United States » Anderson Spring

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Rated 2.6/5 stars (350 ratings) Thanks for rating this cave system!

Overview Location & Specifics Conditions Resources Nearby Systems  
Portions of the following information were taken from Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 66.

From the intersection of US 90 and River Road in Ellaville, drive south on River Road approximately 2.2 miles to the intersection with the first road on the west side (right) past the I-10 overpass. Turn west (right) and travel approximately 0.3 miles to a dirt parking area. The spring is located north (right) of the parking area.

Description – Anderson Spring forms an oval spring pool that is 6 ft long and 3 ft wide. Its depth is 3 ft. The spring vent discharges water directly into the Suwannee River. The vent is located about 10 ft down on the river’s bottom. Spring water is clear and yellow-greenish. Limestone is exposed at the vent. There are variable amounts of algae within the vent and the surrounding depression; however, there is no other aquatic vegetation present. The state-owned area surrounding the spring is comprised of limestone outcrops covered with lush ferns and moss. High ground rises to about 25 ft above the spring. Discharge on September 22, 1997 was estimated to be 15 ft3/sec.

Utilization – Reportedly has been used for swimming by local residents. No facilities. Divers identify Anderson Spring as being in the bed of the Suwannee River, adjacent to this land site (L. I. Briel, oral commun., March 31, 1976).
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Latitude: 30.35214
Longitude: -83.1883
Zone:
Coordinate System:
Maximum Depth: 80'
 Cave Diving
 Cavern Diving
 Open Water Diving
Date Submitter Visbility Remarks
7/2/2017 Elisha Gibson ? Went to Anderson to do a dive and decided against it. The Suwannee River has come up a few feet and covered the spring boil. It may be dive-able, but we didn't see any trace of clear water or visible boil. From here we went to P1 and decided not to dive that either (gator and gross basin) and then headed to Little River where we had an amazing dive!
7/17/2016 IowaCaveDiver 25 Boil on the surface, flow is kickin! Lots of sand moved within the system. Run your primary reel past the first sight of gold line, as it is buried super deep not far ahead. You are best to run your reel all the way to the drop off tube. Line was buried in multiple places but was able to dig most of it out. Jump to the right is majorly filled in with sand and is now a major restriction to access (sidemount only). Better run an explorer reel in this passage, as the line is buried everywhere beyond recovery. Be cautious farther back in on the mainline, as soft clay floor has been exposed and will be easily damaged with any contact. Great dive, I plan on returning soon!
12/12/2015 Stacy Dreher 50 Conditions at Anderson have been excellent the past couple months. The flow is down since late November and the vis is great.
12/3/2015 Gene Page 50 Dove here with a few others, my first time. Flow was not bad going in but felt pretty strong in the vertical fissure. Went in BM about 450 feet then turned. (Max depth 87 feet.) Others in SM were able to go further in. Line and cave was in good shape and saw some bottles from decades ago as well as an un-fired shotgun shell at the entrance. Some broken glass so watch for it.
1/11/2014 Derek 40 Low to moderate flow. River level elevated so not much of a boil present. Line is in decent shape but buried in sand in a few places.
10/9/2013 Seanmeboy (via CDF) 20' Dived Anderson Springs for the first time for both of us yesterday. Titanic covered the boil. Did a pre dive snorkel with the light to see if things were clear in there it was! Some people may not be able to get into this one it took us two tries because of the flow through the little vent. Be wary of a little bit of fishing line around the entrance. Went in on the right side facing the river. Had to put a foot up to set the reel. 20 feet inside things calmed down. Line is in good shape. Silt in this one is not an issue at least the first 200 feet in. Vis was at least 20 feet. After the first drop down flow was ripping between the two vertical walls. Regulators can easily free flow in this cave. Especially at the beginning with the flow is the hardest. Did not make it to the T. Because we did not re calculate after 3 attempts to get in to the Cave. Because of the flow felt like the last bug on your windshield wiper at times But it was a good workout and worth it if nothing else to see a ne.w system. Visual on Edwards from the surface. Tannic on top this one is definitely on my bucket list. Visual on Charles had that greenish yellowish tint to it. Nitrates? Not in a hurry to go here.
12/5/2012 JPC 30 Flow was relatively strong, strongest of the dives I've done in this system. Always a fun dive. Sand and silt will bury the line at points in low bedding plain section so it's important to stay aware of your surroundings.
2/6/2011 Iowa Cave Diver 50' Great dive... strong boil present at surface, river/tannic water blocking view of spring from surface, but cleared up just inside the cavern. Flow was moderate, my last visit was stronger. Line was in good shape, even in the side passage. I ran an explorer since the line was burried deep in several places, it was just easier than putting in a bunch of jumps. Great dive... highly recommend it to any mid-level sidemounters... can't beat free land access as well! Watch out for broken glass/bottles on the bottom of the cavern and first hundred feet or so of cave.
10/30/2010 Andy Lamborn 40-50ft Strong flow, but not too bad. The jump to the right needs line repair. Good dive!
9/8/2010 Scott 15 feet Flow is still noticeable, but down from where it has been at. The river level is lower than the last time I dove it back in April. The entrance flow was easily swam against with not an overexerting amount of pulling.
10/3/2009 Iowa Cave Diver 25' First time here... mainline is in good shape, just dug it out of silt/sand mounds in places and cleaned off a great deal of debree from tie off/wraps and line arrows. Billy is right that the line in the first jump is in very poor condition and needs replacing... heavier line is a must. Lots of particulate debree coming down from the ceilings in some places, but flow was kickin' and cleared out muck quickly. Basin is still a bit tannic but strong surface boil is present. Great dive!
