Vortex Springs

[eric myers 2]

Last Monday October 17, 2005 while vacation in Panama City Beach, FL my wife and I drove up to Vortex Springs, just outside of Ponce De Leon, FL.

It was about 88 degrees and sunny. I paid $27.50 per diver and $6.50 per non-diver to enter the park, and you thought Wazee was expensive!

I oriented myself with the site, sought some local advice, geared up (I brought all my gear with me including my 6# Stainless Steel back plate and Halcyon 40# wing) and did a giant stride off the floating dock on the right of the photo below.

The water was clear all the way to the initial bottom at about 25' - 50,' overall visibility was 100.' Looking back towards the surface and the floating dock I could see hundreds of freshwater fish including the big koi type gold fish.

I descended through to the 'Vortex,' properly named because it definitely felt like a Vortex, and into the mouths of the two caves. Fresh water eels were present as well as your standard, "Prevent your Death" warning about cave diving. I was a good boy and heeded the warnings to some extent. My total dive time was 60 minutes at 55' and I still had about 1000psi left in my rental tank. There just wasn't that much to see beyond just the entrance to the caves. I would recommend this dive site for one or two dives but for the recreational diver without cave certification it can get a little boring after that. Although, you cannot beat the visibility, I was in heaven on that front. For anyone who does the difficult diving here in MN, Florida diving is what call "the icing on the cake." Without down playing if too much it's just so relaxing that there is almost no challenge. I had a really great dive!

From here I went up had some lunch, got a fill from the Vortex Springs Dive shop and packed up and was eager to check out the next spring on the way back. Morrison Spring was my next stop and it was even better!

FYI the photo below is of the surface looking from WEST to EAST and I did not take this photo. My wife and I have some photos to post but I left them at home so they will be forthcoming later this week.

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