Balmorhea State Park

[txdano]

Anyone dive the spring fed pool out at Balmorhea State Park recently? Thinking about camping out that way, and was wondering if it was worth diving.

Thanks

 

[amascuba]

I have lots of dives logged there. It's a nice park for some nice relaxing dives. The water is about 75 - 78 degrees year round with a depth at around 22 feet at it's deepest place (and that's shoving your computer into the ground). The visibility really depends on how many people are in the pool. If you're the first ones in for the day then you can typically enjoy 80-100 ft visibility throughout the pool. If you get in during the middle of the day and there are allot of people then it will degrade in parts of the pool to around 20 ft.

There are several types of wildlife:

Freshwater Snails
Commanche Springs Pupfish
Mexican Tetra's
Crawfish
Softshell Turtles
Catfish

I really enjoy looking in all the crevices and hovering over the grassy area's looking for wildlife. The turtles hide in the grassy area's on the wall when they aren't out. It's also interesting seeing all the places where the water comes up through the ground. You will notice that allot of the places where the water comes out will have slightly warmer water. It's pretty cool.

In Oct - Nov of 2004 the mountains were getting allot of rain, which ruined the visibility to 1 - 5 foot visibility, but watching the water come out of the springs was awesome. They were pushing rocks that were about 2 - 3 inches wide about 4 foot up from the ground into the water. It was a really cool experience.

 

[scubabum2]

Balmorhea is a long drive but well worth the trip. If you go out there over Labor Day, you can take a short trip into Marfa for their Marfa Lights festival.

 

[txdano]

Thanks for the info guys, looks like a good place to practice some photography as well. We will check it out.

 

[amascuba]

there is definitely some photo opportunities at Balmorhea. Also You can go to ft. davis and check out Mcdonald observatory. I believe they have a star party every saturday night.

 

[texdiveguy]

For us here in the DFW area,,,it makes for a great log book entry dive,,,,fun....the surrounding area and attractions make for a nice trip.

 

[Willie]

I highly recommend at least one trip out to Balmorhea. Plan on spending a couple of nights if you can and at least one afternoon touring around in the mountains. That makes the long drive much more worth the cost in fuel and time.

Facilities at the park are quite comfortable and reasonable, IMO. It is a great trip for winter diving, as the water temp is nice and there are no swimmers when it is cold. I think it would make a great winter weekend Swampers outing.

 

[JessH]

I did some free diving there on the way back from a trip to Big Bend last spring. Honestly I was a little disapointed since I am used to swimming in Barton Springs in Austin and figured it would be bigger than it was. Unfortunately Barton Springs doesn't allow scuba diving.

When I was there it was raining so it was just me and my girlfriend in the water. I had a giant school of fish following me around the whole time which was kind of fun, but I swear they were trying to eat me..... I would like to go back and scuba dive there sometime but don't really feel that it alone justifies the trip from Austin. Combine it with some camping at Big Bend or one of the other surounding areas and you will have a great trip.

~Jess

 

[NadMat]

any trails to ride my bike in at Balmorhea? or should I ride elsewhere then stop and do a quick dive on way back to austin?

 

[TwoBitTxn]

any trails to ride my bike in at Balmorhea? or should I ride elsewhere then stop and do a quick dive on way back to austin?

State Park Guide

No bike trails.

TwoBit