Dive Sites in West Virginia, United States

Summersville Lake, nicknamed 'The Little Bahamas of the East,' is widely called the clearest freshwater lake east of the Mississippi, with summer visibility of 20-40 ft. Long Point Cliff is the lake's signature boat dive, a towering sandstone formation with walls dropping to about 40 ft, and nearby Bubble's Cave offers a cavern-like ledge with a trapped air pocket about 25 ft down. Both sites are boat-access only and stay clearer than the shoreline areas.

Tygart Lake, a 1,750-acre Corps reservoir near Grafton in north-central West Virginia, reaches depths of about 130 ft and is one of the state's most-dived lakes. The best-known site is Henderson Rocks, a line of underwater cliffs running parallel to shore off the Pleasant Creek boat ramp: about 20 ft from shore, in 8 ft of water, the bottom drops vertically over the cliff face. Dive-club guides describe it as an easy wade-in wall dive.

Shore diving on Summersville Lake is done from Battle Run Beach near the campground and from the winter access ramp near the dam, with the Salmon Run ramp area serving as another easy entry on the north shore. Training platforms sit at roughly 20-25 ft and a small sunken boat, the Thomas Patrick, lies off the winter ramp. The same exceptional clarity that earned the lake its 'Little Bahamas' nickname makes these easy walk-in dives rewarding.

A 1,200-acre cooling reservoir for Dominion's Mount Storm power station on the Stony River, famous among Mid-Atlantic divers because the discharged cooling water keeps it warm year-round - 50s-60s F in winter and up to the 90s F in summer. Training platforms sit at about 25, 50 and 90-100 ft, with a submerged ghost forest, shed and fence line, and a maximum depth around 130 ft. At roughly 3,200 ft elevation it is an altitude dive, and current rules require divers to access the dive area by boat.