Diving around Yellowknife?

[COLDREDNECK]

Any buddy got any suggestions for good spots around Yellowknife?

 

[bygolly]

Well other than me and my wife we seem to be the only northern divers on the board. I just caught on to this thing a few months ago and only stumbled on to this forum and post today.

Now as to diving Yellowknife I have no clue...NWT is one of the places in Canada I have not been to yet but it is on the agenda. When I started diving in the early 80's in southern BC around the Kootenays I was rabid to dive anywhere. To find dive sites I had great success talking to the non-diving old timers in the area. They pointed me to some pretty interesting areas in their recollections of old ferry landings, old mine sites, old logging camps and the like. It seems that wherever people go they dump stuff in the water (accidentally or on purpose) and these sites always proved to be fascinating. I think I was one of the first to dive some of those sites. The Kootenays also have quite a few sites where unstable barges tipped their entire loads of railcars into the drink. I'll just bet the NWT is just loaded with this kind of stuff and nary a diver in sight. Hunt down some of those crusty old characters and talk to them...I have a feeling Yellowknife has no shortage of them.

 

[nadwidny]

When I started diving in the early 80's in southern BC around the Kootenays I was rabid to dive anywhere. To find dive sites I had great success talking to the non-diving old timers in the area. They pointed me to some pretty interesting areas in their recollections of old ferry landings, old mine sites, old logging camps and the like. It seems that wherever people go they dump stuff in the water (accidentally or on purpose) and these sites always proved to be fascinating. I think I was one of the first to dive some of those sites.

So you're the guy that got all the good stuff from Kootenay Lake. Got any CPR china? The Moyie museum in Kaslo is looking for pieces. We were did some searching for the museum earlier this month at places like Ainsworth, Kaslo, etc. but didn't find anything worthwhile.

 

[bygolly]

So you're the guy that got all the good stuff from Kootenay Lake. Got any CPR china? The Moyie museum in Kaslo is looking for pieces. We were did some searching for the museum earlier this month at places like Ainsworth, Kaslo, etc. but didn't find anything worthwhile.

I do remember picking up some chipped plates and one teacup that was in nice shape near an old ferry landing near Kaslo (can't remember the exact location though). Unfortunately this stuff left my possession in the first buddy divorce. :depressed: Haven't been back for quite a while now but I do have it on my list of to-do's. I got all pumped up for that area after I picked up William Hall's book on BC dive sites. A good read and it brought back some good memories. Have you seen this book?
Would love to get back there next summer...do you have any trips planned there we could hook up on.

Cheers,
Bill

 

[setchell]

hello, your asking about good diving spots in yellowknife, I can recomend Con Mine, when you drive through the old town, go down to the water treatment pump/shack thing, down there there is some pieces of old equipment. to get in, just hike over the pipes (and be carefull) and down to the old dock. You should be looking across the water to that island...jeez been gone three months and the name slips me....but if you putter around in there, look out for boat traffic. It is not too deep, 15 - 25 feet, but the equipment is what your after. I heard a rumor of a tug and barge that sunk around there full of 1950's chevy pickups destined for the mine, they have never been found, but thats as likely as someone finding the viking ship outside yellowknife bay.

 

[setchell]

Another spot I can recomend is at the Air Tindy float plane base. If you turn in there behind the buildings, there is a small cove, pass that and there is a picknik table. I have dove here, following the bedrock out, to about 15 feet there should be some pipes and golfballs, then go north around the point still at around twenty feet. There are some sculpins and really colourful minnows in there, as well as freshwater clams and huge snails. The marin life is actually astonishing for that lake, I never expected sculpins. They live in beer bottles aparently. Look out for fish hooks. There great to collect but being fish hooks they can get caught. Tons of golf balls there. We finnished the dive back in the cove and got out at the dock, waters about 3-4 feet in there.

 

[setchell]

Ask around, there is a lake north of yellowknife where two WWII planes landed in winter, low on fuel, and were left to sink due to cost of fuel versus scrap. Aparently you can see them from the air, THAT would be a dive.

 

[nadwidny]

Ask around, there is a lake north of yellowknife where two WWII planes landed in winter, low on fuel, and were left to sink due to cost of fuel versus scrap. Aparently you can see them from the air, THAT would be a dive.

That pretty much describes the running rumour of every lake between Edmonton and Russia. Find a lake and there's a story about a sunken WW2 plane in it and somebody always knows somebody who's cousins with someone who flies up there who saw the wrecks from the air.

 

[setchell]

Yeah maybe, but given all the air traffic up there, it's worth a talk with some of the pilots. I worked in logistics up there and if something was too expensive to get out, it was replaced. See
Buffalo Joe, or some of the air tindy pilots. Walsh lake would be a good dive if a wreck was ever put there. It's crystal clear, you can see forty feet down from surface. And if anyone ever took the initiative to clear out some of the mine shafts around YK, there all full of ground water to 60 feet below surface. Many of them still have equipment left down the hole, drills, trams, etc.

 

[COLDREDNECK]

Sounds good , will try checking a few of those spots this summer and report back .
Also heard of a underwater course laid out in Prelude lake but no one seems to know the location.