MRXRAY
Contributor
Hetland called late Friday and asked what the dive plans were. After a brief discusion and because of the oil in the Gulf , and partly because it was the long 4th of July weekend we decided on a road trip. Destination of choice was Ginnie Springs in High Springs, FL. Recharge also said he was in so we packed up or bags, dive gear and tent and headed out early Saturday morning for the 4.5 hour trip.
We arrived on site to find the place packed with college kids. We checked in, paid and went right to Ginnie Springs to get wet. Wow, what a gorgeous spring! It's hard to silt out, especially in the basin and it is just beautiful and offers some great pictures and video. This was a great start to the weekend.
After a nice dive at Ginnie we headed out the flow path to the river and I did a drift dive to the entrance to the next spring in the line..... Dogwood Spring. The river was fairly tannic but offered some decent viz at depth. The only issue is the large number of discarded bottles and cans from the intertubing that takes place.
Dogwood spring was the next stop. This is not the best of springs and offers very little in terms of depth or views. I did find a good bit of change which I took. Larry says that I was taking people's wishing well money, and thus there wishes.
My reply.... My odds of winning the Lottery just went up! :mooner:
The next stop in the days diving was Devil Springs (Not to be confused with Devil's Den which is not at Ginnie). The first of the three Devils Springs on the Ginnie Spring property was Little Devil which is just a narrow fisher which is kind of neat but offers very little in terms of depth or reason to stay, we then went about 50 yards via water to the next spring in this run which is devils eye. This one is fairly neat with a nice cavern entrance available called the Devils Dungeon. They do not allow any lights at all in the Devil Springs so we could not see very well. But it looked very nice.
This is a wide fisher with a log laying in it. This is an incredible dive with unbelievable force pushing out water. This was a great and cool dive, one of my favorties. We did get a bit of a peak inside this one from the focusing light on Alex's camera. This room looks HUGE. Again, we did not go in since we did not have lights or training!
After this dive we went and got some air fills at the very nice store and dive shop, we found a nice quiet spot to set up our tent away from the partying (It was 4th of July weekend and the party was in effect). Then we went into town and ate at the Great Outdoors? Awesome food, great service...Ask for Mike!
We then headed back for a couple of night dives....
The first stop was Twin Springs, this is a very narrow and shallow fisher that is about 100 feet long or so. It was not at all appealing but we stayed for 15 minutes to log it as a dive!
Then we headed back to Ginnie to round out the night. The party was still in effect and made for some interesting views from below! This was very beautiful diving with an incredible view of the surface from the grate some 100 + feet back. WOW! What a nice dive! Didn't take many videos or pictures. But did really enjoy the dive!
After this dive we went back to the campsite and crashed for the night!
All the temps were 72* and I was fine in a 3mm shorty the whole time. The river is a bit warmer at about 74* which seemed huge at the time.
The staff, the facilities and the site in general were great! I'm looking forward to going back in the near future.
We arrived on site to find the place packed with college kids. We checked in, paid and went right to Ginnie Springs to get wet. Wow, what a gorgeous spring! It's hard to silt out, especially in the basin and it is just beautiful and offers some great pictures and video. This was a great start to the weekend.
After a nice dive at Ginnie we headed out the flow path to the river and I did a drift dive to the entrance to the next spring in the line..... Dogwood Spring. The river was fairly tannic but offered some decent viz at depth. The only issue is the large number of discarded bottles and cans from the intertubing that takes place.
Dogwood spring was the next stop. This is not the best of springs and offers very little in terms of depth or views. I did find a good bit of change which I took. Larry says that I was taking people's wishing well money, and thus there wishes.
My reply.... My odds of winning the Lottery just went up! :mooner:The next stop in the days diving was Devil Springs (Not to be confused with Devil's Den which is not at Ginnie). The first of the three Devils Springs on the Ginnie Spring property was Little Devil which is just a narrow fisher which is kind of neat but offers very little in terms of depth or reason to stay, we then went about 50 yards via water to the next spring in this run which is devils eye. This one is fairly neat with a nice cavern entrance available called the Devils Dungeon. They do not allow any lights at all in the Devil Springs so we could not see very well. But it looked very nice.
This is a wide fisher with a log laying in it. This is an incredible dive with unbelievable force pushing out water. This was a great and cool dive, one of my favorties. We did get a bit of a peak inside this one from the focusing light on Alex's camera. This room looks HUGE. Again, we did not go in since we did not have lights or training!
After this dive we went and got some air fills at the very nice store and dive shop, we found a nice quiet spot to set up our tent away from the partying (It was 4th of July weekend and the party was in effect). Then we went into town and ate at the Great Outdoors? Awesome food, great service...Ask for Mike!
We then headed back for a couple of night dives....
The first stop was Twin Springs, this is a very narrow and shallow fisher that is about 100 feet long or so. It was not at all appealing but we stayed for 15 minutes to log it as a dive!
Then we headed back to Ginnie to round out the night. The party was still in effect and made for some interesting views from below! This was very beautiful diving with an incredible view of the surface from the grate some 100 + feet back. WOW! What a nice dive! Didn't take many videos or pictures. But did really enjoy the dive!
After this dive we went back to the campsite and crashed for the night!
All the temps were 72* and I was fine in a 3mm shorty the whole time. The river is a bit warmer at about 74* which seemed huge at the time.
The staff, the facilities and the site in general were great! I'm looking forward to going back in the near future.
