Wazee Vs. Crosby (a very biased comparison)

[AandA]

Aly and I dove Wazee the previous weekend. Now before I start, don't get me wrong, it was not a BAD dive. Viz was about 15-20 above the thermocline dropping to 5-10 in the thermocline and then opening up below. Once we left the water we began comparing Wazee with the pits at Crosby/Ironton.
On the plus side for Wazee:
The road is great! A real paved road vs. some of the very challenging (hate to use the word road here :) poorly or non-maintained roads around the Crosby pits.
The place is CLEAN! No garbage and broken glass is a wonderful thing. Broken glass is a concern at many of the gear up sites around Crosby. :-[ The garbage is unsightly and detracts from my enjoyment (We bring garbage bags along and have brought out quite a bit - but it never makes a dent.)
There are road signs to direct you to the various access points. It's nice to know where yer going, and even though we've learned most of the back roads up at Crosby....it does still resemble a labyrinth and has no signs for those who don't know which way to turn ???(even the excellent maps from MSD don't reflect a lot of the roads.)
Nice gear up areas are available. There are picnic tables. The spots for diver access are smooth surfaced and not at all steep. Up at Crosby,) when diving from shore in some areas, rappelling skills can come in handy. Getting into the water can involve some real planning and logistics. (We have actually used a rope while walking backwards down some of the steep slopes.)

The plus side of Crosby:
VARIETY! ;D ;D Wazee is one pit. ONLY one pit. I must admit I have not yet dove all the pits up at Crosby (How many are there again??) There are so many different pit lakes, each with its very own advantages and disadvantages. With so very many lakes to choose from it is not even fair to compare the one pit at Wazee with ALL of the pits at Crosby.
What is available to see at Crosby far outstrips what is available at Wazee. :o Ya wanna see trees underwater... Sherwood Forest is mere underwater brush compared with the HUGE stands of HUGE trees up at Crosby.
You want to see fish? Although there are most certainly lots of cool fish at Wazee, there simply is not the same amount of beaver cuttings and similar structure to hold them in concentrations like up at Crosby. In fact at some of the areas up in Crosby you have a real tough time taking a picture of the little fishies. This is because there are so many that are crowding around you so tightly, that just when you get one in your frame, another one swims in between your camera and the subject a foot or closer away from you (thank God they aren’t piranha! :o).
Now granted if you want to look for mining relics/artifacts these can certainly be found in both locations. Once again, I find it hard to compare one pit lake with all of the lakes up at Crosby. The amount of equipment, drifts, shafts, railroad tracks, trestle pilings, power poles, signs and other stuff is too numerous to count in Crosby.
Like a good wall dive? ;D There are too many great wall dives to begin listing if you're talking Crosby. My personal favorites are at Mangan and Huntington.
If you’re the kind of diver that enjoys getting away from the waiting and the crowd Crosby offers some advantages. Divers on a busy day at either Crosby or Wazee tend to pile up at certain locations. At Wazee you’re pretty limited as to access points and on a weekend those access points are busy, busy busy! At Crosby the sheer number of different pit lakes increases the number of access points. Do you prefer to dive from a boat (we SURE do!)? You can use a canoe or non-motorized boat at Wazee. You have these same options at all of the pit lakes up at Crosby. Actual accesses for motorized boats are available on several of the lakes up in Crosby, and you can put your boat on any other pit lake that you’re able to get it into.

I guess the summation question after looking at all this: [glow=red,2,300]Why go to Wazee? [/glow] Why drive all that distance to have only one pit lake? ???

[Dan G]

Ok, you are putting together a pretty good argument, but what about traffic to and from the area? In particular how would the traffic be coming back to the cities on say the last day of a holiday weekend like Monday September 6th? I like the Crosby area, but fear the post holiday return.

Dan

[AandA]

Traffic is ALWAYS a personal nightmare as are crowded conditions. :o Would you believe that I've gone so far as to trade work hours with other people where I work so I could work more weekends during the summer and take days off during the week? During these weekdays off guess what we've been doing? Yup, diving, diving, diving. ;D

On weekends and holidays it's busy everywhere and the roads are the busiest of all. Aly and I refer to the traffic to and from the Metro area as the "lemming migrations." : It's busy, it's terrible and we hate it and avoid it like the plague.

