Lake Powell diving temps/cond in late May?

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devolution365

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Aurora, IL
I have a chance to do a 3 day trip to Lake Powell on a houseboat in late May, mainly for the purposes of diving. Before we give our answer, I'd like to know what the conditions are there at that time of the year. Can anyone help give me a rough idea of the temps and visibility to expect?

Thanks,
-Erica
 
Thanks, but I found that site with a google search before I posted my question. The problem is, that's only surface water temperature, no info about thermoclines, and it's an average for the entire month.

Now, it's true that from it I can guess that it'll be about 67 at the surface at the end of May, but I'm not all that experienced with diving outside of a local quarry in Chicago, and the Caribbean, so I was hoping to find out how cold it got at depth and perhaps some info on visibility and maybe even "things to see" from the locals...

-Erica
 
Out here thermoclines change depending on how much water they're pumping through the dams. So it would be difficult to give you a good answer. I've felt a change in thermocline depth on the same day at the same dive site in a local lake. I'm not sure how diving in Lake Powell is. I would guess it's not much different than what we get in Lake Mead, especially since the lake level has been dropping so much in both places. Don't expect too much.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the reply. At least now I know what to expect if we decide to go... It may be worth it just to get our fins wet again.

-Erica
 
devolution365:
I have a chance to do a 3 day trip to Lake Powell on a houseboat in late May, mainly for the purposes of diving. Before we give our answer, I'd like to know what the conditions are there at that time of the year. Can anyone help give me a rough idea of the temps and visibility to expect?

Thanks,
-Erica

I live in Arizona and wouldn't even consider a dive oriented trip to Powell and I can drive it in less than 4 hours!

Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful place. If your trip is more about hanging with friends on a houseboat with an occasional dive OK...but IMHO...for diving...don't waste your time. Book a live aboard trip to the Channel Islands of California. There are multiple options.
 
http://www.utahdiving.com/powell.htm

I'm pretty sure it's BYOT, as I'm unaware of any fill stations on the lake. The advice on the above page is find your cove and place your dive flag carefully. That lake is full of tipsy (or worse, drunk) friggin' idiots. The upside is you're likely to see a mermaid--or at least the upper half of one--at some point during your trip.
 
Yeah, our friends will be in Phoenix visiting family, and they've been wanting to do a Lake Powell houseboat trip after seeing a show on TV about it. My husband and I are just agreeing to hook up with them for a couple days on the lake and a couple of dives. If it were up to me, we'd be heading to Florida instead...

At least my expectations are realistic now. Our friends talked up the diving as being "great" out there, now we're looking more into possibly making the cold dive worthwhile by finding a shop out there who can get us through our AOW on the trip instead of doing it out here in Chicago-land where we either have 60 - 80' max depth quarries or the c-c-c-cold "big lake" to dive in.

Thanks again for the info,
 
If it's divng you want, tell your friends instead a 4 hr. drive to Powell why not a 5 hr. drive to SoCal and actually get in some "great" diving. If it's lake diving they want, they can do that while in Phoenix with the same conditions. I've been on a houseboat before, I got utterly bored after the 2nd day, wouldn't do it again.

-Garrett
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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