I never understood the "mystique" of Blue Heron Bridge either. Parking and tide timing is always a hassle. When I dove the site I've always had to waste a lot of extra time to get there early enough to get a spot only to sit around waiting on the tide. There are always dozens of people at each reef with giant cameras sitting on the bottom taking photos of.....? something. But I can't ever tell because I can't get close enough. The photographers never move and they get pretty angry if anyone gets to close to them..... The vis is no better than the Gulf of Mexico.
Caves and caverns are fun diving, but I doubt many BHB type divers are going to be down for that type of experience.
When I first came across it, and I'm still a NEWBIE diver, and all the posts that it was basically a world class dive and it was within driving distance of me, I was excited. We watched videos I read reviews, we packed the car and decided to do the snorkel trail since my wife and son don't dive. So what we found is this...
Blue Heron Bridge is a BRIDGE that is in the middle of a ghetto. You will be walking past bedrolls and dirty diapers underneath the bridge. It's nowhere close to as bad as some locations/bridges I've been to, but it's obviously a place to be homeless. If you leave anything on the 'beach', it will be stolen. If you leave your car unlocked, it will be broken into.
They do run lifeguards on the 'beach' area and there is a marked point you shouldn't be swimming past as there are boats etc. There is a marked swimming section, no diving there. You have to swim past it before you submerge. The snorkel section is fairly narrow but you can dive there as well.
If you want even a chance at seeing anything, you want to be in the water during slack high tide. You have a narrow window, if you miss it, you miss it and the tide is in/out pretty hard and you need to stay in the snorkel area again.
Viz, I've seen really nice pics, but I've never seen it in person.
About 2 years ago an aquarium came through and wiped out the livestock. They collected everything that moves and shipped it out of state. They had permits to collect throughout the state, and they filled them all instead in 1 tiny portion of the state. It's still rebuilding. They've been shut out of florida now, so good idea guys...
Ive dove it a couple times, once on my own and once or twice in a group. Besides having someone to talk to, I've yet to see it be any better.
2 weeks ago my dive group was headed down for a 10am slack. My daughter and I were going to go, weren't thrilled about having to be up and on the road at 7 for bhb, but we haven't dove in a little while. The LDS tells one of our people that due to the covid thing, it's been really popular and if you don't want to hike your gear a mile to be there 'well before' 8 am. The thought of being up at 3am to be on the road at 4, to dive bhb.... no. Just no. I had clients in town anyway and it was an easy decision to spend the day with them instead.
So to sum it up, if you have your gear already and are already there, and the time is right, go ahead. But don't make it a destination IMO.
I believe we're doing blue grotto shortly (relates because it's in florida, involves water, and has the word blue in it...), never been before so crossing my fingers.