Carnelian Bay

Parking is in the large open lot and the site itself is free, with porta-potties through the summer and a grocery store and a pizza restaurant across the highway — small things that matter when you are waiting for dark. The entry is through small rocks, so it is worth walking in carefully with fins in hand; a short way out the bottom turns to sand. Shallow depths run for about the first 1,000 ft (300 m) from the beach, and that is the ground the site is normally dived on.

Average depth is 6 to 8 m (20 to 25 ft) and visibility runs 15 to 18 m (50 to 60 ft), which is why the site works for divers straight out of a course and for the night dives local shops run as part of certification training. The sand is not empty: old motor blocks, deteriorated fishing boats, large submerged logs and a sunken barge are scattered across it, and further out the bottom breaks into a series of rock-ledge steps with small canyons in between. Crawdads and rainbow trout are here in numbers.

Under a torch the cast changes — crawdads and fish come out, along with bottom sculpins that are not normally seen in daylight. Navigation is the skill this site asks for: familiarity with a compass is a must, and the ground beyond the shallow first 305 m (1,000 ft) should be left to more experienced divers. Swim out, work a slow arc across the sand, and come back on a reciprocal toward the lights on the beach.