Is it less busy on the roads to Crosby vs. the roads to Wazee? I'm not sure and can't speak to that. I bet it's horrible going to either location on a holiday weekend. Although we did drive up to Crosby yesterday morning for the day (Saturday, Labor Day Weekend), traffic was not a problem at all, we got 2 leisurely dives in and were home by 5:00 pm. (However if we would have left Friday afternoon I'm willing to bet you it would have been a different story).

[tcjtn0]

OK..Here's my two cents worth...
(and I know I'm going to get slapped for this but...)

MY CAR WENT DIVING BEFORE I could go diving today at Crosby. After that heavy rain on Sunday I almost ended up floating thru those darn roads...I even had some water splash up over my HOOD !!! (gads...)

Now granted there is much more to see up in Crosby , but just the stress of getting back to those dive sites after a good rain , well , er , nevermind !!!

And of course , I just HATE going to the bathroom in the woods...
I guess as I get older I like my creature comforts...

Crosby does have MUCH MORE to see than Wazee for sure.

But now as a DM and starting to work Advance open-water classes , it sure is nice to have an accessable deep platform like the one at Wazee...And I do love my peanut-bar too!!!

Hey , I am a diver...and both of them have water...
Each place has both it's good points and it's bad points. I think it is really GREAT that we have so many different choices around this wonderful area to dive!!! Not many area's around this great country can say that...!

I really love BOTH dive sites...I just like the access and the , er nature relieving areas at Wazee more.


OK , me off of my soap-box now... :-X

Jean

[tpscuba]

Haven't dove Wazee. Have dove the pits at Crosby a lot of pits close together but the road is a nightmare the garbage is bad, but I have watched the dirt bikers and 4 wheelers leave stuff behind. Of the few goups of divers I ran into they left a clean site, but thats not to say there are divers that aren't as concerned. I always pick up mine and others when I am there. We kind of take pride in clean up.
Now for AandA, come over to the east end of the range and check out Ore-be-Gone, Lake Mine, Stubler, Aurora Mine, Chisholm Mine, Lake Vermilion, Burntside Lake and many more Nice accesses. no iron ore laiden gear after dive mine equipment to check out fist to see anchors to collect and much more vis is running 20 to 40 feet now but can get down to 5 feet and usually is always 10 to 15. 4 lane hwy all the way up and I made the drive coming home from BC in 3 1/2 hours.

[DanL]

I love Crosby, Wazee and OreBeGone.
TP - please tell us more about Vermillion. It's a beautiful lake in a beautiful area.
Camping? Toilet facilities? Depth? Boat traffic? Entry points? Underwater sights/attractions? Nearest LDS/airfills?
A lot to ask, but maybe others have some info too.
If you haven't seen Vermillion, it's worth the trip. Breakfast at the Tower Cafe is out of sight...
Thanks,
DanL

[ghosch]

I love the diving in Crosby, but I spend more time in Wazee for two reasons

1. Closer (I live in Afton)
2. Wazee is much better for deep diving. When you CAN find a good deep spot in Crosby, it's pitch black (which is kind of fun some times) and you come out smelling like a rotten egg :-X. Perhaps there are some good spots, but I haven't found them!

If distance wasn't a factor, I would pick Crosby for anything shallower than 130', and Wazee for anything deeper.

[Mark Y]

Hmmm . . . my car doesn't turn red at Wazee, folks have teeth, inexpensive cheese-curd drysuit inflation gas readibly available, Jimmy Hoffa is buried there, locals not 'sighting-in-high-powered-rifles', no motor boats, etc.

One thing I really, really like about Crosby, besides the diving . . . it's free!

[Dan G]

I had to find out what the traffic would be like returning to the cities on the last day of a holiday weekend. Traffic was much better than I expected.

The roads at the pits we much worse than I expected. I think we should have give some of the puddles names, like Lake “Lost Your Car”. These little ponds in the middle of the road? were big enough to dive!

All said diving was very good, with vis better than Wazee was a couple weeks ago.

There may not be as many things to see at Wazee, but given the access roads , location to air & food, Wazee has got my vote, for now….

[MNLakeDiver]

I am definitly a Crosby fan. for me it is much closer and I can avoid the twin citys. I normaly haul my gear in a suburban so the roads are usualy passable and I carry 6 tanks so I can last between trips to Brainerd.
I also like free.
To be fair I only dove Wazee one weekend and that was for training dives so have not done any "fun"dives there.