I received a PM on a forum from someone asking me where my favorite place to dive in Utah was. I had to wait before I could respond, not because I was to busy, but because I had to think about it for a while. Just like no tropical destination is the same, the same goes for our local diving. Think about this, where else could you go and dive 95 degree water in the winter and drive 5 minutes away and explore under the ice if you were so inclined? So my answer to their question was, my favorite is the one I’m exploring next or the one I haven’t explored. In the twenty something years I’ve been to a few of our lakes.
Two weeks ago Flaming Gorge was my favorite. Why? Because I have yet to have a bad dive there and I haven’t seen all there is to see. The wall around Osprey Island is fascinating and if you slow down and really look you can find some amazing formations.
This weekend the Crater will be my favorite even though I have explored this site a gazillion times. Besides looking at the turtle, t-rex, gator, wagon wheel or the hot tub at the bottom, have you really looked at the sides? The formations look like petrified wood. Have you found the spout where the water exits? Did you know there are small tubes like a lava tube along the sides? Not everything to see is at the bottom.
Next weekend and the weekend after that it will be Sand Hollow. Why? because this is a site I have yet to explore, not dive but explore. That’s what makes local diving so much fun, exploring. It’s an adventure, to boldly go where no man, strike that, you have never been before.
Now Sand Hollow has some training platforms, a buoyancy course, a sunken Cessna airplane and a ‘bus’. Trust me those will be fun…way fun. What I want to see are the formations of the red rock by the island. Trust me I’ll explore.
So what’s your favorite?