Peacock Springs Cave Diving

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Peacock Springs is a Florida State Park has two major springs, a spring run, and six sinkholes – all in near pristine condition. The springs and sinkholes are openings into the limestone karst and lead to one of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental United States. Approximately 28,000 feet of underwater passages have been explored and surveyed by cave divers. As of June 13, 2008, the Peacock cave system was the 24th longest underwater cave in the world.

The Peacock Springs Cave system was first explored by Vasco Murray in 1956. The first map of the system was completed by a group from the NSS lead by Sheck Exley, in 1995. Exley’s team made over 521 dives to complete the survey. The system was resurveyed in 1996 by a team led by Michael Poucher.

We started our dive from Orange Grove sink, which is generally covered in Duckweed and algae blooms, so the visibility there can vary. There is a large cavern starts that at about 40 feet and extends down to 110 feet. From there, we proceeded along the mainline towards Challenge and Olsen sink, where we turned the dive and proceeded to return to Orange Grove sink.