Last minute Mike and I decided to head down to Roubidoux Springs for a weekend of Cave Diving at Roubidoux and Cannonball. We left around 7 am from Chicago and got out to the Firehouse Communication desk in Waynesville to check in at around 1pm.

 Certified Cave Divers are allowed to dive Roubidoux Springs as long as they register at the public Safety communication center in Waynesville, Missouri. Please make sure you sign in first and obtain the key for the gate to enter the cave.  Everyone must also check out before nightfall and drop off the key with the Communication center.

 The Spring breaks the surface at the base of a Limestone cliff where reinforced concrete has been set in place so the road does not wash out. The water connects with Roubidoux creek just down stream from the resurgence. We got to the spring and I was pleased to see the crystal clear waters boiling out of the cavern entrance.  We drive down and notice that the OCDA (Ozark Cave Diving Alliance) was there working on a deep penetration into the system.Currently the System has been mapped to over 11,000ft. with no end in site.  Click on this link for more information http://www.ocda.org/?page_id=146

It was good to meet Dirk Bennett and the other members as they talked about the springs that they survey along with sump dive projects that they want to work on in the future. They are very team oriented and have some interesting setups for their projects I enjoyed learning about.

 Mike and I gear up and I tie off a primary line to a rock and we went through our gear before entering the cave. There were some gear adjustments that were needed to be made and a light replacement that mike required.  The members of the OCDA assisted mike with that and he was all set.

 We enter the cave and I run the line to the gold line, tie it off, drop oxygen bottles, and perform a V-drill and equipment check to ensure we were good to go.

The cave itself extends for over a mile of passage with on apparent end in site. The watershed that this Resurgence accepts, appears to manage over a hundred miles of drainage but the submerged passage continues.  The entrance was big enough to fit one diver through at a time and opened up into a cavern room with a habitat to our left down passage. We followed the gold line and noticed the fluted passage walls cut by the water dance that the pressure creates from the CFs that are pushed through this cave. I was impressed with this cave and how the passage looked. It was about 35 to 50Ft from about 350ft and dropped down into a slopping passage that takes the cave down to a depth of 145ft.

Mike had some light source issues so I called the cave and we returned to the surface without incident or issue. We de-briefed and returned the key as the communication center and headed to a cave that I had coordinates. All in all it was a great day and I am glad we got to dive this cave.

more information about Roubidoux Spring. Click on the Link below

Roubidoux Spring Map, Missouri. Not my map.

Click on the photo to watch a great video by John Janzen on Roubidoux Spring, Missouri. Not my Photo.