New Mexico

Guadalupe County

Divers will travel far and wide to find the best diving. But those who live in the United States have plenty of great diving on their doorstep as well, with plentiful access to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. From warm-water reefs to temperate seas, here are some of the top places to scuba dive in the United States.

United States

Blue Hole is a park in the city of Santa Rosa, New Mexico. There is onsite air filling on the weekends, and sometimes during the week. There is some VERY limited rental equipment available. Permits are $10 for 1 week (Wednesday through Tuesday) and $25 for a year (January to December). Blue Hole features a staircase entry or a concrete platform over the water for giant stride entry. There are training platforms at 20 and 25 feet for student divers. As Blue Hole is a bell-shaped sinkhole, the walls are where the attraction lie. Some notables include the toy store, the cow skull, and the diver's tombstone.



Blue Hole is also known as Navarre Nation.

Santa Rosa

Blue Hole

I am a dive instructor and the Blue Hole is an excellent place for new as well as advanced divers to work on their skills. The visibility makes the trip well worth taking. The access to the water is very easy with stairs and a nice platform for waiting to get into the water. There are two dive platforms at 20 and 25 feet in depth that are awesome to use for training purposes.

http://www.pages-yourfavorite.com/d-kasper/scuba/ow-loc-bluehole.html http://www.santarosanm.org/  Santa Rosa Name/Location:  Blue Hole  City/State:  Santa Rosa, New Mexico Description: Spring fed lake Max. Depth: 85 feet Visibility:  50' - 100'  Water Temperature: ~ 61F (year round)  Access:  Stairs or a concrete platform over the water allowing giant stride entry Facilities: Restrooms and changing rooms on-site. Dive Shop(s): Santa Rosa Dive Center Fee(s): $10 permit required to dive (good for one full year).  Go to Police Station to purchase the permit.  Note: if diving with an instructor, student(s) do not need a permit. Night Diving: Yes Altitude: 4,615' Comments:   Blue Hole is the preferred open water training area for dive shops in Central/Southern Colorado and Albuquerque, NM.  Very popular site for divers from New Mexico and West Texas. There are two platforms at 30' down for students and training.    Due to the cooler water temperatures, Blue Hole is not that popular with swimmers. Directions: Santa Rosa is 116 miles east of Albuquerque on I-40.  For city-to-city directions, check CyberRouter. Weather/Forecast: Santa Rosa, NM (Weather Underground) Contributor(s):  Special thanks to Steven Stewart and Sharon McCarty for their contributions to this site review.



Bottomless Lake State Park, Roswell, New Mexico

Lea Lake is also known as Bottomless Lake, Roswell.

Lea Lake

1.5 acre pool over San Solomon Springs, built by Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's.  Visibility is very good, lots of fish, turtles, and it's the only diving for hundreds of miles around.  Desert Divers dive shop in Toyahville.  Motel & camping facilities in park.

Balmorhea State Park is located 4 miles southwest of Balmorhea on Texas Highway 17, in Toyahvale. From I-10 westbound, take Balmorhea exit (exit #206); FM 2903 south to Balmorhea; State Highway 17 west 4 miles to the Park. From I-10 eastbound, take Toyahvale/Ft. Davis exit (exit #192); Ranch Road 3078 east approximately 12 miles to the park.

Balmorhea State Park

Oasis in the middle of nowhere, Texas. This natural spring is 72 degrees year round!   Texas has a wonderful state park system, and Balmorhea State Park in West Texas is no exception. Located a few hours southeast of El Paso, Balmorhea boasts a large natural spring with views of the Davis Mountains. Stay in the cabins or camp on location. This is a great place for year round scuba diving and swimming (if you're really motivated!) where the water is consistently 72 degrees. Divers will see a variety of fish, and a rather feisty turtle. Entry is free for State Park Pass holders, and is otherwise $7. Pool hours are 8am-7:30pm. Check it out! 

