Post by jonsdigs on Dec 21, 2006 23:12:49 GMT -5
Dive right in -- the view's fine at Devil's Den
Published December 1, 2006
Diver's paradise
(ERIC MICHAEL, ORLANDO SENTINEL)
Nov 27, 2006
The spring-fed cavern at Williston is a veritable diver's paradise of caves, ledges and multimillion-year-old fossils.
(ERIC MICHAEL, ORLANDO SENTINEL)
Case File #86
Dive with the devil
What: Devil's Den Spring.
Where: 5390 NE 180th Ave., Williston.
When: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Sundays; last diver in at 4:30 p.m. daily; night dives also available.
Cost: $35 per day and $15 for night dive; equipment rentals available; open-water diver certification required.
Call: 352-528-3344.
Online: devilsden.com.
RATINGS
Bang for your buck: 3 out of 5.
Evel Knievel factor: 3 out of 5.
Degree of difficulty: 2 out of 5.
Overall fun: 4 out of 5.
The crack in the limestone wall looked like the perfect place for a prehistoric sea monster to hide.
It was deep, dark and downright spooky. And when I shined my dive light inside, the blackness gobbled the bright beam after just a few feet.
Suddenly, I saw movement. Somewhere back in the murk, something stirred. And it was coming out.
Gulp
I froze, save a steady stream of bubbles from my regulator. My good sense told me there was nothing to fear. This wasn't the Black Lagoon after all. But with a name like Devil's Den, who knows what could be lurking 30 feet below the surface of this isolated and ancient spring?
Before I could flee in fear, a sneaky catfish swam out of the dark. It was ugly for sure, but certainly not the hungry beast my imagination was expecting. I ratcheted my internal stress indicator back to DEFCON 2, and kept kicking.
Diving deep into this Levy County scuba attraction only seemed like swimming back in time. And there were lots of nooks and crannies left to explore.
A storied history
Local legend recalls how the first settlers of the Williston area suspected the worst when they witnessed a tower of steam rising out of a gaping hole in the ground during the cold winter months.
What else could it have been but a chimney from Hades?
It's no wonder that this geological anomaly soon became known as the Devil's Den. The first humans brave enough to squeeze though a tight crack in the limestone wall and explore this mysterious cavern found a deep pool of clear spring water inside. But they had no idea of the veritable diver's paradise of caves, ledges and multimillion-year-old fossils hidden just below the surface.
The land around the spring was used to farm watermelons and graze cattle for more than 150 years, until a pair of entrepreneurial divers bought the property in the early '90s. They enlarged the cave-wall tunnel, poured concrete stairs, erected a wooden stairway to the water and opened their backyard swimming hole to the scuba-certified public.
Today, the Devil's Den is a popular training spot for scuba instructors from throughout the country. And because divers have direct access to the surface -- not confined like a true cave -- the Den is safe for those with the basic "Open Water" certification.
For me, this subterranean spring was the perfect place to taste the forbidden fruit of cave diving, without the danger normally associated with the adventurous underwater pursuit. A low risk for high adventure.
Underwater tour
My dive buddy and I were surprised to find the Den's dirt car park empty on a recent Sunday morning. I'm told the place can get clogged with as many as a hundred divers on the weekends, so we were supremely lucky to have the place all to ourselves.
After checking in at the office, we geared up under a covered picnic table and ducked through the tight passageway that leads into the cavern. Once inside, it was love at first sight: a wide-open limestone cathedral that curved overhead to a wide hole in the ceiling dripping with green vines. A hazy morning light poured through the 20-foot opening, illuminating the crystalline pool below. I couldn't get down the stairs fast enough.
During our dive briefing, the Den dive master advised us to start at the 12 o'clock position and work our way around the perimeter in a clockwise direction, rising 10 feet or so toward the surface with each lap for a different view.
Breaking the surface, I saw that the bowl mushroomed out twice as wide underwater, with car-sized boulders strewn around the bottom creating a field of crevasses to explore. We meandered from crack to crag, illuminating the dark recesses of the heavily pocked cave walls with our dive lights, hunting for Pleistocene Age fossils said to remain in the ancient rock.
We must've missed the fossils, but we did find two "swim-throughs," or short, covered passages beneath the boulders with clearly visible and easily accessible exits. I quickly lost track of our lap count as I scanned alien rock features carved out by millennia of slow erosion. It felt as though we were deep under the peninsula touring the hidden Florida aquifer, but thankfully the surface was just a quick ascent away.
Easy access
After 45 minutes in the 72-degree water, a hot shower topside was a nice way to finish the dive -- and get some feeling back in my fingers.
With easy, safe access to subterranean sights not normally available to most recreational divers, The Devil's Den should be required diving for any Central Florida scuba enthusiast. Just make sure to bring a bright light. And don't worry about what's lurking in the dark. It's only your imagination.
