North Shore/Ely dive trip

[DetectorGuy]

I am going on a family camping trip from July 25th to August 2nd up north and I was wondering if I can get some input on good shore dives along the way. We will be at the Burlington Bay campsite  from July 25th until July 27th. Here I plan on at least diving at Flood Bay to take some photos the mining artifacts and for sure drive up and dive the Madeira. Then on the 27th I will move up to Tettegouche State Park and stay there until July 30th. From here I want to dive the Hesper and possibly dive the center of Beaver bay "Just for fun" and the "Fishing Tug wreck". I have heard that Beaver Bay is a bear to get to the water if you are shore diving as they messed up the hillside when they re-vamped the Gitchi-Gami Trail. Any input about shore diving here would be great. While at Tettegouche I also plan on diving in Crystal Bay in Illgen City. I understand that there are dock cribs there left over from 3M (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing) and a short swim from there is the "cave of the winds" site which would be kinda cool. On the 30th we will drive up to Temperance River State Park and stay overnight. I wont have time to dive from Temperance River as we will probably just hike upriver and get some above water photos of the waterfalls. On the 31st We will back track south to Finland and Turn towards Ely and stay at South Kawishiwi River National Forest Campground (10 miles South of Ely). I want to have my wife drop me off at the bridge about a mile upstream and do a drift dive back to the campsite. I might not do the drift dive if it looks like a tangled up mess. I have heard that even snorkeling here can be impressive as the moose and other wildlife hang around the rivers edge. On August 1st we will go through Ely and stay at Bearhead Lake State Park. I want to try a couple dives here if possible in Bearhead lake. On the 2nd we will pack up and head home. This will leave the 3rd to unpack before going to work on the fourth of August.

My wife and daughter are non divers and I am going to need to make sure that this trip is not just a "dive trip". I picked these areas for what I think is a good combination of diving and hiking. The campsites are reserved for these days so small day trips away from the campsites will be the norm. We will be using a tent and packing fairly light as far as camping. I wish I could say we will be packing light as far as the dive gear. I will be bringing eight 80 cf aluminums and my 19 cf bail-out-bottle. Most of the dives will be solo dives except the Madeira and the Hesper. These two are popular enough that I am hoping to bump into a local diver and buddy up with them if they happen to be at the sites. I will be using my new DUI TLS drysuit with the weezle wear for all of these dives and bringing my 7mm wetsuit for backup in case I rip a wrist seal on the first day. I have only used the drysuit twice and I really like it. I will be bringing my new Sea-life camera and strobe to try and get some photos and video. I just bought two 2 GB cards for it and I should be able to take 60 minutes of video on each if the batteries hold up in the cold water. I will bring the metal detector but probably wont get to use it as most of the diving will be in State parks or near protected wrecks. I will have two hard cases of additional dive gear: BCD, fins, flag, mask, snorkel, etc...


My sister is a science teacher and she wants me to take photos of lava formations if I can. I read that there are some at Brighton beach and at Gooseberry river mouth but I don't plan on diving there. Does anyone have any other "must dive" areas that have good underwater photo opportunities along this path that are shore dives? I don't want to bog down and "waste a day" with a boat dive on this trip.

Well that is my itinerary and please let me know about other possibilities.
John