a weekend diving in the Pacific NW. where should we go?

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:14 am

i'm hoping to be able to take a long weekend (4-5 days) off sometime this spring to head up to the puget sound area and get in as much diving as possible.

does anybody have any suggestions as to where i might find the following:

- comfortable yet not expensive accommodations, hopefully catering to divers
- access to great shore diving
- access to airfills
- within a 6 hour drive (roughly) from Portland OR

any help is appreciated.

Penopolypants · Post by **Penopolypants** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:18 am

How do you feel about camping? I've been thinking for a while that we should do a club camping trip to the Olympic Penninsula. Camping at Crescent Lake would put us close to the lake (obviously), Salt Creek State Park, and Neah Bay.

WylerBear · Post by **WylerBear** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:26 am

I'd suggest going to Hood Canal. You can stay at Sunrise Motel or Mike's Beach pretty inexpensively-both have accomodations that have kitchens. Then you can dive all the Hood Canal sites.
I've done that a few times and had some great dives from Pt. Whitney all the way south to the site at Sunrise Motel.

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:31 am

Penopolypants wrote:How do you feel about camping? I've been thinking for a while that we should do a club camping trip to the Olympic Penninsula. Camping at Crescent Lake would put us close to the lake (obviously), Salt Creek State Park, and Neah Bay.

i know i'm going to get flak for this

, but i'm not really into camping, unless it's at a motel 6...

Penopolypants · Post by **Penopolypants** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:43 am

spatman wrote: i know i'm going to get flak for this , but i'm not really into camping, unless it's at a motel 6...

I guess you get about as many bugs there, haha.

There is a motel at Seiku called Curley's that I believe has air fills, and there are hotels in Port Angeles, or cabins that you can rent at Lake Crescent. Georgia's ideas are probaby more along the lines of what you're looking for, though.

Although I heard rumblings about Mike's after the club trip there this past summer....

airsix · Post by **airsix** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:56 pm

Just 5 minutes from Alki beach there is a hotel on Alaska St. that was a Travel Lodge in the past but is now under private ownership. It's a bit of a dive, but the management is friendly and it's perfect for a hard-core diver on a mission. Get a ground-floor room and back your car right up to the door. When I go to Seattle with a lot of shore diving in mind it's where I stay. It's kind of like camping, but with electricity and wifi. We have a don't ask don't tell arrangement. They don't ask me if I have 6 bottles of nitrox lined up across the floor, enough equipment for a Cousteau expedition draining in the shower, and 3 battery chargers going at the same time... and I dont' tell. I clean up good and it all works for everybody. All the Alki shore dives are just a few minutes away and I've heard that air fills are now available on Harbor Ave, which is on the way to the beach. It's perfect. Everything you need in about a 3 mile radius.

-Ben

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:21 pm

I'd go to Curley's in Sekiu ... there's a small dive shop with air fills on the premises, and one of my favorite shore diving sites in the state right across the street. You're also within easy access of Salt Creek and Lake Crescent ... and AFAIK there are other shore diving sites in the area, although I haven't dived any of them.

Spring is a good time to go, if the weather's cooperative ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:05 pm

IMO...

Mike's Beach Resort sucks. The diving sucks, the accomidations are ok, and trying to get an airfill on any schedule besides Mike's is, well, (Sounder remembers this is a family site)... Mike doesn't really fill tanks with any regularity.

When we had the club weekend there, several people just waited and waited for their tanks to be filled and then when they asked Mike if he could do it, he grumbled and sometimes got around to it. His customer service also sucked as he was quite "assertive" (Sounder remember to be nice again) if someone who was staying there launched a kayak from his beach on the day they were checking out, that he'd charge them an extra $10. Same deal if they dove on the property they had just paid to use because it was their check-out day.

I guess you get my opinion (in as polite terms as I could come up with) that I won't be going back to Mike's, ever. Several members of NWDC feel similarly.

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:25 pm

thanks, everyone, for your input so far.

i had heard similar things about Mike's place, so i will definitely avoid that. Sunrise might work out well, but i think i'd like to go somewhere a little further north. Hood Canal can be done as a day trip from Portland, so i'm leaning towards locations that i wouldn't normally try to do in a day.

Sekiu sounds promising, i'll definitely be looking into that. are there non-diver activities out there, by chance?

airsix wrote:Just 5 minutes from Alki beach there is a hotel on Alaska St. that was a Travel Lodge in the past but is now under private ownership.

do you happen to know the name?

coachrenz · Post by **coachrenz** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:33 pm

What about Whidbey Island? There is the Jetty, Langley, all the Mukilteo sites and you might be able to hit the north whidbey sites in and around Deception Pass. I didn't look up the current exchanges, as deception pass and the jetty can be a bit current sensitive.

