Morrison Springs Re-opening

[Captain Bil]

For those who care: MS will have it's grand re-opening ceremony on the February 26th at 1100. The public are invited.

[OutlawCaver]

Great cavern dive. Especially nice if we could reopen the lower chamber and return the cave to its original state. Over the years, I have heard stories of a vent back in the swamp that may connect. I met a retired Navy diver this month who claimed to be there the day they blew the arch away and collapsed the entrance to the lower section in the late 60s.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I've tromped through the swamps back there more than once and haven't found a vent.

Dove Morrison Thursday night though, I'll copy my dive report here:

Morrison Springs 2-26-9 Dive Report

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Got an email from DogHouseDiver with his intentions to bug out of work early and hit up Morrison Thursday night(PM) and that I could come along. I shot SeaYoda a message to see if there were any signs out with closing times or if hours of operation were discussed at the ribbon cutting and he said it didn't seem like there were any closing hours, so I told DHD I was in!

I get a text around 4:30 in the afternoon,

"Departing Calvert, Waffle House at 5:30 looks good. Operation Dark Virgin is a go."

The only reply could be,

"10-4 on dark virgin penetration, departing at 5:30"

By this time, I figured I was either diving Morrison, or had come down with a case of jungle fever.

Regardless, a little ahead of schedule, DHD and I were heading East with a hybrid full of dive gear making 40+mpg. We caught some rain between Loxley and Pensacola but had cleared out of it just East of there. We made it to Morrison around 7:30 and were happy to find the gates open and the park lights were still on. Nobody else was there, so we'd have the divesite to ourselves. I walked down to the water via the floating platform and shined a light down, happy to see that I could make out the bottom below me and even the bottom further out. I was expecting much more tannic intrusion but found clear water! The bad weather was still quite a bit further west and the skies were super clear and the stars were showing brightly. We had no idea if we'd be exitting in a thunderstorm despite the great weather of the moment.

I hauled a couple AL80s, that I had used the last time DogHouseDiver and I had done a few dives over in Wakulla, to the floating platform. The tanks still had a ton of gas in them. Then I started getting the rest of my gear in order. There are two strong aluminum ladders on the dive platform for exitting(and entering I guess) the water. They are narrow, so if I were any wider, I'd have an issue. Also, the extra width of sidemount tanks in place means that climbing out with tanks intact was out of the question. The ladder rungs, while strong, are a bit narrow as well. Entering the water, I tossed one tank in the water, climbed partially down the ladder, hooked up my left tank(with inflation) and put the other tank on underwater.

Visibility was easily 25-30' in the basin and the tannic intrusion, what little there was, was only noticable when you were around the spring entrance and had a direct contrast between the azure blue spring water and the ever slightly greenish tinged water intruding the basin. I tied off a primary(the rope is still there, so not necessary, but its a good place to practice regardless) and zipped into the cavern, running the line around the entirety and back on itself. We then zipped around the cavern, enjoying the free cavern that's cost me so much damned money. Its still my favorite cavern and I can't help but think about how amazing it was before a Sheriff ordered the cave dynamited shut in 1968. One thing I did notice, theres a big chain around the big bolder on the leftside of the cavern(looking in). It seriously looks like they yanked that boulder over ontop of the vertical vent across the floor a bit to impede anyone's ideas of zipping down that vent. The vent is definately far smaller than it used to be. The eels were out in force, as well as the catfish(including one really nice sized one). In OW by the entrance, a pair of striped bass sat in the flow. Rock bass, small mouth, and bream of all sorts could also be found in open water. We saw plenty of crawfish marching around the bottom of the basin and even found a few glass shrimp. The place was packed with life! Had a max depth of 92' for a dive lasting about an hour.

Once back on the dive platform, we decided we'd do another dive. This time just in the cavern(our first dive was 1/3rd an AL80 in the cavern then about 40 minutes in OW) to keep from getting too cold. I waited on the floating dock for DHD to grab another tank. Surface interval was 20 minutes before I was descending back in the water with one tank attached, to find my other tank on the bottom to hook up and start the dive. I passed the reel off to DHD this time around and we zipped into the cavern and made another circuit. We had fun running around the cavern again until a 3rd of his AL80 had been spent and we exitted. Spent a couple minutes in the depression before I thumbed the dive. The weather had cooperated and the star were still out, showing no signs of the storms we had left behind further west. I had a max depth of 86' for a dive lasting 35 minutes. I somehow went two dives back to back without peeing on myself.

Gearing down was easy, the parking lot wasn't even sandy yet Hit the bathrooms, which were strangely clean and even stocked with TP. Where's the Morrison of yesteryear? All in all, the pristine asthetics that Morrison had are gone, but the park they built is very nice and the dive is still great. I still miss the old Morrison and I feel privelaged to have dived it before it was a proper park area. Its still a great place to go and you won't need multiple vaccinations after using the fascilities there anymore.

[DKKearns]

Mat,

Since you miss the old Morrison, here are two pictures of it...one in 1970 and one in 1977 where I'm teaching my dog to snorkel.

Donn

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Great shots Donn, thanks for sharing. I have a ton of shots from Morrison from 2004 to present, but nothing from the '70s!

[DKKearns]

Glad you liked them. If you want to see more of the old pictures of the springs/sinks, I posted a lot from the '60s and '70s on my Facebook site.

Donn

[FW]

The Facebook part of this thread was moved to the Fill Station.