Things to Know
- By far the best dive location in the Chicagoland regional area
- Generally open from 9am to 6pm or 10pm depending on the day (you can do night dives here)
- There are significant and obvious thermoclines, you can actually see them in the water column. Around ~40ft be prepared for a material drop to 50F or less. Brutally cold on the deep side below ~60 ft
- A large and well managed air fill station including Nitrox blending. You drop off your tanks, they ask your name and then keep track of how many fills you have gotten on a whiteboard. You settle up at the end of the day/weekend of diving.
- Their Nitrox fills are partial pressure blended, NOT banked, which means you will need O2 clean tanks to get a nitrox fill. However, this also means you can get custom blends on the spot.
- A wonderful suitup area / covered gazebos with individual picnic tables, pre-hung whiteboards, bars for hanging clothes or dive equipment. Plenty of space for tank setup and gear up. (see picture below for example)
- Freaken huge catfish prowling around and they are not scared of you
Diving Activities
- Obviously well setup for training given the gazebos
- Large enough water area for Technical and DPV dives
- It gets dark below 40ft so have a light
- It gets murky above 20ft, as would be expected from OW training, so have good buddy awareness
- As a place to do deep dives, it is unmatched in the Chicagoland regional area with training platforms all the way down to 100ft
- The in-water portion of the docks is fairly small, constituting just steps, so you'll need to do briefings on land or floating in the water
How to Check-In
Click image for higher resolution version
Step 1: Fillout their liability release form online before you come
Step 2: Pull thru the gate and cross the railroad tracks
Step 3: Park in the first parking lot
Step 4: Go to the Office and check-in and pay your entry fee and provide your certification card
Step 5: Go to your assigned diver gazebo (you can request one ahead of time if you are with a group)
Step 6: Suitup and dive!
Step 2: Pull thru the gate and cross the railroad tracks
Step 3: Park in the first parking lot
Step 4: Go to the Office and check-in and pay your entry fee and provide your certification card
Step 5: Go to your assigned diver gazebo (you can request one ahead of time if you are with a group)
Step 6: Suitup and dive!
Click image for higher resolution version
Download PDF
Dive Map as of Aug 2024
- If you surface swim to the plane (see high res) and descend, you can do pretty much an entire tour of the sunken items on a single AL80
- Virtually every major item and platform is connected with well marked lines and signs underwater