Ok... Make a hole!!! Checking in from Great Falls, MT And I have to tell you that the best place in the US to dive is right... Well... Nope, can't even come up with a good lie about that! It's not here! But we do the best we can... Keep diving!
Yodelhawk I was just visiting in your city last weekend and wondered where to dive. I saw the cold water springs,...gorgeous, not deep enough, then I saw the salmon exhibit, but that was only 18" deep, and the river was flowing fast above the dam. If you are ever near Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, or Sandpoint, visit our FB web page Inland Northwest Divers. We are getting ready for the salmon spawn, so our diving activity is actually getting really exciting. Go to pictures, then Albums and find the Higgins Salmon Dive, that's where the best diving is for us right now!!!
I've dove Hawaii twice and the 80 foot viz was stunning. On a good day I've had 30' in Puget Sound. But when I saw the 12" octopus in Kona, I thought "Oh my, it doesn't hold a candle to our Giant Pacific Octopus. My largest GPO sighting was about 10-12 feet! In Hawaii I loved that i didn't need my drysuit, and weighed much less...I felt free!
I love the diverse life PS has to offer, macro photography opportunities abound, and the farther north we go, the better it gets. Vancouver, British Columbia is on my bucket list.
I love kelp, so I enjoy going to Catalina, it's a fantastic location, however PS offers great kelp dives up in the San Juan Islands too.
So is Puget Sound the "best?" I haven't done my last dive yet, so I don't know. What I do know is that I never come up from a dive there without having had an amazing look at a world that I wish non-divers could view.