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Devil's Den

Photo: shine_blitz_on (Flickr) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 · source

💧 Springs

Devil's Den

Williston, FL · North Central Florida

About

Devil's Den hides a whole spring underground: you climb down a wooden staircase into a collapsed cavern where a shaft of daylight lands on water that glows an unreal blue, held at a steady 72 degrees all year. Snorkelers and open-water divers share the pool by reservation only, finning past rock ledges that have given up Pleistocene bones of mastodons and saber-toothed cats. General swimming is not allowed, which keeps the place quiet and the water clear, so book ahead and bring a mask rather than a beach towel.

Highlights

Underground karst-window spring inside a collapsed cavernWooden staircase descent to a 72-degree poolSnorkeling and open-water scuba by reservationPleistocene fossil walls (mastodon, saber-toothed cat)No general swimming, so the water stays clear

Getting there

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Florida Springs

Florida sits on top of one of the largest gatherings of freshwater springs on Earth, and they run a constant 68 to 74 degrees no matter the season. Some are first-magnitude giants pushing hundreds of millions of gallons a day, others are quiet blue sinkholes you can have to yourself at dawn. These are the ones worth the drive: the glass-bottom boat tours, the lazy-river tube runs, the cavern dives, and the winter springs where the manatees come in from the cold.