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On becoming a Shark Whisperer, Part 3

Alternate Title: All about that time I went SCUBA diving in a dormant volcano*.

I mentioned earlier, there are a surprising number of diverse places to go SCUBA diving in Utah; landlocked, square, mountainous, red-rocky Utah.  To date, I have only been diving in the confines of a swimming pool, in murky, nasty pond-water with under 2 inches of visibility, and now, inside a dormant volcanic crater.

Anyone want to guess which of those three was the most Awesome?

Why yes, that’s right.  A swimming pool is better than nasty pond-water, but that’s not quite the answer I’m looking for.  Does anyone else have an idea?

Bingo!  Dormant Volcanic Crater is correct!  There is just no comparison to the pond or the pool when you’re talking about The Crater at the Homestead Resort in Midway, Utah.

The Crater is made up of two separate parts.  First, there is the dome, which rises about fifty-five feet from the surface of the water with a slightly irregular shaped opening about twenty feet in diameter.  A tunnel over a hundred feet long has been blasted through the rock to allow divers, swimmers, and curious passers-by to walk down to the water.  There is a small dock built to accommodate divers and their gear, and allow the proprietor to hang out with his beverage, supervising the goings on.

(Looking up from the surface of the water to the top of The Crater.)

The “pool” part of The Crater is approximately sixty feet across, roughly in a circular shape, and sixty-five feet deep.  (When you take into account the altitude, 5,600 feet, this makes the diving conditions equivalent to ninety feet deep at sea level.)  The fresh water bubbles up from a mineral hot spring and is a comfortable and inviting ninety-six degrees year-round.  It’s kind of like being in a giant bathtub with your closest friends…all wearing oxygen tanks and breathing through tubes.  Ok, so maybe it’s nothing like being in a giant bathtub.  Needless to say, the water is quite lovely.  The sides of The Crater are covered in mineral formations; these mini-stalactites are incredibly sharp and kind of look like a vast expanse of moss-covered jaggedy teeth.  You need to be careful not to float into the wall because those jaggedy bits are sharp!

As much as I would love to take some time and explore The Crater on my own, this time around I was in class and had to make three high-altitude dives in one afternoon to get my certification done; I had no time to dawdle and snap pictures like crazy.  I got my gear together–rash guard, oxygen tank, vest/BCD, octopus, regulator, alternate regulator, dive light, alternate light source, mask, booties, fins, weights, charts/slate, camera–and in I went.  My class was small–there was only four of us getting the Advanced Open Water certification–and we had a ton to accomplish.  Without further ado, down we all went to the bottom of The Crater.

It was beautiful.  Granted, it is probably nothing compared to The Caribbean, or Hawaii, or Thailand or something, but compared to icky murky pond-water, it was stunning.  The water is azure blue and for the first 30 feet or so there is enough light that you can see everything.  There are no creatures living in The Crater, but there is a plastic lobster, a plastic turtle, and a plastic iguana that can scare the daylights out of you if you’re not in-the-know…not that I was scared by a plastic iguana or anything…ahem.

I carefully and efficiently did all my tests–nitrogen narcosis testing to prevent/recognize underwater craziness, alertness at depth, underwater navigation with a compass, buoyancy testing–and on my last dive I finally had a little time for some fun.  My instructor, the one who looks like Katherine Heigl, can blow bubble-rings that rival Gandalf’s smoke rings.  I wanted to learn how to do it.  With a little coaching and a few un-ringed attempts, this is what I finally accomplished (and please don’t ask me why I am more proud of this than I am of anything else I did that day):

My three dives went by all-together too quickly.  I was having a blast and I really would have liked to get my bubble-ring skillz perfected.  (See?  Again with the bubble rings!)  It’s really too bad I didn’t have more time to play.  I’m sure my first “real” dives, ya know, in the OCEAN with REAL FISH and CORAL REEFS will leave me thinking The Crater, with it’s (relatively) teensy diving space and plastic animals is amateur and elementary.  But, for now I think it is amazing.

*In my research, it has been brought to my attention that The Crater is not actually a dormant volcano, but instead a giant upward-growing mineral grotto that has been forming for 10,000 years.  Cool?  Yes.  As cool as a dormant volcanic crater?  Not even close.  I am sticking by my initial story because, well, it’s my blog and my opinion is the one that counts; if you’d like to argue about it you can leave scathing comments which will be ignored or email your complaints to Management…which will also go ignored.

**Additional research has proven that my initial founding was (mostly) correct.  In several government-published reports this particular geological formation is referred to as a caldera, which is, by definition, “a large crater formed by the collapse of a volcanic code.”  I rest my case.

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