Portions of the following information were taken from Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 66.

The spring is located approximately 3.5 miles north of the town of Ponce de Leon in a privately operated park. From the intersection of US 90 and SR 81 in Ponce de Leon drive north on SR 81 approximately 3.8 miles to the intersection with Vortex Spring Road. Turn east (right) on Vortex Spring Road and travel approximately 0.7 miles to the private park entrance.

Description - Vortex Spring pool is nearly circular and measures 225 ft in diameter. The depth near the pool center is 48 ft. Clear, sky-blue water fills the large bowl-shaped depression. No spring boil was observed November 2002. The bottom is generally sandy with limestone near the vent. A relatively small spring run, called Blue Creek, exits on the east side of the pool and flows generally southward into Sandy Creek, which in turn flows into the Choctawhatchee River. There are multiple wooden swimming and diving platforms around the pool edge. The surrounding land is grassy and slopes upward to approximately 10 ft above the spring pool. The park is developed into a swimming and scuba diving recreational area. There is an extensive cave system associated with this spring that is frequented by cave divers.

Vortex spring is a major commercial operation ($25/day for diving) catering to Scuba training at all levels. Open 365 days a year and with an excellent flood control system to keep it clear, it is very popular as an Open Water certification site and is frequently quite crowded. For the cave diver in training, Vortex has two artificial training swim-through caves in the spring basin in addition to a respectable cavern area and cave. The cave itself is “fully developed” for the first 300 feet or so, sloping down from the cavern area at about 60 feet to a locked gate at 107 feet. This passage has flood control piping and a string of lights all the way to the gate in lieu of a main line. Even though it is beyond the NACD warning sign, the light string is just too attractive and this part of the cave is frequented by open-water divers who often keep it kicked up pretty bad. But if you hit it early in the morning or at night it’s usually clear and pretty. There are a couple of side passages before you get to the gate that are interesting, but the largest has been blocked with a grate after the last open-water diver fatality in there.

The cave beyond the locked gate (key available to full cave certified divers only) begins with a sand-bottom restriction that drops and opens into a domed room at 117 feet. The floor in this area is silty and easily kicked up, but there’s plenty of overhead room to stay well off the bottom once through the restriction. The main line is not gold line but regular braided nylon. From here the cave slopes up a few feet and changes to a sandy bottom, proceeding as a large solution tube for another couple hundred feet where the tube gives way to a vertical crack with beautiful water carved walls. Another hundred feet or so, beyond the crack is a medium-small (it’ll hold three divers comfortably with room to maneuver) room; the spring then becomes a long bedding plane restriction with just barely enough vertical clearance to continue with backmount (depending on the day – some days the sand is a little closer to the ceiling and backmount just isn’t an option). If you want to go through this second restriction I recommend side-mount. The bedding plane continues (sand bottom) for another hundred feet or so, then opens a little before the cave heads downward in a passage that soon becomes no-mount (and too small for me). I have heard from other divers that 150’ is reachable, but that things get pretty tight by then.

All-in-all Vortex is a very pretty – though short - cave once you get past the gate and the rototillers.