Devil's Den

Our last stop in Florida is in Williston at Devil’s Den. This is a prehistoric spring attraction that also has a campground and cabins on the premises. Since we had such an intense few days in Orlando we wanted to find a relaxing location where we didn’t have to leave the grounds at all. Before getting to the campground we made a stop for lunch as I knew I would be cooking each meal for the rest of the week and I wanted something super greasy. Chris got himself some Popeyes and I went even worse with McDonald’s. That Big Mac was everything. I can’t remember the last time I had one of those. Once at the campground, we stop so I can check us in. We get our site information and make our way back to it. We set everything up. The carpets, sign, tiki man, dishy, fire pit, and propane tank, everything went out. We are here for the week so we wanted to be sure we were nice and cozy for it. We had no plans of going anywhere all week except to explore Devil’s Den.

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This meant that each day really only consisted of Chris working and me doing things for our social accounts. It seemed to rain for most of the week also so even when he was done with his workday we would sit inside watching TV. We had a cat that had found their way to the campground. Once we gave it some attention it didn’t leave. It stayed under our camper and came out when we were outside. When we had the door open it would find its way onto our stairs and just meow at us. I didn’t hate having the visitor. It was a very relaxing week of doing a bunch of nothing. Friday, on our last day we had made a reservation for 1 pm. We put our suits on, packed up our towels and GoPro, and made our way to the office. There we paid for our admission and rental of our snorkeling gear then made our way to a picnic table to leave our towels and clothes. We grab our gear, GoPro, and head down the stairs into the den. It is pretty cool. You walk down metal stairs to a platform that is in the water. Here you put your gear on and walk a couple more steps to swim out. Inside the dry cave is an underground spring that has an inverted mushroom shape below the surface, there is a 120 ft surface diameter, the maximum depth of the spring is 55 ft. and the water is 72 degrees year-round. Devil’s Den does not offer scuba diving lessons but it has turned into a location for scuba instructors to train.

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Below the surface are rocks and some fish of all sizes. There was also a turtle that was swimming around. I enjoyed watching the scuba divers. You see them go down until you just don’t see them anymore. I hope to learn to scuba some day but I think I’d like to learn somewhere with more wildlife. The admission gives you a 90 minute time to be down in the den but after about an hour, I was cold and had already swum the whole surface so we decided to get out and head back up. Once back at our table, I could barely feel my toes so I used their shower to stand under warm water for about 10 minutes to warm up. I was so glad they had these. Once done Chris and I return our gear and take a few pictures of the opening of the hole above the water. The name Devil’s Den was because in winter when it is very cold out steam will rise through the hole.

I was happy to be back at the camper. I put some cozy clothes on,  wrap up in a blanket, and find myself a seat on the couch to enjoy some TV. After dinner and cleaning up, we ended up pulling the fire pit out and sitting outside for a little bit before heading to bed. It is our last night here and haven’t been able to enjoy any time outside so we had to take advantage of it knowing we won’t have a fire for about a week. For our next 2 stops, we are only at each for 2 days so we only take out the necessities with stays that short.
​In the morning we were up early and getting things packed up ready to head out by 9 am. We have a 6-and-a-half hour drive so with stops it will be closer to 8 hours. Chris is finishing putting the power away, I have already put the stabilizers up and going to grab the blocks that are under them. The folks in the RV that pulled in last night while it was raining are talking to Chris. We chat with them for a few but it is now after 9 so I politely say we have to get on our way. We say goodbye and we go to finish hooking up to the truck. Once ready Chris pulled forward I put the level blocks away and jumped into the truck. I am curious to see how this drive goes. We have many long drives ahead of us so I wanted to see how well I did and what was my max I can sit in the truck without a stop. We pull out of the campground at 9:30 and are off. We have been in Florida for 3 weeks so I am excited to move to another state.

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