What Lies Under Higgins Lake, Lake Michigan, and St. Joe River?

It’s been a while since I went scuba diving, but I really, really, loved it.

The last time I went was in one of our inland lakes in Jackson County. Dunking down under the water, the fish are not afraid…they come right up to you, let you pet them, and seem to ‘sniff you out’ like a dog. Continuing thru the lake, I encountered some soft-shelled turtles; you know – the ones with the pointed-up snouts - and about half the size of my torso.

Swimming underwater to the center of the lake I came across a bed of clams; it looked like at least a hundred of ‘em. They were all open, some hanging out of the shell onto the lake bed. The closer I got, they started ‘clamming up’ – closing their shells with parts of their bodies still hanging out.

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Then, while I was out in the middle of the lake, I could see it was extremely shallow, so I stood up to look around above-water. Then I started to slowly sink…I was standing in a quicksand bed. Going back under, I flattened out and was able to swim away with no problem. Later, before I got to shore, I ran out of oxygen. So I just held my breath at intervals and swam underwater to shore, as that was the quickest way for me to do it.

I loved scuba diving and would love to go again.

The gallery below shows three separate scuba divers here in Michigan:
1) One diver explores sunken boats and more cool stuff at the bottom of Higgins Lake.
2) Another diver goes into a sinkhole located in Lake Michigan.
3) And yet another diver shows what the bottom of the St. Joseph River looks like in Niles (you won’t wanna go wading in the river after seeing this one).

Enjoy the gallery…maybe it’ll inspire you to do some diving on your own!