Is there a cave dive in Clear Lake Oregon?

[ivankarmel]

Just got back from a dive at Clear Lake Oregon. Beautiful day, good people, clear water and very cold. 2 celsius according to our computers. One of the divers mentioned the "blue room", a cave apparently penetrable enough to cause the ranger to mention not to go in there. I didn't have my cave gear with me and no one else on the dive was certified for cave nor did they or I have the right equipment. Well naturally that got my curiousity up, enough so to ask if anyone has been into the cave. I would like to hear from people who actually have made the dive and not from folks warning about the dangers of underwater caves. Those dangers are worth mentioning but not in this post. I'm certified as a cave diver, with experience in the Yucatan and Florida Caves. I'd like to hear from you few technical cave divers here in the NW who might have an interest in Cave exploration in the Pacific NW. I understand there is a thermal lava cave that is diveable in Oregon near the Idaho border. I'm wondering if Clear Lake is a similar opportunity. In fact I'd like to hear from anyone who has dove anything close to a cave in Oregon or Washington. Ivan

[lizard0924]

We were there (Clear Lake) in July and went diving, but the ranger never mentioned anything about a cave (and none of us stumbled across it). In which part of the lake is this cave located?

[ivankarmel]

Apparently across from the cabins down the gravel road at the resort, as if you were going to dive the drowned trees. There is a boil that comes out of the rocks there and apparently an opening. I don't know if it's only a cavern or more, but apparently its penetrable enough to warn divers about! I'd love to hear if anyone has been in it. I saw some of the old posts about Malheur Cave in Burns, but I think there is more out there. Oregon has the 2nd highest number of springs in the US behind Florida so there has to be more than just one drowned lava cave in Oregon.

[ktb]

Hmmm . . . Paul and I were near that spot on our last dive at Clear Lake and didn't see anything that looked like a cave opening.

[CaptnJack]

There are no divable caves in WA. We've got mines but most are on private land if of any size and most are not car accessible. Heck there are 1100 actual limestone caves on Vancouver Island and most are simply brutal to get to, often requiring helicopters or at least ATVs. The "most" divable is not even really cave diving like you'd imagine in MX or FL. More like power splunking through sumps.

Malheur is supposedly divable but its short (~250ft or so) and on private land. Apparently the people/person who owns it hasn't allowed people in there diving for awhile except for a few select friends of the owners.

If you are really interested in caving in OR (I hesitate to say cave diving because its not going to be walkup easy nor is it going to even be swimming like Peacock, Ginnie or MX) I recommend joining your local NSS grotto. They can introduce you to the local flooded sumps.

[BASSMAN]

There are no divable caves in WA.

Are there non-divable caves in Wa?

And I believe this thread was asking about Clear lake in Oregon.


I'm just Sayin' ...

(As Hutch would put it)

[Nwbrewer]

There are no divable caves in WA.

Are there non-divable caves in Wa?

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/ape-cave

[CaptnJack]

I'd like to hear from you few technical cave divers here in the NW who might have an interest in Cave exploration in the Pacific NW.

Seemed like your question was more generic to the NW in general so I was answering this part. Apparently not.

Good luck in Clear Lake.

[ivankarmel]

I will pin down my source who talked to the ranger and said it was called "the blue room" and that it was on the far shore across from the cabins at the resort. Eventually I'll have to go look myself. Thanks for the input. I've heard that Vancouver Island has alot of caves. i'd love to hear stories from people who dove them.

[CaptnJack]

I will pin down my source who talked to the ranger and said it was called "the blue room" and that it was on the far shore across from the cabins at the resort. Eventually I'll have to go look myself. Thanks for the input. I've heard that Vancouver Island has alot of caves. i'd love to hear stories from people who dove them.

I was at the "most" going 2 weeks ago. Its not cave diving so far its sump diving - big difference. Beyond the Octahedron room it goes deep and it turns into cave diving, but there's 3300ft of caving to get there.
http://vimeo.com/14676529
Its about 12 hours away from Seattle by car, ferry & car. Not divable in backmount beyond Never Never Land which is ~1800ft or roughly 1/2 of the mapped cave.

[4ster]

There are no divable caves in WA.

Are there non-divable caves in Wa?

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/ape-cave

And downhill from Ape cave is Lake cave, part of the same system, although not known to connect. I helped with a cave radio survey to see how close they came ( a few hundred feet). To make Lake cave a dive you would have to wait until the water table rises this winter though.