Dive Kiva Beach

Kiva Beach is the poor man’s Baldwin Beach. It’s free to park, but you have to schlepp your gear at least 550 feet from the edge of the parking lot to the water (heading west from the lot to the nice beach, anyway).

A long, shallow shelf runs across the south shore of the lake. The distance from shore to the deep gradually decreases as you head west, and it’s at its narrowest at Baldwin Beach, with a precipitous drop off just 1,000 feet from the beach. At Kiva Beach, however, you’ll be swimming closer to half a mile to find that drop off and it’s probably not quite as dramatic. Taylor Creek enters the lake here, reducing the viz close to the mouth, but there are still ancient trees poking up from the sand in the shallows to hunt for.

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t had a chance to go deep here yet. If you have, let me know what’s down there. I’ll be updating this page when I get out there. I tend to avoid crowds as much as I can, and this area gets absolutely packed. Boats pull up all along the shore to join the party/daycare at the beach, too, which makes entry and exit a little dicey, particularly as the day progresses and more and drunker people are about.

There are usually porta-potties in the parking lot.