100 FT Rock
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:04 pm
This site review and Directions are written and provided by John Rawlings [and Edited by Seth T.]. Please respect his request to keep quiet and be aware of the surroundings and private property. Thank you.
Dive Site Name: 100 ft Rock
Current Sensitive: Yes, but only slightly.
Location/Address: 162nd St SW, Edmonds. Located in front of a very upper class community.
Directions: The 100 Foot Rock dive site is located a few miles north of Edmonds. I know a few ways to get there, but here is the easiest for someone trying to find it the first time: Take Exit 179 off of I-5 (220th St SW). Drive west and drive across Highway 99 Take a right onto 76th Ave SW (I think that it might be the first or second light). Follow 76th Ave SW for quite a while until you hit a 4-way stop at an area called Perrinville. You will see a bunch of shopping buildings decorated in a 19th Century style - The Perrinville Carrier Annex of the US Postal Service will be to the left and a store called Tollafson's Market will be on the right. Continue straight through the intersection and drive down into a residential area for about 1.3 miles. The road will eventually begin to parallel the shoreline. Take a hard left onto 162nd St SW and drop down (almost literally!) to the railroad tracks. Park in the dirt area at the side of the road before you reach the tracks.
Free Parking: Yes but very limited. 6 cars tops.
Staging Area: Nope. Bring your truck!
Surface Hike: Huge! Walk down the tracks, approx. 520 railroad ties worth. Gear up FIRST! You do not want to make this trip more than once.
Surface Swim: Optional / Medium. You can drop straight down, but it conserves air to surface swim out to the float and drop to 60’.
Nearby Facilities: None. Occasionally a porta-john.
Special Considerations: Be respectful and quiet as a mouse. If you disturb their peace and quiet, someone will pick up a phone and call the police.
Maximum Depth: 70-95 FSW
Dive Site Description: To find the rock, walk about 100 yards [Edit: more like 300 yards] or so South of the Marina along the railroad tracks. If there is a low tide it is best to get down on the beach rather than walking along the RR tracks for safety. There are some old concrete steps leading down from the Railroad tracks to the beach. They are virtually the same color as the rocks so they are easy to miss - keep a sharp eye out for them! If you pass the end of the dark wooden bulkhead in front of the last of the houses you have gone too far. The rock lies straight out from the stairs, so you can swim out on the surface part of the way using them as a guide.
After swimming out until you are in about 10 - 15 feet of water, descend to the sandy bottom. [Edit: to conserve more air, swim out to the white buoy and descend. Note that the buoy is slightly north of the rock.] Continue to swim out on the compass azimuth you established from the beach (remember, straight out from the concrete steps). Look for a slight "dip" at the edge of the sand where the bottom begins to obviously slope steeply downward. It resembles a slight depression in the sand and is really quite obvious. This is the beginning of a trough that has been formed as a result of the rock.
Follow this trough downward. It will become more and more marked as you descend, with the bottom of the trough filling up with pieces of bark, seaweed, shells, and the occasional human debris such as beer cans and golf balls (someone in one of the houses up above likes to knock a few balls out here!).
The trough will take you right to the rock itself, which will appear as a dark apparition in about 80 to 90 FSW depending on the tide level that day. I have made a deep tech dive there in the past and we tried to see how far the trough went. It continues out way beyond 165 FSW and appears to be a good place to find large Lings and Cabezon.
The rock itself is literally covered with tiny brown Zoanthids like a thick woolen blanket. Sharpnose crabs, sculpins of all types, anemones, hermit crabs, etc. also make the rock their home. Many times when I have been there over the years there was a good sized octopus that will take a crab out of your hand living under the Southeastern edge of the rock, so make sure you take a look into the "cave" that is normally there, (when it isn't occupied by an octo it will quickly fill up with silt and sand). The rock itself is quite large, and appears to me to be about 30 feet across and about 15 feet high. Red Irish Lords of all color phases and designs abound there, as do Sailfin Sculpins.
There is a clay wall leading Northward from the rock that is honeycombed with tiny holes and is chock full of tiny creatures. I have seen all kinds of shrimps, Grunt Sculpins, Stubby Squid, all kinds of Gunnels, and numerous other little critters there. In fact, the clay wall is usually the favorite part if my dives there.
Watch your gas supply and bottom time! There is so much fascinating little stuff to look at that it is easy to lose track of your time and depth. People have died here in the past just because of not paying attention. Don't let that happen to you.
