National, State, County parks that are close to great scuba diving.

[sandyhatch]

My husband and myself are wanting to be volunteer campground hosts at either a National, State or County Park. We plan on starting our Full-time RVing Spring of 2012. We have already applied for a position in the Florida Keys. (There is a year waiting list for Florida). Any suggestions of some good dive site close to or in the park system.
Any suggestions or pro-tips greatly appreciated.

 

[g2]

Groovy! I may want to do that too someday.

It sounds like you're into warm water diving.

If, by chance, you'd like to try some cold water diving there's lots of parks in the Pacific Northwest. In Washington there's Salt Water Creek SP, Fort Worden SP, Crescent Lake SP, Ebey's Landing Historical SP (diving at adjacent Keystone Jetty), and probably a dozen others.

 

[DMDavid]

Many of the north Florida springs are in state parks that also have camping and RV parking.


FB-Florida Scuba Diver

 

[cloudswinger]

There's not a lot of National Parks in Florida. Most of them probably don't have the camping facilities you need. The few that do are in a swamp Two(Biscayne, Dry Tortugas) have awesome diving(and have camping), but are boat access only. There are a ton of State Parks. There's also a variety of diving available, from spring to ocean. If you want to do both, probably a better location would be somewhere in the middle of the state, that way you're within an hour of ocean and springs, maybe like Silver River or Wekiwa Springs. Blue Springs has scuba, but is also a manatee preserve, so you can't scuba the springs during winter. If you want beachfront, Gamble Rogers/Flager Beach would be good. Although I would imagine that all the beachfront parks would be harder to get a host position. You could do North Florida in the spring and move south to the keys during the summer when it's the slow season and most RVers will have left. Although by then they might not need a host. Summer will be hotter further south, but the water will be calmer. North Florida waters will be cooler in the springtime, probably in the 60s to low 70s, the springs are generally constant at 72. You could also do the Destin or Panama City area. If you end up in the Keys, having a boat would be really good since there's no beach diving to speak of.

Here's the list of Florida state parks that have scuba listed as an activity within the park. A lot of them are day use or boat access only parks.
Welcome to Florida State Parks

This book would also be helpful: Amazon.com: Diving Guide to Underwater Florida, 11th Edition (9781878348395): Ned DeLoach: Books

I don't know about county parks other than that there are 67 counties and you'd have to search each individual county for what their parks offer. The beaches are public accessible, so if you have the book, it'll tell you where the diving is good and whether you can do beach dives or need boats. I do know a couple of parks in the 2 counties I frequent that have camping don't have RV sites. I'm mainly a tent camper, so that's not generally an issue.

 

[TMHeimer]

Sounds exciting. We did the RV thing from '02-'07. Since then it's been the condo thing. Not sure about RVing there, but St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach (panhandle) has some decent diving from both the gulf shore and the channel. Also, I did a couple of good deep dives on wrecks with Dive Locker's charter there. As well, there are 2 shops just West in Destin and one in Fort Walton that do charters (no earlier than March, though). And there are 2 shore spots in Destin-the Thumb Jetty and at the Destin Bridge (bad currents,-slack tide needed, as with the St. Andrews channel). There is one RV park in Destin-- Camping on the Gulf- a bit pricey.

 

[Mossman]

Of course there's always Channel Islands National Park, but it's going to be tough getting the RV there

 

[RonFrank]

I think what you need to do is get you hostess thing worked out, and then worry about the diving once you know where you will be. I don't recall many parks with hostess in S FL. A lot of places are Indian, or private. On the other coast say OR there are a ton of National forest camp sites but WA/OR/CA is not FL. Also many federal and state run parks are privatizing many aspects.

I would think a year wait would be at a minimum for a Keys hostesses. In CO the same hostess are in the parks for a while. I think you'll find something, but maybe not your first choice.

I can certainly tell you where to dive in FL, but not where to set up camp. Good luck and let us know how things work out.

 

[sandyhatch]

Thanks for all the great information. I will be looking into ordering some of those books for my nook. I am a warm water diver anything below 70 degrees is tough for me. Looking forward to diving some springs in Florida, does any would have some favorites to suggest.