Diving in or near Amarillo

[cbrich]

I am going home for the 4th of July weekend, and looking for some dive spots and possibly a dive buddy if you are interested. The last time I dove the Stillen basin and the Blue Hole was back in 99. The Blue Hole is too far to drive in a day, and the Stillen Basin attracted the wrong type of people.

Does anybody know of a dive spot in Lake Meredith or Greenbelt Lake?

 

[RumBum]

The closest place I know of is Lake Alan Henry. Family Scuba out of Midland dives there and may be doing charters, too. Ask for Mark or Linda (432) 686-7333.
It's still not terribly close to you.

Where is Stillen Basin?

 

[DandyDon]

What is Stillen Basin and what does it attract? I googled and only found this thread.

Amarillo to Santa Rosa is 171 miles, maybe a little closer than Lake Alan Henry - but I don't care for lake diving, at least around here. We're getting rains from the remnants of hurricane Alex this weekend which might cloud things up more.

Well, I guess you are already in Amarillo, I was at Broken Bow lake OK last week, but I would have suggested not bothering to take the gear - like I didn't last week.

 

[ibj40]

If you want to do a zero-viz dive, you could try Lake Meredith.

 

[DandyDon]

I forgot to mention our flash flood warnings - being extended repeatedly.

 

[amascuba]

Diving around Amarillo? You pretty much named em.

The Stillen Basin is the holding pond on the other side of the dam at Lake Meredith. Some people call it Spring Canyon. It's liable to be packed with party goers this weekend. Otherwise that would probably be your best bet for "close" to Amarillo. Visibility this time of year is 1 - 10 feet.

Lake Greenbelt is shallow and has a ton of hydrilla to get tangled up in.

The few times that I've done Blue Hole on July 4, We've had the place to ourselves and have had the best visibility that I've ever seen at the Blue Hole.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I was desperate to get wet and dived Stillen Basin in April. Vis was 2' even with 50F temp. I surfaced at 30 minutes, the first time I have ever called a dive. Lake Meridith is at a record low level, even worse.

Blue Hole is fine, but expect a lot of swimmers on the weekends after 10AM. Few if any divers this weekend. If you are going to do it, get there early. Perch Lake (about 2 miles down the road) had 10' vis on Friday. It is worthwhile for something different after the hole, but not great. Both are an easy 2.5 hours from Amarillo.

 

[DandyDon]

Well at least most of Alex has moved east into Oklahoma and north Texas. Flash flood warnings are down to watches and don't reach Amarillo anymore.