Photograph: FlVortexSpring.jpg by State of Florida, photo by R. Means · Public domain · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Holmes County attraction

Vortex Spring

Holmes County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast

A 420-acre dive complex near Ponce de Leon, and the largest diving facility in Florida.

QUESTIONS THAT NAME THIS PLACE

Where Is the Scuba Diving in Florida?

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Denzel Dockery, a Navy veteran known as Doc, established it. The basin is two hundred feet across with sloping sides, the spring puts out about twenty-eight million gallons a day, and the water sits at sixty-eight degrees with no thermocline and is usually very clear, which is exactly what a dive school wants. The cavern entrance is fifty-eight feet down through an opening nine feet by twelve. Beyond that the system has been measured to 1,642 feet, and divers can reach about 310 feet in before a steel grate stops them. Open water divers are held to 115 feet. Only divers holding valid cave certification go past the gate, and staff unlock it and usually go with them. Large carp swim in the basin and freshwater eels live in the cave. On land there is a dive shop, lodging, camping, changing rooms with heated showers, picnic areas, and volleyball and basketball courts

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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