Blue Hole July 17-19

[mintaka]

Great video--Thanks.. Its got me excited about diving there.

 

[ABQdiver]

sight seeing in Santa Rosa, NM????
you are kidding, right?
sorry, nothing more than a few hotels, a McDonalds and a Dairy Queen. There is zero to do other than dive or read a book.

robin

Jeez, guess you've never been shopping at the Dollar Store?

 

[rookers]

Actually the drive/bicycle ride out to Puerto de Luna is really pretty. It's in a little canyon on the Pecos river. Also, if you like to road ride (bicycle), there is a great course heading out of town east-southeast past the truck stops, no cars for almost 30 miles to the turnaround. Along this road, a section of the old route 66 takes off to the north. It is unpaved and makes for pretty good mountain biking.
There is some nice sandstone bouldering just along the climb out of town on the same road if you have your climbing shoes. It's on private land, but I have never had any trouble there.
The hot rod museum in town is not very big, but has some nice specimens.
The place is mildly interesting if you are willing to invest a bit of effort.
I have been there way too much....

 

[DandyDon]

Would love to but (I have to brag a bit) I'm going to North Carolina to dive the wrecks out there!! I'm psyched!

Who you diving with? Done that one a few times. Real WWII wrecks, real history - and lots of fishes.

Great-- I'll be going by myself so I'll have plenty of room--I'm pretty excited to go having never been there before. Do most people stay in a particular motel ? Do you bring tanks or rent them there ?

Dan

Some like other hotels, but the Best Western Adobe is popular, the one I always use. Had a little difficulty getting the Divers rate last time, but the manager fixed it for me. Big rooms, nice location just across the freeway from the Hole.

I'm hoping to make this too. I'm thinking about camping though, if anyone is interested. I'll be driving from Colo Spgs, and have room for 1 or 4, depending on which vehicle I take.

Where do you camp?

Actually the drive/bicycle ride out to Puerto de Luna is really pretty. It's in a little canyon on the Pecos river. Also, if you like to road ride (bicycle), there is a great course heading out of town east-southeast past the truck stops, no cars for almost 30 miles to the turnaround. Along this road, a section of the old route 66 takes off to the north. It is unpaved and makes for pretty good mountain biking.
There is some nice sandstone bouldering just along the climb out of town on the same road if you have your climbing shoes. It's on private land, but I have never had any trouble there.
The hot rod museum in town is not very big, but has some nice specimens.
The place is mildly interesting if you are willing to invest a bit of effort.
I have been there way too much....

Lots of history around there. Coronado used the Puerto de Luna area for a winter campground on his explorations. "The Grapes of Wrath" includes scenes from Santa Rosa and a couple of scense in the movie were shot there. Some old, interesting buildings here and there.

 

[Waterskier1]

Where do you camp?

L

Santa Rosa State Park There are other campgrounds and RV parks too. This is where I've camped before, and seems to be where everyone I've talked to has camped.

 

[RonFrank]

I'd be happy to drive Ron .

dan

Wow, another Dan! This is going to get confusing...

If you want to plan on this, let's do so. We should exchange info. I'll PM you.

 

[Rudebob]

sight seeing in Santa Rosa, NM????
you are kidding, right?
sorry, nothing more than a few hotels, a McDonalds and a Dairy Queen. There is zero to do other than dive or read a book.
as far as is there anything to see? well, it is deep and dark and clear... I have over 100 dives there. Let's just say it is better than not diving.


all my Blue Hole videos: Blue Hole, New Mexico on Vimeo

robin

O.K. I now know what you mean. We did dive the hole yesterday. Just one dive since I only brought one tank for each of us. It is definately a unique dive site to say the least and I am glad we took the time to do it it even if just once. There were no other divers that we saw when we were there, and Stella, I guess, does not work on Mondays so it was good that we had all our gear. We did have to go to the cityhall building to buy a permit.

One thing I should have asked but did not even think about was the altitude change to expect driving home after diving. I was aware of the altitude of the hole and my computer makes automatic compensations. However, our original trip took us to Lubbock, Texas we came via I-10 and until the drive home yesterday I had not driven that far east on I-40 for more than 25 years. So we dove, immediately dried off and hit the road. I had no idea we would hit 6500 + feet (according to my GPS) in less than an hour after diving. I knew we would have to deal with Flagstaff but would have 6 - 7 hours to off gas. Fortunately, it was a single dive, we intentionally we did two extended safety stops at 30' & 15', I keep my computer set very conservatively, etc., so we made it home without issue. However, if I had known the altititude change immediately west of Santa Rosa, I would have likely spent an extra hour or two hanging around after the dive.

Anyway, thanks for the info. If any of you are ever in AZ and interested in any lake diving I would be happy to show you our "less than blue holes".

mg


BTW-The hole and a lunch from KFC was enough to keep my non-diving family occupied while we dived.

 

[RonFrank]

Looks like Dan is leaving Thursday evening.

I'm not sure I can do that with work, maybe. In any event, if not, I'm still looking to share a ride down leaving Friday.

 

[ddavies]

Looks like Dan is leaving Thursday evening.

I'm not sure I can do that with work, maybe. In any event, if not, I'm still looking to share a ride down leaving Friday.

I can go down with you. I know it is time to go diving when I sit and watch Robin's video of the Blue Hole wearing my mask and snorkel.

 

[RonFrank]

Hey Dan,

I'll be in touch.

An aside, anyone know where to get cheap airfills? I was told A1 is charging $12 a tank for air! :depressed: I need to check that, but if so, I'm looking for alternatives assuming there are some out there.