Florida west coast "must see" list?

[HeathBar]

My best friend and I will be in the crystal river area next week to do a manatee Snorkle and afternoon rainbow river dive. I was wondering what other dives in that area should be on our "must see/do" list? Open to anything along the west coast or cental Florida.

I had blue grotto and devils den on our radar but it looked kinda boring? Not a big area to explore unless cave certified and not a lot, if any, critters to look at. Is it worth it to go once? We live in the ft lauderdale area so all our diving has been reefs/wrecks in the Pompano and key largo area.

We are both AOW and EAN certified with our own gear/tanks. No cave diving experience.

Thanks!

 

[caruso]

I dived Devil's Den 3x on one trip with a dive group. It doesn't sound all that interesting, and it didn't make my top 10 dive list for sure. It's a bunch of rocks and swimthroughs and a few scattered freshwater fish here or there but I think it's a "do once" sort of thing, if only for the experience of diving in between all sorts of rocks, openings, crevices, etc. Not for the claustrophobic!

As I said we did it 3x. First around the circular cavern in one direction, then back the other direction on the second dive, and then the lights were extinguished for a night diving experience in the middle of the day.

 

[sportxlh]

Devil's Den and Blue Grotto are both okay dives but I would not consider them bucket list worthy. They are funny enough to do once. Another option would be a drift dive down the Rainbow River. Again probably not a top 10 dive but fun enough

 

[Jonny Wishbone]

Rainbow River is a kool dive. You will go a ways down stream and then be sure to stop in the deep corner where you’ll get 20 to 25 feet in depth. Then as you go further down stream there is a very small cavern in the middle of the river. It’s really small but kinda kool. 2 of you in the cavern and it is full. The cavern depth is 12 to 15 feet of course depending on the water tables of the river....A little further North on a road trip and there is Ginnie Springs. Google it up and check it out. It’s a bit on the expensive side though. Then a little more inland there is Alexander Springs, super cheap but shallow and clear. Then you have Troy Springs not too far from there. It is a bit deeper at about 60+ feet. Not much on this coast for ocean dives because everything is so far out it takes a lot of fuel which makes the trip more expensive. The further North you go in Florida the more you run into clear springs.

 

[caruso]

there is a very small cavern in the middle of the river. It’s really small but kinda kool. 2 of you in the cavern and it is full. The cavern depth is 12 to 15 feet of course depending on the water tables of the river..

I checked my logbook after reading your post because I recall the cavern in the middle of Crystal river was deeper. I have 50' depth in my logbook.

 

[HeathBar]

We will definitely be doing the rainbow river drift dive. Sounds like blue grotto is about what I am expecting, worth doing once? Any other springs worth checking out? We will have an entire day to explore so we can drive a little for something good.
Busch gardens or the aquarium are my backup ideas but I'd rather be under water.

 

[loosenit2]

I checked my logbook after reading your post because I recall the cavern in the middle of Crystal river was deeper. I have 50' depth in my logbook.

I just did crystal river a few weeks ago, definitely not 50'. I think I got 24' by sticking my dive computer in cavern as far as my arm would go.

 

[caruso]

Go figure. Now that I think about it 50' sounds way too deep. I've had issues with my dive computer not uploading data properly to my digital logbook.

 

[Jonny Wishbone]

I checked my logbook after reading your post because I recall the cavern in the middle of Crystal river was deeper. I have 50' depth in my logbook.

I was referring to the tiny cavern in the middle of Rainbow River.

 

[caruso]

I think we're in different rivers.