| 7/30/2022 |
Bama Diver |
15-20 feet |
Some flow. NOthing to compare to since was my first time. |
| 6/27/2021 |
AndrewJ |
20-30' |
Conditions pretty good. Some of the line needed tidying up, a few placements had come loose. |
| 12/8/2020 |
AndrewJ |
20' |
Viz 20ft and a little milky. |
| 12/8/2017 |
Peter |
15’ getting in, 2’ getting out |
Basin is full with a healthy runoff flow. Not much junk in cave from last reversal except for the usual silt. Cave line and silt stakes in good shape. Have I just become fatter or is the first sandbar restriction bedding plane a few inches higher? I had to plow through a bit to get further in. |
| 1/8/2016 |
M Bloedorn |
N/A |
Park is open for diving, but the river water is now high enough to flood Charles. River water in the basin and no visible flow from spring. |
| 10/23/2015 |
Ryan |
0 |
Park is closed for repairs not sure when it will reopen. |
| 11/18/2014 |
Peter |
20-30' |
Basin and runoff channel are full of water. Flow inside was light. Lots of very loose silt in tunnel. Just swimming through and exhaust gas would stir up a little silt. The new line installed is great, but there still is some old tangled black line found in some places. A good side mount dive as long as you are careful and not stir up the silt. Max depth 24', dive time 50 minutes |
| 8/9/2014 |
Jason |
25 |
Vis was nice. Could see both walls almost the entire dive. Swimming is a bit of a workout for the first 300'. After that not bad. The first two T's have been removed (BM bypass). The line is in great shape, recently replaced. Turned at the first restriction at 1100'. |
| 6/28/2014 |
Walter Pickel |
25 |
Flow has returned with a vengeance. Nice to see the spring flowing this well. |
| 12/27/2013 |
David Moore |
15' |
First time to dive this spring. Vis was decent and flow was good. Very nice cave. |
| 12/15/2013 |
Bil Lindstrom |
15' |
Nice flow, spring run while not up to the levels the banks indicate it used to be, it now runs all the way down to the river. That was nice to see. I stayed right at the tees and went back a good way. The line is in good shape, a few silt stakes are down, but still intact. Loads of baby catfish, and they were not lethargic at all. Very fluffy silt throughout, be on your best behavior if you go! Depth at p.300' was 23'; depth at p.700' was 18'. Stayed in that range for the whole time. |
| 10/22/2013 |
Jason |
15' |
Cool cave. Had significant flow. Exit vis was reduced. |
| 3/3/2012 |
T.Wood |
20' |
Mainline is near entrance, which is under the land bridge on the far right viewed from the stairs. Silt screws were often pulled out, but line was in good condition. Plethora of baby catfish, freshwater clams and a few snails, but many animals moved slowly or staid still (possibly due to low DO. No connection to river via surface).
The low flow and high propensity to silt along with the cave size make this a bad choice for unskilled sidemount divers. |
| 12/29/2011 |
FW |
20' |
Still no water in the run. No detectable flow. Viz about 10' at the entrance, around 20' towards the back. It still silts out in the first couple hundred feet, but only percolates farther back. Lines are in better condition than when I was last there, a couple years ago.
While I was in the cave, my primary tieoff was moved. There were some teenagers watching me get in the water, so it could have been them. |
| 10/13/2011 |
nick hargreaves |
30 feet in zero on exit |
the run is dry, a slight ripple on the surface of the head pool to indicate flow. very low and silty approx 28 inches floor to ceiling. carried on for 30 feet past where the line splits but it closed down even more so we turned it and exited in line contact due to the unavoidable silt cloud we had made. the line appears in good condition but some more substantial silt screws are needed as the present ones are a little loose |
| 9/14/2010 |
Walter Pickel |
5-20 |
First time in this system and really liked it. This is definitely a sidemounters cave. Made it through the first 3 restrictions and almost to the sinkhole. Had to turn on time as had be back in Tampa early. I would say this system is done for a while. The run is completely dry and although there was a positive flow, it was just barely enough to keep you honest. |
| 1/16/2010 |
Mathew Bull |
Tannic |
Tannic from the surface, but somewhat clearish. |
| 1/13/2010 |
Kenneth Richard Sørensen |
2-3 |
The viz was approximately 2-3 feet, we dived for 5 minutets before we turned, as the viz wasn't getting any better. |
| 2/22/2009 |
Mathew Bull |
clearish |
I'd estimate 10' from the surface, looked good enough. Would have took a dip if I didn't have a 5 hour ride home to get started on. |
| 12/4/2008 |
Ginger |
6-10 ft |
Spent a lot of time cleaning line and removing crap off it, digging it out of silt mounds and at one point fixed a broken bit… the line is in reasonable condition generally speaking. The shallow depth allows for a long bottom time. Vis is nothing to write home about, but enough to see in front of ya. |
| 5/10/2008 |
Shirley Kasser |
not bad |
The spring run is dammed up. The pool is about 3' deep near the first land bridge. There was a ton of debris caught up in the myriad of lines. We removed a good bit of it, but plenty remains. The cave is a dark one, but the flow was sufficient to clear out the silt we stirred up clearing the lines fairly quickly. We spent 33 minutes in the cave, never getting deeper than 24'. |
| 4/16/2007 |
Paul Hartwick |
5'-10' |
The spring run is dry. Dove there for the first time and took the left of the two lines going through the entry restriction. The line was buried in silt after the restriction, but was a short jump to find the other line. Please e-mail if you know of a map or more info. |
| 3/30/2007 |
kevin |
20 ft ad silty |
The water in the pool was dark and only about 3 ft deep. There was no boil and no discernable flow. Silt has piled up making it hard to get past the restriction. We only made it a few feet past the 3rd pvc pipe and only after some digging. We retreated in 0 viz when the floor and the ceiling became too close together. It was my first dive at Charles so I don't have anything to compare it to, but unless there is another way in, getting through the restriction in backmount is challenging right now. |
| 10/12/2006 |
Billy Fowler |
15-20ft |
Great viz, no flow, anyone know of a map for this system |
| 8/31/2006 |
Craig Gaffka |
5-10' |
Charles spring has been reduced to Charles sink. The spring run has completely dried up the systems overall flow is a trickle. The visibility was pretty poor about 5' for the majority of the dive.
|
| 10/24/2005 |
John LaManna |
30' with particulates |
Dove Charles three times the week of Oct. 24th. Strong boil at surface. Nice shallow dive, with max depth of 24'. After entering, you swim under two natural bridges, and the cave starts on the right just past the second bridge. The permanent line starts immediately upon entering, and there's a white sand/silt restriction for the first 50', then it opens up large with passages 8 to 12 feet high. Bring plenty of clothespins due to several "T"'s, and splits in the line. As you go in, the main line has another line also tied to it, but both go out. One of the lines must have been under the silt in the past, but was uncovered by the strong flow. Once inside, it's easy to swim, or pull and glide with little effort. I went in 45 minutes the longest I have been in there, not sure how many feet back, but it was still going. Very nice dive. |
| 9/17/2005 |
Joe Tegg |
10-15ft |
Dove the first 500ft of the cave since it had reversed. There was a line flapping in the current so I removed it (it T'd back into the mainline anyway). I figure a couple more weeks of current may help bring the vis back up to the more normal 40ft or so. |
Portions of the following information were taken from Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 31.
System Map
Cow Spring
True
False
Royal Spring