Diving into the Unknown: Exploring Chatfield Reservoir’s Gravel Pits
When whispers among the local diving community painted Chatfield Reservoir as a murky, desolate, and unimpressive dive site, we knew we had to see for ourselves. Poor visibility, cold waters, and an eerie emptiness? Sounds like precisely the kind of adventure we crave.
Where to Dive at Chatfield Reservoir?
It was a bustling weekend—boats slicing through the lake’s surface, no open swim beaches in sight—so we made our way to the gravel pits at the southern end, where we heard rumors of… curiosities. A toilet, they said. Perhaps other oddities lurking beneath the silt. What others find intriguing may not always match our definition of discovery, but that has never stopped us before.
What Lies Beneath the Gravel Pit?
Parking near our intended entry point was scarce, forcing us to adjust and join the paddleboarders and enthusiastic dogs plunging into the mid-pit waters. The entrance was an underwater tapestry of dense aquatic plants, their green fingers swaying between 8 to 15 inches tall. Pockets of exposed rock and sand revealed fragments of broken shells, scattered like forgotten relics. Algae clung to stone, painting the silty-gravel bottom in muted hues.
Descending northward, we traced the contours of submerged gravel pans, shifting from depths of 21 feet down to a mere 7 feet. Each rise and fall in the terrain unveiled its own secrets—among them, two large smallmouth bass, their unblinking stares meeting ours in an unspoken challenge.
The visibility held steady at 20 to 30 feet—until we crossed the thermocline at 20 feet, where clarity collapsed into near blindness. Silt replaced the sand, swallowing all traces of life and leaving us in a liquid void. We never stumbled upon the infamous submerged toilet, but we found no shortage of intriguing aquatic life among the discarded beer caps shimmering in the low light.
Nothing to See Here?
For all the whispers of emptiness, Chatfield Reservoir’s gravel pits hold their own quiet magic. A few rocks, algae, pipes, clams, oysters, and other divers… Nothing to see? Let us agree to disagree, and perhaps, somewhere beneath the silt, a lonely porcelain relic awaits discovery.
