Undiscovered Florida 2018 - 7

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Above: St. Augustine's Historic District

North Florida Jewel of the South

S

andy shores and a Southern heart. It's
a magical mix in North Florida, where
the recent and distant past meet in a
landscape of deep forests, sparkling streams
and windswept beaches on both the
Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Diving In
The beaches may beckon, but those hoping
to find the unexpected in North Florida
may want to head in the other direction-
inland. That's where you'll find a heartland of
freshwater springs percolating up from the
state's underground aquifer, which spans the
entire peninsula but is closest to the surface
in North Central Florida; hence the high
concentration of these beautiful, mysterious
bodies of water in this part of the state.
With water so clear you can see straight
through to the bottom and a temperature
of 72 degrees all year long, springs are
immensely popular among swimmers,
snorkelers and paddlers.
Undiscovered Florida

Counties including Columbia, Gilchrist
and Wakulla are home to some of the most
beautiful springs in the world, many surrounded
by parks offering a host of activities.
One great example is Edward Ball Wakulla
Springs State Park, which in addition to its
magnificent first-magnitude spring-one of
the world's largest-offers hiking, biking and
horseback riding. Depending on water clarity,
glass-bottom boat tours reveal the bones of
mastodons and other prehistoric creatures at
the bottom of the spring.
Prehistoric adventures continue in Levy
County at Devil's Den, an underground
spring inside a dry cave, where animal fossils
date back to the Pleistocene Age.

Cavemen (and women)
Such discoveries, though, only scratch the
surface of Florida's springs. Far below the
swimmers and paddlers is a subterranean
labyrinth of watery tunnels and chambers
that are the domain of the cave diver.

Unlike traditional open-water scuba
diving, which can be taught and enjoyed
within hours at some locations in the
Sunshine State, cave diving requires specific
training and certification, available through
local cave diving experts.
A full-service dive store and training center
is onsite at Ginnie Springs in Gilchrist County,
with dive training ranging from introductory
to environmental courses. Both open-water
and cave diving are available at Ginnie Springs,
characterized as "visibility forever" by none
other than Jacques Cousteau.
If you're intrigued by cave diving and
want to test the waters, you've come to
the right place. In fact, the world's capital of
cave diving is right here in North Florida-
Suwannee County, soon to be featured on
the small screen. In early 2018, a crew from
the show ScubaNation filmed a segment
on cave diving at Wes Skiles Peacock
Springs State Park, among other locations in
Suwannee County. They planned to return
7
http://visitflorida.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Undiscovered Florida 2018
