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Dive Reports Dive Report - Peacock Springs State Park update
Dive Reports Dive Report - Peacock Springs State Park update | Dive Report - Peacock Springs State Park update |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Tuesday, 02 October 2007 | |
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Peacock Springs State Park - The Park is back open to cave diving, but not cavern diving. Visibility reports have been in the 20-30' range with some areas of the cave a little colder than normal. Reports for Peacock III are that visibility is in the 5-10' range and there is a discernible flow siphoning into the cave. The river level has also been dropping steadily, so it looks like the systems may stay open for the rest of the year. 10/7/09 - Back to Peacock I for a couple more dives. The water level in the basin has dropped about a foot since we were here last month. The basin also looks a little murkier than it was, but it's by no means horrible. Visibility along the Peanut Line back to the Crossover Tunnel and in t Crossover Tunnel was a good 40-50'. We had similar conditions along the Olsen line until we got to the area where the line crosses through the window in the limestone. The water was pretty milky there and visibility cut down to about 10-15' for about 100' of passage. It opened back up again. We have had some rain this week so this could be some rain intrusion that's happening in that area. 9/6/09 - Peacock has had a up and down season with the rain we've been getting. We were just in Orange Grove for a quick dive about 2 weeks earlier. The basin is still pretty murky on top, but clears up to the normal 40-60' of visibility at about 20-25' depth. Our latest dive was along the Peanut and Olson Lines, including the Crossover Tunnel. Visibility throughout this part of the system was in the 40' range. Even the cavern and basin are fairly clear. The park also started letting cavern divers back at Peacock I a couple of weeks ago. Conditions will hopefully continue to improve. 7/18/09 - We've made several trips over to Peacock Springs State Park over the past year, including doing the Grand Traverse, as well as other springs in the area. This most recent trip to PSSP was a trip made for the purpose of completing the NSS-CDS Instructor Institute. So the dives didn't involve a lot of penetration, but it still gave us an idea of what is going on in the system. All dives were done in Peacock I on the Peanut Line side of the passage. Maximum penetration was 600'. Visibility was pretty good, remaining in the 40-60' range. The water was a little chillier than normal, remaining at 70 degrees, almost panhandle temperature! A couple of dives were done, mainly focusing on skills. It was still good to get back over to PSSP. 11/24/08 - Another trip back to central cave country and some more dives in Peacock. We started off in Orange Grove to find visibility in the 60-80' range in the basin and the cave. Water temperature was 70 degrees. The water level comes up to the bottom step and does cover the large rock just under the stairs so there is somewhere to stand in the water. The basin is covered in duck weed. Air temperature was in the low 60s. Moving over to Peacock I in the afternoon, we found very similar conditions. Visibility was about 60' with water temperature 70 degrees. The water level is just below the bottom step but does cover all the side steps. The basin is looking pretty clean with only a little duckweed floating around. Also went over to Peacock III before the end of the trip. The basin there is covered with duckweed. Visibility in the basin is about 30' or so and cuts down to about 20' in the cave. We went back to the 2nd jump and headed a few hundred feet into that passage and the visibility didn't seem to change. It was a little worse on the way back due to the percolation. Water temperature was also 70 degrees. Great time diving at Peacock Springs and we're looking forward to getting back there soon! 9/16/08 - We headed back to north central cave country again. Peacock has been having its ups and downs this year with all the rain we've been getting. On this particular day, it was up! We headed down the Peanut line for our first dive. Visibility was in the 50-60' range throughout the dive. Even the basin was clear this day. Although, it did have a fine film of...something...on the surface. Water temperature was 70 degrees. A word of warning - bring bug spray when you head to Peacock. The mosquitos are out in full force and will stop at almost nothing to get some blood! 6/1/08 - Peacock Springs State Park is now open for diving. Visibility isn't the best, but it keeps improving every day. Latest reports have it at 20' in some sections and up to 60' in other sections. The Peacock I basin is quite nasty, though. If you plan on exiting there, bring the ear drops and some water to rinse off with. There's no telling what's living in there! We'll be there in a couple of weeks to see how things are for ourselves. 5/1/08 - Well, the visibility in the Peacock system is much better and it would be suitable for diving. However, the scheduled roadwork was delayed. In fact, it hasn't even begun yet. The trucks are there with the materials, but the park will probably not open for diving until after Memorial Day weekend. If that changes, we'll let you know. 4/13/08 - The park has been closed since the end of February. Lots of rainfall in south Georgia cause the Suwannee River to rise quite a bit. Most of the steps at the park leading to the basins are underwater. Peacock I basin is now connected to Peacock II and III. Bonnet Spring is also connected to Peacock III. Reports also said Cisteen Sink and Orange Grove basin are connected. This means river water intrusion everywhere. It also means no diving. The park rangers have closed the park to all divers. It looks like it might open up in May after a 2 week closure at the end of April for road maintenance. We'll keep you updated. 10/1/07 - We headed over to PSSP for the day. It's been about a year and a half since we've been in Peacock I (the last couple of trips we've been visiting Peacock III and Lower Orange Grove). It's only a couple of degrees warmer than the fresh water springs of the panhandle, but 2 degrees makes a difference! Water temperature was 71 degrees. The basin had about 3' of visibility, but drop down and pop 5' into the cavern and the visibility opens up to about 50'. We got in the water, clipped on our tanks, did our predive checks, and dropped into the cavern. We took the Pothole line back to Olsen Sink, then headed back to the Crossover Tunnel line, made the jump, headed to the Peanut Line, jumped to it, and started heading toward the cavern. We were able to make it back to the cavern 50 minutes after we left it and on thirds. We'd almost forgotten how beautiful a system Peacock I is. The rock formations and sand hills are absolutely stunning. Peeking up at Olsen Sink was also amazing. During our surface interval we topped off our tanks and ate lunch. We headed back to PI and geared up for our 2nd dive. This time we headed down the Peanut line. We hit the Peanut Restriction and just swimming through the restriction caused quite a silt cloud. We decided to turn the dive and headed back to the Crossover Tunnel. We grabbed the spool we had left on the previous dive, headed to the Pothole Line and made our way out of the cave. This dive lasted almost an hour and a half. We had a couple of great dives and look forward to returning to Peacock again soon! |
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