Balmorhea Diving

The first weekend of Decmeber I took a trek out to Balmorhea Texas to go diving. I keep saying it's 8 hours from here (Dallas) but it's more like 7 without stops. It could probably be done in 6 if you have a lead foot. I don't. The water is a constant 72-76 F. The air temp, however, is much more variable. They had an early season snow fall. The air temp was COLD.

We were staying in the on-site hotel. It's nice. The room was more of a suite. The bedroom had it's own door. It was kept closed to keep it warm. The kitchenette had a single sink, a table, 4 chairs, a two burner electric stove, a microwave, and a dorm sized refrigerator. The potential wet areas are concrete floor. The room has carpet. The worst thing I can say is that the hot water system is per building. There was plenty of hot water first thing in the morning. None in the afternoon after all the divers had finished diving. We weren't the only ones there. This is a nice place to dive. Visibility is always good. There are plenty of fish, and it's neat to watch the ducks freediving to 15 feet to get something to eat. There really are ducks in that picture.

If you don't bring your own food, your choices of places to eat are pretty limited. There's mexican food and there is mexican food. I think there may be one other mexican place there too. Or, you can go to Pecos. There is a little more variety there.

If you bring your own food, you do need to bring your own pot's, pans, eating utensils, etc. Think of it like camping in a motel room. It works. And, it's much cheeper.

Texas does have mountains. No they aren't like the Rockies or the Nevadas, but you can still get sunsets over the mountains, and they can still be beautiful.