Diving Lake Powell

[wingman]

Thinking about doing some dives to submerged ruins in Lake Powell this spring/summer. Anyone here been there and done that? Logistic info would be appreciated especially with regard to breathing gasses in the page az area. Doesn't appear to be any other diving related threads here. Thanks. Bill

[Reedus]

Lake Powell is not that great of a destination for diving. The problem is the visiblity, especially in late spring/early summer, is extremely low. The best you are going to get is 5-6 feet.

[Iceaxe]

Been there, done that.... not much to see. Spend the money and head to the ocean.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[wingman]

Lake Powell is not that great of a destination for diving. The problem is the visiblity, especially in late spring/early summer, is extremely low. The best you are going to get is 5-6 feet.

Is that visibility uniformly distributed with depth? How about above and below the thermocline and at what depth is that usually? Five to 6 feet is not great but better than zero. Thanks.

[wingman]

Been there, done that.... not much to see. Spend the money and head to the ocean.

How deep and were you able to find any submerged ruins? Have you photographed any of them. I live at the ocean, well on the Gulf of Mexico but the atlantic is not that far away here in Florida. :)

[oldno7]

Not to disagree, but, I disagree.

Water clarity is quite good at times, I have a depth finder on my boat and can often see bottom at 40-50'.

[Iceaxe]

In September and October the water at the southern end gets really clear and visibly is not the issue. More like there is nothing to see at 100' you can't see with a snorkel at 10'. I never tried to dive ruins as most the ruins in Glen Canyon were not that impressive to begin with. I've dove near the dam by where the power station pumps water out. It's a 600' vertical wall and you dive the face of it. I've also dived Padre Bay several times. I would not consider diving anything north of Bullfrog or anytime before Labor day. The bass are the coolest thing I found to look at when diving powell.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[oldno7]

And this little natural disaster in the making, is not good.

http://www.nps.gov/glca/parknews/musselupdate.htm.

[oldno7]

And if your goal is to visit dwellings that are under water, give it a year or two and we'll all walk to em.

[DesertDuke]

Head to Lake Mead for diving. I have always been amazed at the water clarity. It doesn't have the scenery that Lake Powell does but I think it is far ahead for clarity. The Bomber at the bottom is too far down for conventional divers to see (Link about Lake Mead Bomber). When the lake receded and it did expose ruins just like OldNo7 is saying might happen with Lake Powell. (Link about ruins) They aren't particularly interesting and I wouldn't spend my time diving for anything similar.

@oldno7, I watched Lake Mead go from just a few Zebra Mussels to having every inch covered (at least where I was going). That is certainly bad news though I believe it was inevitable and I am sorry to hear that they are showing up in Powell. Previous post on Mussels

[Scott P]

I don't think that there would be much left of any ruins under Lake Powell. They are made of adobe, which would dissolve when submerged under water.

There were some impressive ruins that were covered up, but they are probably gone.

[Byron]

Back in the 80s, when I lived in California, my dad and I would dive Lake Havasu. There was just one spot we would hit, every time. It was a cliff that all the crazy, drunk partiers who launch themselves...a somewhat famous spot where dozens of boats would be at any time during the summer.

We would go there in October after everyone cleared out and find wallets, watches, jewelry...all on a shelf about 50 feet down. One year we gathered scores of golf balls. Not much to see otherwise.

I'd forget the idea of diving Powell for ruins...quite frankly, good luck finding them.

[Mtnseeker1]

If you find my kitchen from my 83 float that went bad let me know.