Quarry open in St. Cloud

[cweimaraner]

Found the rules for diving here.

[LKunze]

Anyone know if there are any more detailed lake maps that show depths?

[jleech]

From one of the posts above:


Click on the pit on the left and it shows the contours.

The pits open for diving are:  1, 11, 13 & 18

Jeff

[LKunze]

Bummer that the four open to diving are all shallower pits.

[arcFlash]

Why the restriction in the first place? Is it private land? Why only 4 pits?

I'll go dive them if we get a group. I have a yard cart with large wheels, could probably carry 3 or 4 rigged BC's at a time. 

[nomads]

The Quarries are owned by Stearns County.  The restrictions are in place primarily because of access, size and alternative use, such as swimming.  Others may open in the future but it has taken two years to get this far. Be patient and obey the rules...

[vmi]

Hi everyone,

I was up at St. John's for Family weekend today (I've got a diver Son going there) & we stopped by the Quarry Park & Nature Preserve.  I'm in a cast on my leg so no chance to go tromping in but my Son & Wife went down the trails and checked out a few Quarries.  They said the trails were flat, not hilly and # 2 (the swimming one) is about 1/2 mile in.  The adjacent #1, where diving is allowed, is slightly further.  There's a swim dock on # 2 and they went out on it.  I asked what the vis was and it was a crystal clear 30 feet to the bottom.  I've heard some of the other Quarries are not good, some are but I would hope the deeper dive ones are similar.  # 18 is the one of the deeper ones open to diving and is right off the parking lot but a little tricky to get into.

I grabbed a Quarry map and will try and scan it in on Monday and make it available.  There are no bottom maps of the Quarries on it.  Just the web site.

My gut take on St. Cloud is if you are a hearty and stout person with medium lack of regard to physical exertion (meet with your cardiologist first) you'll be there a lot.  My guess is we'll all try it once or twice as it's quite a bit of work to get into there.  Also, the feasability to hang out and fire up the BBQ and have a cold one after the dives is not there.  No cold ones allowed and no picnic sites.  This could change perhaps as the park is young. 

Also, you must buy a car sticker to get to park.  The few minutes sitting in the car waiting for my "recon" crew to check it out,  I was prompty chased off by a park staffer with parking violation tickets in her hand reday to give out.

I gladly accept any opionions to the contray but this is what I saw today.  I think it's a neat place and do plan to dive it if I can get rid of my cast and crutches...

Pete

[wtdrm]

My buddy and I walked to all of the pits. It is a hike. A wagon or something will be needed. Especially for me. I really need a dive sherpa.
The pits are really small. I have a pond in my back yard that is bigger than # 18.
The only one to me that looked divable is #2. The instructions are kind of ambiguos as the website says no diving at #2 and the directions on the map you can pick up says you can dive #2.

I was disapointed. I was really looking forward to another place to dive. There are just to many negatives for me. Even number 2 could all be dove on a 30 cunic foot pony and finish with 1/2 a tank left.
Just my opinion.

[LKunze]

  Jeff Leech, Dan G, Dano, Elkman and I did a couple dives at Quarry Park today.  We did our first dive at Quarry #18, the closest one to the parking lot.  The walk is not too far and the trails are nice and flat crushed gravel making it pretty easy to wheel gear in with a two wheeler.  The entrance was decent at #18.  This Quarry is very small.  Like wtdrm said, you could dive this one with an aluminum 30  .  The vis was very clear, probably 30 to 40 feet.  Max depth was 47 feet, I think Jeff hit 50 feet but he had to go into a black layer to get it. > You can basically drop down to the bottom and see the walls on either side of the Quarry that's how small it is.  Not much to see, but there was a small sailboat wedged in on the rocks at about 20 feet.  It kind of gave me the impression I was diving in a small fresh water aquarium.  We did see a couple trout but that was about it.  There was very little trash in this quarry, just a few beer cans and beer bottles. 
  After taking a little break we headed down to Quarry #13.  This one is a bit narrower than #18 but is longer.  We did a giant stride entry into this one.  The viz was only about 15 to 20 feet here but there was more to see.  There is a lot of junk in this quarry.  There were some wooden cable spools, parts of a car including a car door, old lumber, cables etc.  This one had more beer cans and bottles in it as well.  Max depth on the entry side was around 37 feet and then in the middle of the quarry the rocks take you up to about 10 feet and then it drops back down to around 35 feet on the other side of the little rock wall.  All in all it wasn't too bad.  These are not the type of sites I could see myself going back to dive very often but they are worth checking out at least once for the avid local diver.

[jleech]

I just posted my topside and underwater pics I have of quarry park.  My underwater pics need some work  :  I let the camera select shutter speed, and in less that perfect vis, the camera selects too slow a shutter speed, and most shots are blurry  Some came out OK,  I'm looking forward to my new camera, we'll see how that works. I should be ordering my new housing next week

Jeff