I am sure that there are other North End sites that are doable as well, but, I haven't done them.

Diver_C · Post by **Diver_C** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:02 pm

I will never stay at Mike's Beach Resort ever again. Lake Crescent sounds cool.

airsix · Post by **airsix** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:32 pm

spatman wrote:do you happen to know the name?

Now again, just for the record, this is not a Ritz Carlton Hotel & Resort. I just want to make that clear. But if you're a diver who just needs a 'base of operations' near Elliot Bay it has worked out well for me.

Seattle West Inn & Suites
3512 S.W. Alaska St.
Seattle,
WA
USA
(206) 937-9920

ps - I suggest this place only if Alki shore diving and proximity to Seattle are your criteria. I use it because when I come to Seattle it's usually business + some diving. If it was 'diving only' I'd probably head up to Anacortes or someplace more diving-specific than Seattle.

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:09 pm

coachrenz wrote:What about Whidbey Island? There is the Jetty, Langley, all the Mukilteo sites and you might be able to hit the north whidbey sites in and around Deception Pass.

that sounds interesting. i'll look into it. anyone know of a good place to stay?

airsix wrote: If it was 'diving only' I'd probably head up to Anacortes or someplace more diving-specific than Seattle.

that's what i'm thinking, too. but that hotel is good to know about anyway.

with all of these suggestions, i may just have to plan on more than just one weekend!

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:36 pm

Might be a bit more involved, but I'd actually consider Friday Harbor. The folks at Bandito Charters own or run the shop there now. It is probably still shoulder season so not too cheap, and I think there is shore diving-certainly charters.

BUT, if I had 4-5 days, what I'd do is go up to Vancouver Island. You could take the Red Ball ferry across from Port Angeles. Excellent shore diving, and if you wanted you could do a charter one day out of Nanaimo. Might be a BIT more than 6 hours, but it would be memorable.

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:19 pm

dsteding wrote:BUT, if I had 4-5 days, what I'd do is go up to Vancouver Island. You could take the Red Ball ferry across from Port Angeles. Excellent shore diving, and if you wanted you could do a charter one day out of Nanaimo. Might be a BIT more than 6 hours, but it would be memorable.

that's definitely on the radar, as well. i might have to wait until i can take a full week off for that trip, though.

camerone · Post by **camerone** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:36 pm

If you want to go a bit north of Seattle, there are a bunch of charming B&Bs in the Edmonds area. Heidi once got me to stay at one of them with diving the next morning at the underwater park, which was maybe three blocks away...sort of an in-town get-away, and there's an UWS right next to the park for air fills.

You can also then do a bunch of the other sites up that way in Edmonds, plus head over to Mukilteo for some more shore diving by the ferry dock or lighthouse... and perhaps take the ferry across to Kingston and do some of the Whidbey sites, before making your way back south.

camerone · Post by **camerone** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:53 pm

Grateful Diver wrote:I'd go to Curley's in Sekiu [...] AFAIK there are other shore diving sites in the area, although I haven't dived any of them.

Curley's is usually closed this time of year, as the owner winters down in California. Be warned... They have a nice compressor, though, and really good ice cream! I wouldn't call it a "dive shop," but they have a few basic -- and very dusty -- items in addition to the compressor. The owner (Dave?) is a friendly character when you get to know him, and they don't seem to object to dive gear in the room.

Food choices anywhere west of Port Angeles are basic at best...actually, basic may be overstating it. Bring your own; Curley's has kitchenettes.

This time of year, your nearest fills are probably Port Angeles...but the "dive shop" in Port Angeles, which is in the back of Sound Kayak, is VERY unreliable. We called ahead for fills on two separate trips, and both times were "stood up" by the owner, leaving us unable to get fills without a long drive to Bremerton.

Snow Creek campground, which is a private rental campground on the coat, west of Sekiu, on the way to Neah Bay, also has a compressor, although I've been warned that the air pumped is of dubious quality, so I have not tried it myself -- just going by a few sources I trust.

The shore sites you're thinking of, Bob, are pull-outs in the road between Sekiu and Neah Bay. Eric and I dove a couple of them, and they're dive spots, but nothing particularly great. Most are shallow mud flats that get out to a few rocks. We did quite a swim before we even hit 20 feet on some of them, and it wasn't worth the slog. Dave (at Curley's) does have a very nice sheet of maps/directions, though, if you want to see for yourself.

