Need close diving sites to Portland.

[Scubano McGee]

Hi,
I'm looking for nearby lakes in the portland area. They don't have to be great sites, I'm more looking to get a few more dives under my belt. I would prefer a closer site to a more enjoyable site.
Any suggestions would be great, Thanks.

 

[MarkH]

I know that most Portlanders go to Puget sound, etc., but when I was in Portland, I wondered about the river. Does nobody dive there? How deep is it? There must be some old wrecks or at least old bottles worth rooting around for.

 

[USIA]

I know that most Portlanders go to Puget sound, etc., but when I was in Portland, I wondered about the river. Does nobody dive there? How deep is it? There must be some old wrecks or at least old bottles worth rooting around for.

The rivers in the Portland area are definitely not for diving. Extremely polluted and terrible current. The best areas to dive near Portland are basically on the Oregon Coast. There are some good Jetty dives in Newport, Oregon and if you have a good charter, diving the Pinnacle in Pacific City is amazing, especially if you are into spear fishing.

 

[wylerbear]

If you just want to get wet and get some experience, go to BattleGround Lake. A lot of shops do specialty dives like Navigation there or do their Rescue Classes there. The viz isn't great but it is interesting. There's an old dance floor there from long ago when the park had a dance hall. There's a definite thermocline and gets quite cold if you go below about 25'. When you get to the park go to the boat launch to enter.
Or you can go to KlineLine Lake just off I-5 near Exit 7. I did my Rescue dives there. Again, not very interesting but you can work on skills and take a look around. People fish at both these lakes so there must be fish which is good for your sightseeing but of course, presents entanglement issues.
Have fun. And head up to Puget Sound or Hood Canal when you want to do some good diving.

 

[sparkyjames]

Or you could drive out to the Coast and hit one of my favorite sites
Chck out the netarts Boat ramp

max depth there is 35 feet easy to dive if you plan the tides right
just swim out with the rocks on your left and come back with them on your right you cant miss the entry point that way.


lots of Nudies and crabs and small fish to see

But make sure you time it with the tides
Oh did I metion the tides are important to concider at this site.

Sparaky

 

[Scottri]

There really isn't much close in around Portland. I dive High Rocks on the Clackamas river sometimes in the summer just to get wet but there isn't really much to see. The closest is the Oregon coast. Either Bar View, Nehalem or Netarts.

 

[Sasquatch]

What about Clear Lake?

 

[Scottri]

Clear Lake is not real close but doable. There are some nice mountain lakes around Mt. Hood.

 

[Scubano McGee]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm deffinatly going to have to check some of these spots out.

 

[diveborg]

We do summer drift dives in Big Cliff reservoir. We get in the water pretty close to the base of Detroit dam and drift down to where it opens out in Big Cliff. It the Corp of Engineers isn't spilling water, then we get in at the boat ramp and swim upstream a bit. There isn't all that much to see; planted trout, rock structure and the occasional crawdad. My LDS www.hydrosports.com does a local scuba rally there, usually in July. It is free and they give prizes. Big Cliff is about an hour east of I-5 in Salem, so that would be about 2 hours or less from PDX.