Central Texas Diving - Reveille Peak Ranch

[George Monnat Jr]

Here are my notes on the dives I've done in Quarry Lake on Reveille Peak Ranch (RPR) between Lake Buchanan and Burnet, TX (north of Inks Lake). The rankings are relative to other green-water diving in Texas (not blue water). I've done twelve (I think) dives there with the latest in July 2014.

Updated: 08JUL2014

Accessibility: moderate; The bad part is that diving there is by invitation only, usually with Scubaland from Austin. Scubaland does a great job of hosting fun events there, like full-face mask communications test dives. They've been doing their winter classes at RPR since Spring Lake / Aquarena Springs was closed to dive classes. The good part is it's a lot closer than Balmorhea State Park, which used to be the winter backup.

SCUBA diving in Reveille Peak Ranch’s partial private quarry lake is open to dive professionals and dive stores for classes and activities. All diving is organized and escorted by dive professionals and is not currently available to the general public.

Cost: moderate; "$20 per diver per dive session or day"

Visibility: moderate; it starts clear as it's spring (or more likely ground-water) fed, but swimmers and dive classes can muck it up fast. Because it's small with low flow, once it's mucked up it stays that way for awhile.

Variety of Sites: poor; it's fairly small. It has a wicked thermocline at around 14-20 feet that is colder than Spring Lake or the Comal River by a few degrees making it feel really cold even in the summer. Compared to Lake Travis and the air, it's still a warm place to dive in the winter. Because it's an old quarry site, there are some really pretty rock walls, but they're deep, cold, and dark meaning you need good insulation and a good dive light to appreciate it.

Wildlife: moderate; I was going to say poor as there's the typical sunfish/bass (and one of the little ******** drew blood on my ear lobe), but they have these really cool bugs. These little bugs hover in the like they're flying, and they're neon/blaze orange. Really cool. Being that bright, I'm guessing they're really toxic, otherwise they’d be fish fry food.

Obstacles (things to see, swim through, etc.): poor; They have nice training platforms, but I haven't really seen much else.

Looking at the ratings you might think it's a crappy place to dive, but without a drysuit and in the winter it may be the best choice in Central Texas. Unless you are a Diving for Science volunteer.