Colorado's Holy Grail of diving??!!

[boulderjohn]

This is starting to irritate me.

As one who is less than enchanted with local diving, I am most interested, and wish there was more than just teasing here!

 

[Wijbrandus]

You know he posted it that way just to drive you crazy.

Do what I did, and spend a few hours puzzling out his location. It took me three hours, but I got really close, and his actual location was number two on my list.

Hell, it beats the crap out of actually working for that time...

(Hint: Google Earth is your friend.)

 

[Divedoggie]

We are back!
While it wasn't the "grail dive", it was awesome.

I will post pics tomorrow(Sat) Its late now.

The powers that be raised the level of the resevoir about 10 feet and it caused a lot of drift wood and debris from the sides of the lake to float into the lake, so the water was not clear like we thought.

We did have up to 20 feet vis, amazing wall dives, and unbelievable scenery. We caught a few salmon during SI's, too. We found the railroad bridge. We used old fotos of the steam locomotive chugging along to pinpoint the location. Then we used the boat's depth finder to pinpoint it. We dropped a measured weighted line off a SMB to the railroad grade. Its only 60 feet down, but poor viz and very dark conditions forced us to move to the wall at 52 feet and work along it horizontally, and then on ascent. The walls are sheer, and the old railroad grade clings to the side of a narrow 100 foot deep sheer cliff. That cliff rises another 1000 feet out of the water. It is spectacular, but unless the water clears up significantly, its not feasible to dive it.

2nd dive was much further down the resevoir at a place called Hermits Rest. There was a horseshoe shaped cove with max depths around 40 feet. We descended down a wall, moved straight across the cove along the bottom, and then followed the contour of the horseshoe back around. ABout a 45 minute dive.

Air temps were low 90s, water surface temp 62 degrees, 10 feet down 52 degrees, and at 23 feet, 45 degrees.

I will give log details along with pics tomorrow.

The lake is Morrow Point Resevoir, just west of Blue Mesa resevoir.

Blue Mesa looked really good. I walked out on the dock and could clearly see fish 20 - 25 feet down. Thats in the marina, where the water is stirred up and not as clean. I have a map with every building in every little town that was submerged in the 1960s. The map is updated to include GPS locations and depths on contour lines.
1 town sits 50 feet down 13 buildings in one location, and 10 in another. Lets go!
1 sits 90 to 110 feet down...maybe they will lower the res at the end of the summer.
1 sits 250 feet down......bummer

More later...

 

[ABQdiver]

Good report! Looking forward to the pictures. Does that lake get much algae bloom?

 

[Divedoggie]

Kevin, I think that both lakes are cold enough, and have enough water turnover to prevent much algea bloom. Our guides are going to keep their eyes on the lakes for the rest of summer, now that they know what we are looking for.

I can't find the correst USB cable to download the pics, so we may need to wait until tomorrow to post the pics. I will give it a try after dinner. We are grilling for my dive buddy Matt, and his wife.

 

[fire_diver]

"The lake is Morrow Point Resevoir, just west of Blue Mesa resevoir."

Is this located south of Gunnison?

FD

 

[boulderjohn]

Air temps were low 90s, water surface temp 62 degrees, 10 feet down 52 degrees, and at 23 feet, 45 degrees.

OK, for me that slips well out of the Holy Grail range. I can handle mid 50's, I think, but 45 is a bit nippy for me.

Unless I [sigh] reverse a decision I made a while ago that I would not get involved in dry suit diving. [Yes, it's a comparison of the expense with the number of times I saw myself using it.]

 

[pipefish]

Wow doggie, this sounds really good! Thanks for the awesome report. Let's do Blue Mesa! How'd you get your hands on such a detailed map?

PF:14:

 

[ddavies]

Wow doggie, this sounds really good! Thanks for the awesome report. Let's do Blue Mesa! How'd you get your hands on such a detailed map?

PF:14:

Pipefish you beat me to it. I wanted to know where he got the map too. I have been trying to get details on the towns in Blue Mesa since I first heard about it last year.

45 -- I am glad I bought a dry suit. Now if it will only get here so I get some practice before we go to Blue Mesa. :shakehead

I assume you are keeping who these guides are as top secret.

 

[Divedoggie]

Here are some pics from Morrow Point.
It was not the grail of Colorado diving!
You can see from the pics, that it was cool! I would do it again in a second!

Blue Mesa is west of Gunnison, Morrow Point is West of Blue Mesa. The Lake Fork Marina on Blue Mesa has exclusive rights for power boats and guiding on Morrow Point, so reservations must be made there.
Anyone can hike down the 500 steps into the canyon and along the old railroad grade until it submerges. Then its sheer cliffs and water.

Morrow Point Res is used for hydro electric production, and the water levels can fluctuate quite a bit. The debris and drift wood along the sides, floats out to the middle when the water levels are raised. This is what happened to us, and it effected visibility. Lower water levels and less spring run-off will make it all better. Plus the lower water levels will enable us to dive on sites that are too deep when the res is full.

I think that accessibility, consistency, and economically, Blue Mesa makes more sense. An 8 person pontoon boat, which has a canopy, and makes an excellent dive platform, can be rented for $28.00 a person(8 people) for 12 hours, and that includes fuel. Viz looked to be between 15 - 25 feet in the morning.