North Florida Springs · United States · Cave & cavern · Freshwater
Blue Grotto
Clear water to 30 metres in a cavern worked by training courses
Area photo: LittleT889 · CC BY-SA 4.0
A dive-site listing calls this the largest clear-water cavern in Florida's freshwater spring country, at Williston in the north of the state. It is a dive you spend inside the rock rather than around it: the water goes to 30 metres, 100 feet, and holds 72 degrees Fahrenheit, about 22C, in every month of the year. It is described as a popular training site rather than a scenic one.
Also known as The Blue Grotto.
Where it is and how deep
29.3873° N, 82.4865° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
Blue Grotto is a cavern dive: you descend inside the rock rather than swim a reef or a spring run, and the listing that sells it calls it the largest clear-water cavern in Florida's spring country. Clear water is the reason the site is used the way it is, and the temperature does not move off 72 degrees Fahrenheit, about 22C, in any season.
The dive goes to 30 metres, 100 feet, which is past what an entry-level card covers, so the bottom is ground for courses and experienced divers rather than a first dive. This is described as a popular training dive site rather than a scenic one, so expect other teams in the water on the same day. Nothing about the site changes with the month, which is why courses run here through the year.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows North Florida Springs: The spring water holds a constant 22 °C (72 °F), so diving runs all year; Ginnie Springs is crowded on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Know before you go
- The cavern is an overhead environment with a 30-metre maximum, so depth, gas and light planning apply before any thought of going further in.
Dive videos
Scuba Diving the Blue Grotto, Florida - GoPro Hero4 1080p · Captain Popeye on YouTube
Blue Grotto Dive 1/4 · Thomas Freeman on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Blue Grotto?+
The dive goes to 30 metres, 100 feet, in clear water that stays at 72 degrees Fahrenheit, about 22C, all year. That is past entry-level depth limits, so the bottom is course and experienced-diver ground rather than a casual first dive.
Sources
- The Blue Grotto dive site — ScubaGo / SSI MyDiveGuide
In The Logbook
- Freshwater diving: lakes, springs and quarriesFreshwater · 15 min read
- Cavern and cenote diving without cave trainingCaves & caverns · 8 min read
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