Peacock Springs State Park is a 733-acre Florida State Park located on Peacock Springs Road, two miles east of Luraville Florida. The park offers numerous activities such as picnicking, swimming, diving, and wildlife viewing. Of which the most exciting is the unique cave diving experience that the State Park has to offer.
The park has two major springs, a spring run, and six sinkholes-all in near pristine condition. Additionally one of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental United States, about 28,000 feet of underwater passages have been explored and surveyed by cave divers.
Peacock springs comprises of three cave systems: Peacock I, Peacock II (which is not accessible at the surface) and Peacock III. With a total of nine entrances and exits, Peacock is known as complex karst limestone system. (Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks including limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems) Six of the nine openings are easily accessible; however three of the openings are only used as emergency exits.
The average depth of the system is about 60 feet and is extremely popular with instructors for cave and cavern training to practice skill proficiency since there is virtually no flow. It is also the best place for students to begin or continue cavern/cave diving training as the diversity of the systems and varying depths offers something for everyone.
Certain parts of the Peacock State Park require divers to poses cave or Cavern certification, such as the Peacock 1 and 3 systems. The Orange Grove is one of two areas in the park where cavern diving is allowed. The open water portion of the basin reaches a depth of fifty to sixty feet. The cavern zone begins on the downstream side and goes down to around 100 feet. The upstream entrance starts at seventy feet behind a few trees that have fallen into the sink underwater. This is a low profile tunnel with a deep silt bottom.
Peacock 3 is a large cavern system which leads to a cave, however the dive site is very silty and should not be done unless you have excellent buoyancy control. The silting also reduces the available light making it even more of a challenge.
The Olsen Sink is a Sink hole that has a very small cavern zone, which enters the cave which leads up to Peacock 1. The silt is very fine and if disturbed will stay suspended for quite a while so stay high off the bottom.
Park Fees
The park has an admission fee of $4.00 per vehicle and $2.00 for Pedestrians. The Scuba Diving Fee is $15.00 per person. All divers must show proof of certification before diving. Open water diving is permitted only in the Orange Grove Sink and no solo diving is permitted.
Photos by tim2k, sharkbait, systemslibrarian