Port Angeles has a string of low-budget "fisherman's" motels along 101 west of town, any of which would be a good choice for this sort of activity. They're all more or less the same. My dive picks in that area are definitely Clallam County's "Salt Creek County Park" with several excellent sites right on the Strait, and one in the shallow (60') cove, that's almost always diveable, since it is protected by Tongue Point on the tip. If you hug the inside of the point, it's maybe 20', covered in kelp, and full of little stuff. The Strait side is much better, but you're at the mercy of the currents and the weather, so be careful and watch for slack.

We used to do an annual camping trip to Salt Creek to camp/dive -- they have showers and nice facilities at the campsite, but the last three years, we've just chartered a boat for Neah Bay and the Diamond Knot, and stayed in Sekiu at Curley's. I'm doing it again this August...last year, we didn't get on to Duncan Rock, but the year before was fabulous, and I need a repeat.

Lake Crescent - La Poel has a sunken forest, and there are a few good pull offs along the road (101, on the south side) if you just want a wall to splash around on. The easiest diving is at East Beach, which is fortunately very close to Port Angeles. There's a small trail just to the right of the swim area. Kit up on the picnic tables, head to the right, and jump in the shallows. There's an old boat or two, lots of sunken trees, and an old wooden barge down around 70' or so. It's like being in a bathtub, albeit a lot colder. I haven't done it in the winter, so I don't know what the surface temps are...down deep it's around 40' in the summer, and I found a second thermocline around 140' or maybe 150' or so last time I was out there... What's nice about the lake is being warm on your deco in the summer, as the shallows are usually around 68 or so.

Fun dive, since the water is gin clear, but not a lot to see. It's a great "last stop" on the way home, though, since you can do a dive and get all the salt out of your gear, saving you the trouble at home.

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:06 pm

Another thought on the Hood Canal area would be the "El' Dive cassa"

{Not the actual name} It is a double wide trailer / bunk house

at the "Rest-A-While" RV camp ground is just north of Hoodsport. Inexspensive{was $25.00 per person / per night} accomidations and very close to Sund Rock / Octopuss Hole. Great service from "Hoods port N dive" shop.
I agree with other postings, I would not want to stay at Mike's Beach resort ever again. Too much nickle & dime and not good services. Wherever you stay, I hope to get in a couple of dives with ya'!
That is, if your diving on a Tuesday!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:08 pm

Does Mouse still suck her thumb?

divernick · Post by **divernick** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:13 pm

Actually, last I knew of, the "El Dive Cassa," isn't available any more. The owners rented it on some sort of permanent basis. That's why we all went to Mike's Beach Resort for the 'annual' NWDC outing.

Nick

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:32 am

Sounder wrote:Does Mouse still suck her thumb?

Actually that is "pure terror" she was feeling bad for the Oysters who gave there all. And she was afraid to say anything bad about it because then dad would have made her try it.

Can you believe Mouse is 17 now?

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:54 am

BASSMAN wrote:
Sounder wrote:Does Mouse still suck her thumb?
Actually that is "pure terror" she was feeling bad for the Oysters who gave there all. And she was afraid to say anything bad about it because then dad would have made her try it.

Can you believe Mouse is 17 now?

Wow, they grow up so fast, don't they, Kieth? You DO own a shotgun, don't you? Anyway, I'm proud to say I ate at least 20 of those complimentary oysters the owner brought out to serve us with that night! That was fun- good times, and a lot of crazy Puget Sound divers all in the same place!

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 2:56 am

Locked and Loaded!!!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:40 am

There's a new country song going around right now - the premise is basically, that this dad is interviewing a boy who came to date his daughter. The chorus ends with how he'll be waiting up for her all night, still cleaning his gun.

whatevah · Post by **whatevah** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:51 am

coachrenz wrote:What about Whidbey Island? There is the Jetty, Langley, all the Mukilteo sites and you might be able to hit the north whidbey sites in and around Deception Pass. I didn't look up the current exchanges, as deception pass and the jetty can be a bit current sensitive.

I am sure that there are other North End sites that are doable as well, but, I haven't done them.

I'll second Tim's recommendation. If you're planning on 4 or 5 days Vancouver Island is a bit of a stretch I think - too much time and money on the travel for the amount of diving you'll be able to get done. Out on the peninsula is good but there are few fall back opportunities if the weather comes up (and it does so fairly frequently in the spring). If you head up to Anacortes and North Whidbey there are a number of good shore dive sites with differing wind exposures - there's almost always somewhere you can dive without getting hammered. There is Skyline Wall, Keystone Jetty, Keystone Pilings, Langley Marina, Admiralty Tire Reef, Rosario beach and associated rocky areas, Deception Pass etc. Some of those dives are very current dependent but if you start looking at dates and you want to know about feasibility I'm sure there are some locals who can help. You could book a charter or two out of Anacortes, too. Or... if your dates fit and I'm looking to do some diving there might be a place for you on my boat.