Be Safe and carpool if possible, NW Dive club is not responsible for divers and their actions at this location.
Dive Site Name: 100 ft Rock
Current Sensitive: Yes, but only slightly.
Location/Address: 162nd St SW, Edmonds. Located in front of a very upper class community.
Directions: The 100 Foot Rock dive site is located a few miles north of Edmonds. I know a few ways to get there, but here is the easiest for someone trying to find it the first time: Take Exit 179 off of I-5 (220th St SW). Drive west and drive across Highway 99 Take a right onto 76th Ave SW (I think that it might be the first or second light). Follow 76th Ave SW for quite a while until you hit a 4-way stop at an area called Perrinville. You will see a bunch of shopping buildings decorated in a 19th Century style - The Perrinville Carrier Annex of the US Postal Service will be to the left and a store called Tollafson's Market will be on the right. Continue straight through the intersection and drive down into a residential area for about 1.3 miles. The road will eventually begin to parallel the shoreline. Take a hard left onto 162nd St SW and drop down (almost literally!) to the railroad tracks. Park in the dirt area at the side of the road before you reach the tracks.
Free Parking: Yes but very limited. 6 cars tops.
Staging Area: Nope. Bring your truck!
Surface Hike: Huge! Walk down the tracks, approx. 520 railroad ties worth. Gear up FIRST! You do not want to make this trip more than once.
Surface Swim: Optional / Medium. You can drop straight down, but it conserves air to surface swim out to the float and drop to 60’.
Nearby Facilities: None. Occasionally a porta-john.
Special Considerations: Be respectful and quiet as a mouse. If you disturb their peace and quiet, someone will pick up a phone and call the police.
Maximum Depth: 70-95 FSW
Dive Site Description: To find the rock, walk about 100 yards [Edit: more like 300 yards] or so South of the Marina along the railroad tracks. If there is a low tide it is best to get down on the beach rather than walking along the RR tracks for safety. There are some old concrete steps leading down from the Railroad tracks to the beach. They are virtually the same color as the rocks so they are easy to miss - keep a sharp eye out for them! If you pass the end of the dark wooden bulkhead in front of the last of the houses you have gone too far. The rock lies straight out from the stairs, so you can swim out on the surface part of the way using them as a guide.
After swimming out until you are in about 10 - 15 feet of water, descend to the sandy bottom. [Edit: to conserve more air, swim out to the white buoy and descend. Note that the buoy is slightly north of the rock.] Continue to swim out on the compass azimuth you established from the beach (remember, straight out from the concrete steps). Look for a slight "dip" at the edge of the sand where the bottom begins to obviously slope steeply downward. It resembles a slight depression in the sand and is really quite obvious. This is the beginning of a trough that has been formed as a result of the rock.
Follow this trough downward. It will become more and more marked as you descend, with the bottom of the trough filling up with pieces of bark, seaweed, shells, and the occasional human debris such as beer cans and golf balls (someone in one of the houses up above likes to knock a few balls out here!).
The trough will take you right to the rock itself, which will appear as a dark apparition in about 80 to 90 FSW depending on the tide level that day. I have made a deep tech dive there in the past and we tried to see how far the trough went. It continues out way beyond 165 FSW and appears to be a good place to find large Lings and Cabezon.
The rock itself is literally covered with tiny brown Zoanthids like a thick woolen blanket. Sharpnose crabs, sculpins of all types, anemones, hermit crabs, etc. also make the rock their home. Many times when I have been there over the years there was a good sized octopus that will take a crab out of your hand living under the Southeastern edge of the rock, so make sure you take a look into the "cave" that is normally there, (when it isn't occupied by an octo it will quickly fill up with silt and sand). The rock itself is quite large, and appears to me to be about 30 feet across and about 15 feet high. Red Irish Lords of all color phases and designs abound there, as do Sailfin Sculpins.
There is a clay wall leading Northward from the rock that is honeycombed with tiny holes and is chock full of tiny creatures. I have seen all kinds of shrimps, Grunt Sculpins, Stubby Squid, all kinds of Gunnels, and numerous other little critters there. In fact, the clay wall is usually the favorite part if my dives there.
Watch your gas supply and bottom time! There is so much fascinating little stuff to look at that it is easy to lose track of your time and depth. People have died here in the past just because of not paying attention. Don't let that happen to you.
Be Safe and carpool if possible, NW Dive club is not responsible for divers and their actions at this location.
