Road-Trippable Dive Sites for North Texas

[sealskin98]

"Call it" yet!

Tenkiller is where I was supposed to do my OW check-out but had a cold and had to do it in Coz later...that was disapointing. My first instuctor used to take his classes up there all the time, will check with him on sites. One place had a "wall" descent that ended up at a cave at about 75 feet. Will get with him about dive sites.

I've only dove Broken Bow lake once, and it was about 12-15 vis down to about 30ft., thermo at 25ft. When I was up there doing the cabin renting thing a few weeks ago I stopped by the dive shop and was told about a couple of more shore dive spots. There are also more sites that are accessible by boat. Will have to get a map of the lake and go back to pinpoint the boat sites. Air fills are available at about $8 I think, and tank returns after hours are not a problem, a convenience store at the lake takes them and the shop picks them up the next day. I would like to get more familiar with the lake and do some spearfishing for catfish.

 

[ScubaTexan]

Does anyone know if there is any decent diving at Caddo Lake, over by the Louisiana border?

Also, is there any diving at Cedar Creek Lake? I can never remember seeing any dive shops around there...

 

[SeaHunt]

While I've not personaly been there I heard a trip report and saw U/W pictures taken by Blue32 at Lake Quachita outside of Hot Springs (approx. 6 hr trip.) It appeared to be very clear water with lots of fish and varried above and underwater topography. Below is a link to the diving info page for the lake. Perhaps some of our Texarkana swampers can add to this. Anyway, I hope this helps.

http://www.lakeouachita.com/lakerecreation/diving.html

Oh, I had seen a good diving write up on Lake Murry OK and I'll try and locate it and get back to ya on that. Since you included Missouri in your query, you should probably add Twin Lakes and perhaps even the Flower Gardens to the list since depending on where you start from, they are in theory road tripable as well.

In a recent TP&W magazine they did a good job of identifying all known popular Texas dive spots, fresh and salt water. It included the west Texas sites like the missle silos and Balmorhea Springs, etc. Anybody have that copy laying around?

Here is a link to Balmorhea Springs.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/balmorhe/

I also found these links so thought I would go ahead and add them here just in case someone could use them.

http://www.scubapointpk.com/

http://www.scuba-elist.com/wheretodive.html

http://www.oklahomaparks.com/Pages/resort2.html

(PDF map)
http://www.tourism.state.ok.us/images/maps/lmsp.pdf

Perhaps if we get a decent list going with good information on each location we could turn it into a Diving Texas sticky post for others to use.

Have fun...
Jim

 

[loosebits]

Does anyone have any expeirence diving in the hill country river region (Nueces/Frio rivers)? I've been able to find very little information about it. Specifically, where are the good sites and what is the temp like (I've only seen it described as chilly - chilly as in 3 mm ws or chilly as in hot-water-fed drysuit?), and where does one get air- are there any places closer than San Antonio or Del Rio?

 

[TexasMike]

SeaHunt once bubbled...
Perhaps if we get a decent list going with good information on each location we could turn it into a Diving Texas sticky post for others to use.

Very much the idea I had in mind.

I know there is a book out there on Texas dive sites. But it is very out of date. They list Athens as having fish, and where to go to Squaw Creek (cooling lake for local nuke plant, now off limits due to security reasons).

So if we can develop something and keep it up to date, that would be a real good thing.

 

[joens]

loosebits once bubbled...
Does anyone have any expeirence diving in the hill country river region (Nueces/Frio rivers)? I've been able to find very little information about it. Specifically, where are the good sites and what is the temp like (I've only seen it described as chilly - chilly as in 3 mm ws or chilly as in hot-water-fed drysuit?), and where does one get air- are there any places closer than San Antonio or Del Rio?

I have relatives in uvalde and go there often the best dive site in the area is nueces lake in camp wood where there is a dam on the nueces river. the last time I was there 2 weeks ago there was an algae bloom and vis was 6-8 feet it is usually 20-30 max depth mayby 20 but large area maybe 150 yards across and 1/3 -1/2 mile long. as far as the rest of the river and the frio river there are holes from time to time that you can dive in but I havent found any that are very big. dont need those double 120s.
San antonio is the best bet for air .I usually just bring mine with me.and fill up when I go home.

 

[joens]

I know the Blue Hole is a little farther than you indicated you would like to travel and Texas Mike has already been there .We were in a Deco class there but if anyone wants to go there I could meet you there it is about 2.5 hours from where I live . If you are short on gear I can bring some for you My loaner gear is a Scubapro blackhawk BC with a MK 25 /G250. I also have more tanks than I need so if someone is travelling through They dont have to bring everything.

 

[TexasMike]

Joens = tall guy with dark hair from Amarillo???

Sneaky dude! ut:

How you been?


Dee, if you're listening... I'll vouch for his addition to the Team roster. He dove with me and Cavern QT last year out at Santa Rosa.

 

[Dee]

tap...tap...tap.....pay attention! He's already on the Dallas list.

 

[Texass]

My LDS is headed to Lake Ouachita this weekend. Lori said it's about a 5-6 hour drive from Grand Prairie. It's just NW from Hot Springs.

20-30' vis is the norm. Thermo at about 25'. Low 70's from there on down to the 50's once you get to 90' and below. The place has quartz crystals laying all around, on land and submerged.

They rent a couple of 40' barges to dive from. (BYOT) She wasn't sure about the shore diving. Appearantly they're prohibited from building anything on the lake, so there aren't any docks, etc. except for the marina on the SW corner. That's where they get air fills.

She said she's done shore dives at Lake Degray, but it's been years. Same basic conditions as Lake Ouachita. I'm not sure of the map scale, but it looks a lot closer than Ouachita.


MAP