Turquoise Lake/Twin Lakes Dive Report

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Waterskier1

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
868
Reaction score
8
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
# of dives
200 - 499
I went diving last weekend with the FROGs (Front Range Ocean Goers) – a new scuba club in Colorado Springs. :lotsalove:

We drove up to Turquoise Lake Friday evening and camped. The Club/Diver’s Reef bought and cooked all the food so all that was needed was a tent and sleeping bag. I took my motor home and it was not necessary (other than for a bed) and quite costly - see below. The cost was only $15 for the weekend of bacon/sausage and pancake breakfasts, burgers/brats/dogs for lunch (x2), and Steak for dinner! :thumbs-up(And $5/vehicle at Twin Lakes).

Saturday we did two dives in Turquoise Lake. The lake was quite low and the visibility sucked ( < 5 feet). It was also cold :cold:; 48*F at 28 ffw and around 40*F at 60 ffw.

Sunday morning we broke camp after breakfast and drove to Twin Lakes. We planned on 2 more dives there, but the lake was so low, we had to walk 500 yards to get to it so we only did one. The temp was about 50*F at 48 ffw, but the vis was less than 3 feet, and at 48 ffw it might as well had been a night dive. I had to use the backlight to read my computer and my flashlight to read the compass. With the lights out, we couldn’t see each other 2 feet away!:11:

I took my old motorhome and used 80+ gallons of gas :yourkiddingme:, so it wasn’t a cheap weekend! I could have bought a round trip ticket to Cozumel and several boat dives for what gas cost me! Overall, I had fun, camping with new people, and seeing new lakes, but I doubt I’ll go back often if the visibility doesn’t improve significantly. The local diving has as good or better vis, and the water is warmer. I thought the main reason for diving high (about 10,000 feet) was to be in cold CLEAR water. :confused:

The FROGs are planning their next dive weekend for Jul 11-13 at Blue Mesa. :scubadive
The current plan is to camp again, and rent pontoon boat(s) to dive from. Again, they will buy and prepare the food and rent the boats and split up the costs, so camping is easy (I don't plan on taking my motor home this time).

Our 2nd meeting :meeting: of FROGs will be this Wednesday evening (the last Wednesday of the month). We are currently meeting at Diver’s Reef, 4465 Northpark Dr, (SE corner of Garden of the Gods and I-25) but this is not just a Diver's Reef club – all are welcome. We have people from Monument/Black Forest to Pueblo west to mountain communities. We hope to have a web site up soon. It looks like the URL will be www.scubaFROGs.com, but voting is not quite over. If you have any questions, send me a PM and I’ll try and answer them or put you in touch with someone who can.
 
I've done Turquoise lake a few times, and while it was cold even in Aug, the vis was in the 15 foot range. Sounds like things were stirred up, and no doubt! There is still snow melting in them there big mountains!

I seriously doubt you will get better vis at Blue Mesa in July. Keep in mind with the spring meltoff, that these high mountain lakes are currently getting a LOT of run off. Once the snow is gone, things should settle down, but vis anywhere I've dove in CO has never been more than 20 feet, and 20 feet is rare! We had about 20' vis last summer at Jefferson lake, and you where there. That is about as good as I've seen it in CO.

Glad you had fun!

BTW, if you can get a round trip to Coz, and several boat dives for under $320 talk to me! That maybe a lot of money to spend on a weekend outing in CO, but I'm not sure you can currently fly into Coz for even double that cost! :shakehead:
 
BTW, if you can get a round trip to Coz, and several boat dives for under $320 talk to me! That maybe a lot of money to spend on a weekend outing in CO, but I'm not sure you can currently fly into Coz for even double that cost! :shakehead:

Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you can fly Mexicana round trip to Cozumel for $228.00 (plus tax = $330). Wow, taxes are 50% of airfare :11: - I didn't take that into account
 
Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you can fly Mexicana round trip to Cozumel for $228.00 (plus tax = $330). Wow, taxes are 50% of airfare :11: - I didn't take that into account

You are correct! One has to stop in either MX City, or Dallas (based on some fast research). But I was not aware those types of tickets were even avaiable.

So any fly Mexicana? I have to wonder why my buddy is not using them to fly out in July to Coz. Is Mexicana a decant airlines? One direction indicated that it is operated by American Airlines (that was the leg going though Dallas). The other flight apparently is operated by Click Grupo?

We are considering a trip to Coz late 08', early 09' so anyone with experience with this airline speak up? I may also post this question in a more general forum, or MX forum....
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom