Anyone have information on Prior Lake?
Where is an entrance? Park fees? Odd Rules? Boat Traffic? Dive spots?
I hope to Kayak as well. If the vis is bad I'll still need advice on the lake itself.
Thanks
I have dove that a couple of times and it was super green. The best vis was in "Candy Cove", a small bay that people go to party it up at.
We had about 4 feet of vis. The composition was kinda cool however. At 30' and shallower, there was 10" of silk and then a hard clay floor that was easy to search for lost treasures. If you really want to dive that lake, I'd go there. I'm not sure where the nearest access is. We were on a boat. Go early if you head out on a weekend, the boats are crazy in the afternoon-
I've heard the clay was intentionally place in that bay many years ago to stop what they thought was a leak. More of the story includes the concrete structure at the entrance to the bay. It used to be a dam that allowed them to drain the bay to place the clay.
There's at least two public accesses on the lake. The easiest, largest is at Sand Point Beach. To get there turn south (by a water tower) from the intersection of CR 42 and 18. This intersection is about a mile or so west of Highway 13 on 42.
Water clarity does vary in the lake. The lake has two main bodies of water. The visibility usually increases from south to north. Sand Point Beach is near the north end.
We made it after a few headaches. First was to leave late and get to Prior Lake sometime around 11:30 only to guess the wrong park and end up smack in the middle of some home town days and a parade. So we turned the car around and got out of dodge. A few pokes at the SatNav and it was telling me to go around the lake where we did find Sand Point. We launched the two kayaks and after an hour of what could only be explained as power boat rodeo we got off the lake. I don't think diving on a weekend is advisable unless you have a large pontoon or something and stay close. A shore dive it out of the questions.
Vis, from the surface was low. Maybe 3-5 feet but it looked course so I expect a layer. I think you could get under it but I'd guess something less then 10. We brought snorkel gear out to the island but with all the traffic we elected to stay in the boats.