8/9/2009 Billy Fowler 10-15' There has been a lot of activity within the system. The flow is almost back to normal but it is still a little lower than normal. The viz still has a tannic tint to it and it ranges about 10 to 15ft. I did a lot of work on the main line, getting it out of the sand and rerouting it so that it is off of the floor, the gold line is in good condition and now it is out of the sand in the front 600’ of the cave. It appears that all of the line on the jump to the right has been blown out, I plan on putting in some heavier white line in there on my next trip.
4/11/2009 DogDiver 01 Flooded :(
7/22/2008 Andy Pitkin 30-40' High flow. Line still buried in places. Water still has a faint green tint and plenty of particulates.
5/26/2008 Joe Tegg 15-20 High flow, tannic water. The line is covered over in many places due to major shifts in the cave because of new sand deposits in the system. Many of these "shifts in the cave passage" have caused the line to be in a line trap and not where the "sweet spot" is for the parts of the passage. The cave is also active right now, as in the bubbles from divers may cause some shifting in rocks. I'd give this system some time before diving it. We attempted some line repair and rerouting, but there was to many places that needed work. We will review this system after a few months of good pumping of clear water.
4/19/2008 DogDiver 0 Looked at Anderson today. Man what a boil!!! It would be like diving into a fire hydrant. Water is very tannic and the suwannee is still up...not diveble yet.
2/28/2008 DogDiver 0 Reversing, non divable
11/14/2007 Ken Anderson 80 The flow is still "kicking". The basin is very tanic right now. The Suwannee seems to be up a few inches and lots of tannic water in the spring basin. Vis in the cave is 80 . Nice site with new parking area and steps down to the river.
8/9/2007 Tom Hundley 60 Veru nice dive. I had been warned of the high flow but went right in without a problem. My buddy told me when the old line was in there it was not as safe and less interesing than with the new line. Thanks Billy F ! My dive date is off a bit as I misplaced or lost my dive computer at this time but it was late July. As with all things a cave has a since of humor and when exited I got pinned by the current that did not give me any problems going into it. Had I not been laughing at myself I might have gotten worried. Tom
8/4/2007 Cwalters Estimate 70' We dived Anderson last Saturaday and found the flow to be substantial, but had no problems entering or moving against the flow. It is necessary to slow yourself down on the way out. The visibility was very good and we just followed the mainline until things became a bit snug for backmount. I have been unable to find any maps of this system - are there any out there?
7/23/2007 Ken Anderson 80 Very nice site. New steps and parking area. Great vis, flow is kicken... Very good line condition, new main line. Now is the time to dive this site before the river goes up...
7/21/2007 Billy Fowler 40 -60 I have finished removing the old line, I still plan on installing arrows (someday) The flow is high, viz is great
6/19/2007 Ken Anderson 80 Did my first dive here today. Thanks for the new gold line, it really helps. I would describe this site as "Little River on Steroids"! Thanks again for the new line.
6/9/2007 Billy Fowler 40 New gold line has been installed in the front 1000ft of the system. There is still more work as I still need to remove the old line from 600’ to 1000’ and install line arrows on the new gold line. The viz is great, the flow is high :)
5/27/2007 Billy Fowler 30-40 Well the county has reopened the park, they have done extensive work on the park. They put up fencing all around the parking area, laid gravel throughout the parking lot and stairs down to the sandy drop, the boat launch has been closed and mostly removed. viz was 30 to 40 foot flow is still kicking. I had a great couple of dives. Please be careful as there is a reline project in the process! Reline will be completed 4/10/07
1/3/2007 SLIM 20-30 Flow down, once in much easyer to move though out the system. Lots of trash all over the area even up to about 1000 feet in. Only a jump was marked with arrows and no others seen in system just survey markers. 30 minute dive with a 15 minute exit. There is a large rock just as you try to get in that makes limits your area to work around. SLIM
8/1/2006 Craig Gaffka 30' Ginnie x2 flow and even worse at the entrance. The cave is quite nice however, the flow forced me to turn earlier than thirds with an exhilarating exit to say the least.
4/15/2006 John LaManna 70'-80' I took me three tries to get into it because the flow was incredible coming out of it. After a tough fight using my hands and feet to get in, we picked up the main line and got off to the side out of the flow to get ourselves together some. The permanent line in very old, and it is in need of replacing. It looked like old brown twine. We headed in the cave, the flow was still very, very strong. It was hand over hand the whole way in. The visibility was real good, 70 - 80'. After dropping off our deco bottles, we went around a few corners before the line dropped straight down thru a big hole. After descending down, we were in a real pretty canyon area, with real high walls, but the fissure we were in was quite narrow. Definitely a sidemount cave. We came to a "T" in the line, which we went left, and it was marked with dorf arrows. We continued on until thirds, and turned the dive, and that's when the fun started. The flow was pushing us out so hard that we had to literally drag our hands and feet on the fissure walls to control our ascent. We really took a beating on the way out. And getting out of the mouth of the cave in kinda tricky. We had to go to the far right, then let go and the flow threw us out the mouth. We grabbed large rocks, which either rolled over, or came with us out. It was a workout, but definitely worth seeing.
10/1/2005 TJ 25' Flow extreme out of entrance, but once in, it is easy to pull & glide over to the shafts and into the cave.
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Description Type Date Author Remarks
 System Map Map 2009 D. Hynes Digitally redrawn
 System Map #2 Map 2009 D. Hynes Digitally redrawn
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