Lake Pactola

[mcdiver]

Has anyone ever done any scuba diving at Lake Pactola in the Black Hills?

I am planning to dive their over the Memorial Day weekend.

[doug67]

Ive stopped there many times while out there at the rally Dave. Always wondered what it would be like to dive it, You will have to let us know how it is.

[mcdiver]

Hey Doug,

I stopped by Pactola in December of 2014 when vacationing in the Hills, a very scenic area.

It is roughly a 7 hour drive to get back to the Crosby Pits, this would only be a 4 hour drive. The only problem is, there are no dive stores in the area, nearest dive store is hours away, so only a place you could dive at for a weekend.

I do plan on going to Pactola over Memorial Day weekend, so I will post some pics after that.

[doug67]

Sounds good Dave looking forward to some pics

[Hydro]

i might have to fire up an rv and take a boat out there!!

(btw:forum update seems cool)

[DetectorGuy]

I stopped by there one time and checked out the museum near Pactola Reservoir. There is at least one town at the bottom. I think most of the buildings were torn down before the reservoir was filled, but there are supposed to be roads, sidewalks, mail boxes, electric poles, and such still there. One thing in the museum that I remembered was an auction bill for selling the contents of the buildings prior flooding the area. I did do one dive out that way at Horse Thief Lake about 12 miles South of Pactola. Horse Thief Lake is about 1 1/2 from Mount Rushmore and its at 5000' above sea level, so I used the high altitude tables. Pactola Reservoir is at 4600' so be smart about diving at altitude.

[Rookie]

If the reservoirs in the black Hills are like the ones in Colorado, the visibility should be great! They are similar to our Mines here in Minnesota in that there is little if any vegetation

[2airishuman]

Any updates? I'll be in the Black Hills next week and thinking of diving....