Happenin’
Places › Florida › Panhandle › Vortex Spring
Vortex Spring

Photo: Paul Clark / CC BY 2.0 · source

💧 Springs

Vortex Spring

Ponce de Leon, FL · Panhandle

About

Florida's largest dive park pushes out 28 million gallons a day at a steady 68 degrees, and you can see the limestone basin floor from the entry stairs before you ever put your face in. Spend the morning floating the lazy spring run, riding the rope swing, or just drifting over the submerged forest where divers descend toward the cavern mouth at 58 feet. Open-water snorkelers get the bright green water and the sloping shallows; certified cave divers head past the locked gate into a system that runs more than 1,600 feet back into the aquifer.

Highlights

Florida's largest diving facilitySteady 68F, 28 million gallons a dayOpen swim, snorkel, and lazy spring runRope swing and platform into the basinGated cavern dive for certified cave divers

Getting there

Related places

Ponce de Leon Springs State Park Springs

Ponce de Leon Springs State Park

Ponce de Leon, FL · Panhandle

Ponce de Leon Springs pushes about 14 million gallons a day up through two limestone vents, and you can watch them work from the surface before you ever get in. The water holds a steady 68 degrees year round and runs roughly 20 feet deep at the head, deep enough that snorkelers and divers trace the rock walls while everyone else floats the green spring run toward the woods. It is a small park in the Panhandle, the kind you build a slow afternoon around with a picnic table and a towel.

Cypress Spring Springs

Cypress Spring

Vernon, FL · Panhandle

Cypress Spring boils up at the end of a quarter-mile paddle down Holmes Creek, and you only reach it by canoe, kayak, or paddleboard from Cotton Landing. Roughly 65 million gallons a day rise through a circular basin that shades from pale green at the shallows to deep cobalt over the vent, clear enough on a calm day to watch your shadow on the sandy bottom 25 feet down. Tie up, snorkel the boil, swing off the rope on the north bank, and let the 68-degree water run you back toward the creek.

Ginnie Springs Springs

Ginnie Springs

High Springs, FL · North Central Florida

Ginnie Springs is a privately owned cluster of seven crystalline springs on the banks of the Santa Fe River near High Springs, where the water holds a constant 72 degrees and visibility so clear that divers call it gin-clear. Float the lazy river run on a rented tube, snorkel the swimming basins, or drop into the Devil Spring cave system that has drawn cave divers from around the world. Summer and early fall bring the clearest river water and the liveliest crowds.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Vortex Spring.

Florida Springs24 places

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.