Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada

Desert Dive Destination

By Linda Lee Walden Photo by Lynn Laymon

Arid, brutally hot, rugged, remote, unforgiving , hardly a description you'd expect to be associated with a popular North American dive spot. Yet when you're a scuba diver and you live in the desert Southwest, any body of water, especially one as vast as Lake Mead, is a potential dive destination.

The lake has met the challenge. Although it was created primarily for Colorado River water management, 158,000-acre Lake Mead not only serves as a reservoir for seven states and Mexico, it is also a major recreation area attracting more than 9 million visitors a year for various water-related activities , including scuba.

Before the building of Hoover Dam, farming communities along the Colorado River were alternately flooded by melting snow in the spring and parched by lack of water in the late summer and early fall. In the 1920s an agreement was reached on water sharing; construction of Hoover Dam began in 1931. Completed five years later, the structure was the engineering wonder of its time. The resulting lake, named Lake Mead after Reclamation Commissioner Dr. Elwood Mead, is the largest man-made reservoir in the United States, capable of holding a remarkable 9.2-trillion gallons of water (which equates to almost two years' average flow of the Colorado River). When full, it has a length of 110 miles/177 km and 550 miles/885 km of shoreline.

Administered by the National Park Service (NPS), Lake Mead National Recreation Area, the country's first, encompasses an area twice the size of Rhode Island. It includes not only Lake Mead, but the Colorado River below Hoover Dam south to Davis Dam, which forms much smaller Lake Mohave. Lake Mead itself stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona westward through several arms or basins connected by narrow canyons, and ends at Hoover Dam 30 miles/48 km southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Water activities take place throughout the lake but are concentrated in the Boulder Basin. The Boulder Beach area, situated along the southwestern shore of the basin, is readily accessible from the Las Vegas area, as well as northern Arizona. Lake Mead Marina boat harbor and the adjacent Scuba Park are the center of diving activity, although there are several other shore entry sites nearby.

The Scuba Park was created in 1991 as part of the Boulder Beach Management Plan, developed by the NPS in response to exploding growth in re- creational use of the area's waters. Designed to minimize conflicts among user groups, the plan designated specific areas for scuba, swimming, personal watercraft and boating.

Only the scuba and swimming areas carry access restrictions: No boats are allowed in the Scuba Park except in support of diving activities, and then at no-wake speeds; no scuba is allowed in the swimming area. Restrictions in other designated areas are voluntary. Divers are required to fly the red-and-white diver-down flag anywhere they dive in the National Recreation Area.

The Scuba Park is located next to the Lake Mead Marina along the south side of the quarter-mile causeway to Pyramid Island. This area was chosen for its convenient access and because it was already in use as a training area for Park Service divers. Several boat wrecks and other features had been placed on the bottom for practicing search and recovery, underwater archeology, pollution control, habitat protection and other duties assigned to the officers. The site was also favored by dive instructors for open-water sessions, as well as by other recreational divers for its easy beach entry and gently sloping bottom.

One of the oldest and best-known features in the Scuba Park is a 30-foot/9-m wooden motorsailer, the Ranger. Originally sunk 25 years ago, it was moved in the late '80s to its present location just off the causeway near Pyramid Island. It is of particular interest because wooden boats are a rarity on Lake Mead. At the lake's winter water level, its depth is about 90 feet/27 m.

A number of additional features have added to the park's appeal, including the cab of a pickup truck at 40 feet/12 m and several boat hulls. The most unusual feature is a 36-foot-/11-m-long tunnel constructed from three lengths of 30-inch-/76-cm-diameter concrete culvert. Light passes through joints between sections, and juvenile fish aggregate inside. Each diver must be especially careful to control buoyancy and minimize kicking to avoid ruining visibility for the next diver.

Due south of the concrete tunnel, a compass course has been installed consisting of five concrete blocks holding vertical pipes. Four mark the corners, and the fifth provides a line-up.

There is a portable toilet on the beach at the Scuba Park, and the nearby marina has a restaurant, telephones and more complete restroom facilities. At the time the park was designated, the wide beach made shore entries easy. However, in the intervening years the water level of Lake Mead has been raised as much as 20 feet/6 m. Not only has this resulted in a smaller beach area, but depths and swimming distances to the underwater features have increased. Many divers now prefer to enter at the Pyramid Island end of the causeway. Divers may unload gear there, but vehicles must be parked in the lot on shore.

Boat diving on Lake Mead has become a popular alternative to the Scuba Park or other shore entry sites. Diving is permitted from private boats, but charter vessels must hold an NPS commercial use license, and applicable U.S. Coast Guard operator's licenses and vessel inspection certificates. At least one operator, Drew's Dam Divers, runs regularly scheduled two-tank trips with a maximum of 15 divers.

The Boulder Islands are only a 20-minute boat ride from Lake Mead Marina. At low lake levels, the two largest islands are connected. At present, however, the high water has created an underwater saddle from 12 to 20 feet deep that is ideal for open-water skill evaluations. The remains of mesquite trees and creosote bushes serve as habitat for carp, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie and channel catfish.

Nearby, sloping into water as deep as 70 feet/21 m, lies the Tortuga, a 45-foot/14-m twin-engine wooden cruiser. About 100 feet/30 m west of the islands is the "batch plant." This unique attraction is the remains of a concrete water tank, approximately 100 feet in diameter and 12 feet/4 m high, used during the construction of Hoover Dam. Divers can reach a depth of 100 feet while circumnavigating the tank.

Other favorite boat dive sites on Lake Mead include Castle Cliffs/Gypsum Reef, which features white rock drop-offs. North of Lake Mead Marina is Saddle Island. The west side offers canyons and moderate walls, and is a good place to find freshwater clams. In Black Canyon, the narrow gorge leading to Hoover Dam, divers can explore a cave reaching 200 feet/60 m back into the canyon's side, or drift its sheer walls, which plummet as deep as 500 feet/150 m.

Drifting the Colorado River below Hoover Dam is also an option. For experienced divers, shooting Ringbolt Rapids with a knowledgeable guide is a special thrill.

The stark desert landscape surrounding Lake Mead draws a striking contrast to its blue-green waters. It also creates a variable climate; sudden wind and rain storms are not uncommon. During the summer high season, the lake's cool waters offer respite from the heat, which often tops 100 F/37 C. The winter is milder; daytime temperatures rise only into the high 50s F/teens C and rarely dip below freezing.

In the summer months, divers pass through several thermoclines as they descend. Down to about 30 feet the water tops 80 F/26 C. However, the resulting algae bloom may reduce visibility to a few feet. Below the first thermocline, the temperature drops approximately 10 F/6 C, and below the second thermocline, at 60 feet/18 m, it drops into the 50s F, but visibility is markedly better. In winter the entire lake cools to the low 50s, but visibility may reach 50 feet/15 m or more.

The NPS maintains a 24-hour emergency communications center, (702) 293-8998 or (800) 680-5851, which also monitors marine band channels 16 and 22. The primary recompression chamber is located 45 minutes away at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas; a diving physician is on call.