Balmorhea Springs

It's a good sizes lake , It's not very deep ... It's does not need to be deep , Because you are at att. you will need your tables! Ok the north side of the lake is a cool dive. The south side is a little more of a risk ..... Lots of concert pipe and Re-bar !! There ia a small boat on the north side , The water is cold in the winter, and warm in the summer .... It's a good fresh water dive.

Near Littleton. It's in side of the state park , chatfiled state park. Off the hwy c-470 going around the city of Denver colorado . @ wadswroth blvd & c-470 go south from the hwy ( trun left ) in to the park. Pay your $5.00 to get in . Go south along the big lake , right befor the river. Trun right in to the parking lot in front of the king fisher pound..

King Fisher Ponds is also known as King Fisher Lake.

King Fisher Ponds

Extreme Altitude Diving 13,420 feet.

Spruce Creek Trail to Pacific Tarn Lake

From the last traffic light on South Main Street in Breckenridge drive south on Highway 9 for about 2.3 miles to Spruce Creek Road. Turn right onto Spruce Creek Road and drive 1.2 miles to the well marked Spruce Creek Trailhead 10,380 ft. This is a good place to park passenger cars. From here the road gets rougher, but 4wd and high clearance vehicles will do fine and can continue for another approximately 2 miles until it ends at 11,100 ft. This is the upper Spruce Creek Trailhead.

Start hiking and shortly, you will find a trail intersection for Mayflower Lake to the right and Mohawk Lakes and Continental Falls to the left. Go left toward Mohawk Lakes. The trail twists steeply by a mining cabin to a marked split for Lower Continental Falls. It follows a useful mining cable past the falls split up open rock, moderating to the edge of Lower Mohawk Lake.

Once above the falls, the main trail heads for an old mining apparatus that looks like a ski lift. Go right past this mining apparatus and continue on the trail. If you made it this far, then you are on the right trail, and staying on it now is much easier.

The trail goes skirts Lower Mohawk Lake on its south side, and then takes a hard left turn south. The trail now is taking the long way around the cliffs and waterfalls below Mohawk Lake.

After Mohawk Lake the trail immediately begins to veer away from the lake to the north, and will take you past Upper Mohawk Lake #1 on the lake's north side and continues across relatively flat open tundra to the Upper Mohawk Lakes #2 and #3. Cross this lake on its north side by rock-hopping across the exit of the lake. Skirt the lake and proceed directly toward the slope that is now directly ahead.

From here it requires a steep and demanding rock climbing to Pacific Tarn Lake.

Pacific Tarn lake

Aurora Reservoir is a 3.625-star rated scuba dive and snorkel destination in Colorado, USA West which is accessible from shore based on 8 ratings.

Aurora Reservoir

Aurora Resevior is over what was formerly a U.S. Air Force gunnery range, so there is the *very* occassional ordinance to be found.  This is not even remotely likely, but keep an eye on your compass while down there.  The vis is ok if you're the first ones in after some time.  The bottom is mud, loaded with crayfish, and a lot of large, planted fish.  Watching the Walleye go after the crayfish is fun (I've had them taken right out from in front of the camera).  There is a dual-engine plane sunken about 130 yards/35 feet out that you can swim-through.  There is no night-diving here.

Park pass and SCUBA permit required.  Go to the main office to get these.  Ask for the "SCUBA KEY" so you can go through the gate to drop and pick-up your equipment, otherwise you have to haul it about 1/3 mile over the top of a dam.  The office will instruct you as to how to best access the scuba egress.

Aurora Resevior

This site is excellent to introduce people to diving.  You are guaranteed to see fish.  It is weather proof, extremely safe and exciting to almost all divers.  It is possible to dive with sharks or if that is not what you want you can dive with fish.

Downtown Denver Colorado.  

Downtown Aquarium

Visibility is average.  Lake fish are interesting to see.  Once in the water, the lake bed can have a steep drop to deeper depths. 

Just northwest of Lawton, Oklahoma on 281, 7 miles west on 49.

This is a lake, so diving is available directly from the shore.

Blue Hole

Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Blue Hole