Going to Ginnie Springs this weekend. ADVISE ??

[cardzard]

Hello all
My wife and I are going to head to Ginnie Springs this weekend for the first time. I have searched the boards and decided to stay at the Counrty Inn and eat at Floyds diner.
I have printed a map of the facillties at Ginnie. Any other advise would be welcome. We are hoping to dive all 3 areas in 1 day.
As we will be arriving Fri. night 6/11 hopefully at the gate by 8:00am Sat. and leaving sunday. Wish I had more time but life seems to get in the way.

 

[CBulla]

I'll be honest, I enjoyed the river drift dives much more diving into the holes in the ground, but all the diving was great considering the company my family and I were in. If you do the drift, make sure you have your dive flag and if you dont pair up with someone else, be prepared for a good walk back to your car. IF you decide to be brave, you can get in at the begining of the tube run. It gets shallow and the river is really flowing just down stream of it. Inflate your BC and enjoy the rapids! Once your past that, start looking down in the water a LOT, people drop the darndest things!

 

[herman]

Here is a good tip for you, we always do this. If at all possible, go over to Ginnie on Fri evening. You can go ahead and do the paperwork, pay for the next day and they will give you a pass to go look over the site. That way, you can walk up, just pick up your passes and be in the water before most of the others can get past the paperwork on Sat morning. While the vis never gets bad, it's at it's best first thing in the morning.

 

[H2Andy]

you can get all the dives in one day easily (i am assuming you are OW or cavern):

1. first dive at the Ginnie Ballroom (Ginnie Spring) (20 minutes)

2. second dive will be a drift dive starting at Little Devil, then on to Devil's Eye (20 minutes)

3. third dive: Devil's Ear and then, upon exit, a drift dive down the Santa Fe (30 minutes) back to Ginnie Spring if the visibility cooperates (don't miss the entrance, but it's further than you think).

make sure you have a way to get back from Ginnie to the
Devil's system (i.e. a car; it's a long walk)

and there you have it, you have seen all the OW accessible sites.

if cavern certified, you can do the cavern at Devil's Eye (shallow, you can poke around the edges) and then... the treat... the cavern at Devil's Ear, proably my favorite
cavern dive ever... the goldline is to the right and high (about midway up the wall) and you will see the cavern sign about 30 feet (?) in, on the bottom.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I agree with Andy completely, though I usually spend a little more time in the Ballroom, especially on the first dive. If you go to the Private Trips folder and search for the BBQ at Ginnie Springs thread (Help me out, guys - I think the event was on 4/24-25.) you'll find a link to the Ginnie downloadable guide, which has some nice descriptions of the cavern/cave system. You can also find some good info here (including cavern/cave maps):

http://www.floridacaves.com/ginnie.htm

The thread also has some great photos of this group at the gathering. (Unfortunately , I missed the event, but the consensus was that it was a grand old time...)

Have fun,
Grier

 

[DennisW]

After you get bored with the Ginnie Springs dive, you are only about 45 minutes away from Blue Grotto near Williston. Another nice dive if you get there early (at least 8:00am) before the students get there to silt it up. You can find directions to Blue Grotto on the net, just Google on Blue Grotto.

 

[cardzard]

Thanks to all of you for all the good advise. As always the knowlege here is second to none. Great tip on getting paperwork done ahead of time. I already Downloaded the waivers and will definitely drop them of the night before.
Is there at closing time after wich I can't drop off the paperwork ??


THANKS AGAIN TO ALL

 

[Wendy]

I here that 10,000 people were at Ginnie last weekend and that there was a huge fight with 250 drunk rednecks, 11 went to jail. If you have anything of value, don't bring it. Expect crowds, beer bottles, idiots, etc. Just be careful.

 

[KidK9]

If you're doing Blue Grotto, might as well do Devil's Den if you have another day. It's awesome, I really love it there. When was that fight? Memorial day weekend? Shoot I was there Memorial Day weekend and there were some idiots then, that's for sure. But there were some nice folks as well.

 

[H2Andy]

I here that 10,000 people were at Ginnie last weekend and that there was a huge fight with 250 drunk rednecks, 11 went to jail.

dang...

i love that place. hope this is not a trend