Article
Published December 1, 2006
Diver's paradise
(ERIC MICHAEL, ORLANDO SENTINEL)
Nov 27, 2006
The spring-fed cavern at Williston is a veritable diver's paradise of caves, ledges and multimillion-year-old fossils.
(ERIC MICHAEL, ORLANDO SENTINEL)
Case File #86
Dive with the devil
What: Devil's Den Spring.
Where: 5390 NE 180th Ave., Williston.
When: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Sundays; last diver in at 4:30 p.m. daily; night dives also available.
Cost: $35 per day and $15 for night dive; equipment rentals available; open-water diver certification required.
Call: 352-528-3344.
Online: devilsden.com.
RATINGS
Bang for your buck: 3 out of 5.
Evel Knievel factor: 3 out of 5.
Degree of difficulty: 2 out of 5.
Overall fun: 4 out of 5.
The crack in the limestone wall looked like the perfect place for a prehistoric sea monster to hide.
It was deep, dark and downright spooky. And when I shined my dive light inside, the blackness gobbled the bright beam after just a few feet.
Suddenly, I saw movement. Somewhere back in the murk, something stirred. And it was coming out.
Gulp
I froze, save a steady stream of bubbles from my regulator. My good sense told me there was nothing to fear. This wasn't the Black Lagoon after all. But with a name like Devil's Den, who knows what could be lurking 30 feet below the surface of this isolated and ancient spring?
Before I could flee in fear, a sneaky catfish swam out of the dark. It was ugly for sure, but certainly not the hungry beast my imagination was expecting. I ratcheted my internal stress indicator back to DEFCON 2, and kept kicking.
Diving deep into this Levy County scuba attraction only seemed like swimming back in time. And there were lots of nooks and crannies left to explore.
A storied history
Local legend recalls how the first settlers of the Williston area suspected the worst when they witnessed a tower of steam rising out of a gaping hole in the ground during the cold winter months.
What else could it have been but a chimney from Hades?
It's no wonder that this geological anomaly soon became known as the Devil's Den. The first humans brave enough to squeeze though a tight crack in the limestone wall and explore this mysterious cavern found a deep pool of clear spring water inside. But they had no idea of the veritable diver's paradise of caves, ledges and multimillion-year-old fossils hidden just below the surface.
The land around the spring was used to farm watermelons and graze cattle for more than 150 years, until a pair of entrepreneurial divers bought the property in the early '90s. They enlarged the cave-wall tunnel, poured concrete stairs, erected a wooden stairway to the water and opened their backyard swimming hole to the scuba-certified public.
Today, the Devil's Den is a popular training spot for scuba instructors from throughout the country. And because divers have direct access to the surface -- not confined like a true cave -- the Den is safe for those with the basic "Open Water" certification.
For me, this subterranean spring was the perfect place to taste the forbidden fruit of cave diving, without the danger normally associated with the adventurous underwater pursuit. A low risk for high adventure.
Underwater tour
My dive buddy and I were surprised to find the Den's dirt car park empty on a recent Sunday morning. I'm told the place can get clogged with as many as a hundred divers on the weekends, so we were supremely lucky to have the place all to ourselves.
After checking in at the office, we geared up under a covered picnic table and ducked through the tight passageway that leads into the cavern. Once inside, it was love at first sight: a wide-open limestone cathedral that curved overhead to a wide hole in the ceiling dripping with green vines. A hazy morning light poured through the 20-foot opening, illuminating the crystalline pool below. I couldn't get down the stairs fast enough.
During our dive briefing, the Den dive master advised us to start at the 12 o'clock position and work our way around the perimeter in a clockwise direction, rising 10 feet or so toward the surface with each lap for a different view.
Breaking the surface, I saw that the bowl mushroomed out twice as wide underwater, with car-sized boulders strewn around the bottom creating a field of crevasses to explore. We meandered from crack to crag, illuminating the dark recesses of the heavily pocked cave walls with our dive lights, hunting for Pleistocene Age fossils said to remain in the ancient rock.
We must've missed the fossils, but we did find two "swim-throughs," or short, covered passages beneath the boulders with clearly visible and easily accessible exits. I quickly lost track of our lap count as I scanned alien rock features carved out by millennia of slow erosion. It felt as though we were deep under the peninsula touring the hidden Florida aquifer, but thankfully the surface was just a quick ascent away.
Easy access
After 45 minutes in the 72-degree water, a hot shower topside was a nice way to finish the dive -- and get some feeling back in my fingers.
With easy, safe access to subterranean sights not normally available to most recreational divers, The Devil's Den should be required diving for any Central Florida scuba enthusiast. Just make sure to bring a bright light. And don't worry about what's lurking in the dark. It's only your imagination.
Article