various lake superior dive sites question(s)

[racer17m]

since it gets a little slow during the winter I thought I would post a few questions and perhaps create some interest and anticipation / motivation for some diving come spring & summer.  Id like to focus this on Lake Superior diving and more specifically shore diving on the north shore.  Here are the questions:

1. There are a number of state owned sites along the shore including wayside rests, state parks etc. I am wondering if anyone has dove at any of these sites?

2. If you have please list which one, where specifically at the location you dove and perhaps the specifics ie what were the depths, was there anything interesting like structure etc.

here is a link to the lake superior water trail map, its intended more for kayakers but I think it could be a useful tool for us scuba divers to identify potential shore dive access points. 



I know the lake has had 1,000 of divers explore it I highly doubt anyone will uncover an unsolved mystery but perhaps some of these have never had a diver explore them and maybe there is some interesting structure dives we could find????  I know there are a handful of books outline and highlighting dive spots on the shore but I think we can find more.

I know a number of the state parks have several lake access points and i think we often get focused on specific spots rather than exploring new.
Has anyone dove around Gooseberry say to the north of the river or to the south of the river or from other locations in the park? what about split rock i know there are sea caves and a boulder field under the lighthouse best reached by boat, what about other shore accessible points?

[doug67]

Hey, south of the river at Gooseberry is one of my favorite dives. Great vis, large boulders, small caves, the rudder from the Belle P Cross......whats not to love. The last time I dove it we found a ships ladder in 35ft of water, some day Ill get around to finding it again so I can give the loc to the GLSPS people. I like to do a giant stride off the lava flow and head south along the boulders. Keep a look out and you will find fishing lures in the rocks.

[DetectorGuy]

I dove that place Doug is talking about and he's not joking about the big rocks there. The giant stride is about 10' down to the water and the exit is toward the river.

Dove the bottom of Splitrock Lighthouse once. The rocks there are literally the size of houses and made me feel very small.

I like the Cave of the Winds in Crystal Bay north of Tettegouche State Park too. Here is a link to a dive report from 2008:

[popolarbear]

I think just south of silver bay marina there is a private road that runs out on a point just near an island. i thought it was strange yet interesting, so drove down to check it out. was indeed private road. and very interesting. got my car half stuck. had to push it out to get back on main road. sorry dont know the actual name of the road. ..did look very promising for many types of exploration. looked historical. i think it said something like fishing or trapping or something.

[racer17m]

Great information, exactly what i was looking for. I have actually contacted the DNR to see if I/we divers can work with them to develop identified sites like these perhaps signage/monument dive maps to give divers an idea of what they might see depending on which direction they go etc./ and also improve access to some of the sites.  Perhaps im wrong but i would think it would be win win.  The park system might pick up more guests, the north shore communities have another visitor market to tap into and divers start exploring a little just because sites are marked.  I know these might not be global attractions but it might create more interest.  So anyone else with dive site information or potential sites please post and let us know so we can work on developing this.

[racer17m]

when you head south how far do you go? If I remember correctly there is another pebble beach on the south side of the large cliffs (which are to the south of the laval flow).  have you made it that far or dove that area?  have you headed north of the river?