoots that become cave. There is a difference, you should note them if you'd like to throw the term around.
DawgDiver:
There's not even any silt in the cavern to stir up and make it low viz. Anyone with some experience and a good buddy can do it. And a cave diver would hardly waste his time diving at morrison.
There's a ton of silt in the shallower cavern.
On another note, I have some pictures of cavers silting the **** out the bottom moreso than OW classes. LOL Piss poor diving is piss poor diving, no matte what cert level you bought.
Fish_Whisperer:
Dawg, I made the mistake once, of relating that I'd followed my instructor into the cave at Vortex Spring, which is straight in, straight out, max depth being 110', with the REAL cave being locked by a door, and the key only available from the dive shop. I basically got my azz handed to me, here. You're wasting your breath. :shakehead
After you take a right from the slight overhang, that consists of Vortex's cavern, you're in cave since you lose ambient light. You also went over 100' of penetration and 100' of depth, both putting you within the definition of cave.
utdivermatt:
Its not intensive eh? Im going to supose you dive it with a standard Aluminum 80, right? So we are talking down about 90 feet, so pushing 4 atmospheres of pressure. So suppose your SAC is around .6 (bump it up a little due to being in an overhead enviroment), that means you are downing 2.4 cubic feet of air a minute (still a rather generous SAC). Seeing as you should be observing the 1/3rd rule (maybe you dont consider this important too), you should be leaving with your air around 8-10 minutes into the dive. Judging by the map, it goes what... 60 feet in laterally? So suppose you turn around at the last moment your pressure allows, and you are near the back of the cavern.... your buddy goes out of air. Your sac jumps... we will be generous and give you a SAC of 1, and your buddy 1.5. That means you are gulping down 10 cubic feet a minute. Whoa! You have about 5 minutes of air at that point, and you didnt run a line. Not to mention fitting through the opening to the cavern. Do you really want to be in that situation?
We always go over a dive plan when diving Morrison stating that we exit once we hit 1/3, leaving us 2/3rds a tank to exit, at most, 90' linear feet. We typicall dive for 15-20 minutes in the lower cavern by this rule, you aren't sitting at the very bottom of the vent the entire time(which is where you hit 90'ish). Alot of the cavern is quite a bit shallower.
You assume we are all crappy buddies who don't stick together.
wjefferis:
One day while I was at Morrison I saw a cave diver getting out of the water shaking his head I asked him what was up. He said that he had to help one diver who was key-holed in the restrction and another had some problem while in the cave itself. He said he was leaving before he had to do a full-on rescue. I saw him take of his gear, get in his car, and leave without further delay. I have never entered that restriction at Morrison and never plan to. There is plenty of other cool things to see there anyway.
Less we're talking about some 60# kid trying to no-mount into the vent or some 350# rhino getting stuck at the entrance, they didn't get stuck in the lower cavern. It would have to have been in the shallower cavern, which does have some dangerous offshoots and low passages.
utdivermatt:
...maybe... when you have the ideal situation of having a mask on, a sunny day, a good light that works, and a steady supply of gas, while remaining calm.... when you dont have any of that... is a line still pointless?
You assume we're talking about diving it when conditions aren't ideal, its been noted that dives, without proper training, should stay out of the cavern when the river levels are high enough to keep sunlight from penetrating the entrance and at night.
Me and my buddies dive it with two lights that work
We keep an eye on our gas and dive our plan, discussed earlier.
Lose my mask? I'll pick it back up
I dive Morrison on occasion without mask, SeaYoda has some pics floating around somewhere of that.
cmufieldhockey8:
ditto, I can't wait to dive this place!
Its one of my, if not my favorite cavern dive. I've dived lots
JB, Shangrila, Cypress, Vortex(HA!), Paradise, Ginnie, Devils Den, Blue Grotto, Royal, ect
Morrison is overlooked all too often.
ShagMan:
I went there on my last OW checkout dive, and it's not much to see, sand bottom, there's a dive platform straight out, then a rope down into the cavern... some sparse fish, vis is ok if it's not flooded, cavern is always clear due to the amount of water it pumps (so I hear). That's my report!
Oh yeah, forgot to add a couple of things... 1) it's free and 2) lots of boaters, bring your bouy/flag/line/weight combo with you.
The dive is what you make of it, you'll see more life in the run than in the basin as far fewer people swim out that way. The water can have 100+' visibility when water levels are low and the classes(or cavers) don't silt the bottom up.
utdivermatt:
Looking at the map Mike posted (which looks like Shecks), it definately is a pretty intensive cavern, considering both depth and overhead enviroment. People have died at morrison if I recall, and probably by diving with an attitude like that.
Morrison's larger cavern is as intensive as an open basketball court. People have died at Morrison, but people have also died while relaxing under a coconut bearing palm tree.
The moral of this post is to never goto the beach without a hardhat.
