Difficulty
beginner
Viz (last reported 7593h ago)
Max Depth
35.1 ft
Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Octopus Hole
Like the close-by Sund Rock area, Octopus Hole is very popular with Scuba divers who enjoy diving the wall to view various underwater creatures, including but not limited to Lingcod, North Pacific Giant Octopus, Wolf Eel, and nudibranch.
The most popular wall to dive in this area is about 200 yards long and starts at roughly 40 fsw, going down to roughly 50-60' fsw, depending upon the tide. Many divers use a large tree that has partially fallen out towards the water to help find the beginning of this wall. Once they have done the surface swim out to this tree, they can then drop down to the wall. Another, smaller wall is accessible, at roughly 90 fsw. This wall is nearly straight out from where most divers climb down from highway 101.
Because Octopus Hole is a conservation area, no hunting or gathering of any kind is permitted. The area also has very limited parking. Essentially, parking areas are nothing more than small turnouts on the highway. There is no formal trail or pathway. Getting gear down and back from the water requires good balance as you walk down on large irregular rocks to the water. Sometimes two trips is better, remove weights or camera gear on one trip. In spite of this, the Octopus Hole is quite popular. Access is always free of charge.
This area is not current sensitive. Source: Wikipedia.org
Octopus Hole is a designated conservation area on Washington's Hood Canal. It is located right off Highway 101 just over three miles from Hoodsport.
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shore
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Ed Kenney
Mar 6, 2005, 12:00 AM
scuba
Update on my recent report - as of March, 2005, octopi have moved back onto the main wall. Also, my ratings will raise on this site due to the incredible winter conditions today. I woke to a brilliant sunrise - no wind, no frost - so I high-tailed it two hours from my mountain outpost to the coast just as the weather cleared over Hood Canal. The water was so calm at the site it looked like a thin layer of see-through neoprene was coating it. Cars were parked all along the road, filled with divers, as the secret of our tremendous diving conditions this winter has definitely leaked out! Most of the divers, however, were doing an AOL course, I think, so I never saw them. This is typical - don't worry if you see cars all over both sides of the road - you are still likely to have most of the wall to yourself or to not even see another diver. The viz was muddied at the beginning of the descent from the floating platform, but it cleared quickly. At a wolf eel hangout below the mid section of wall at 60 feet of depth I could see the surface. That is pretty unusual around here. Just a bit farther along, I could see a hundred feet of wall horizontally. That is definitely unusual!! Only two divers were on the most interesting section of the wall and none in the boulder field beyond, my favorite part. What's to see? Well, octopi once again, and I was glad to see a few had made it back after two straight years of tragic dissolved oxygen deficiencies in the early Fall. Two beautiful wolf eel and one grand old warrior watched from their perches high on the wall. I could only find two wolf eel anywhere deep. There were six areas with big clutches of ling cod eggs, and both gnarly and good-looking younger ling guarding them - also, two nice schools of coppe rock cod and perch. The tube worms and nudibranches at wall's end were exceptional. The superlative viz really helped in locating these - it's the first time I've seen the topography of all the boulder patches beyond the main wall. One nudi I've never seen before - darn it if I don't have my PNW nudi book loaned out. Porcelain texture, an inch and a half long, with nice highlights of red and black on raised spicules. The only thing that could have made this dive better would have been watching the orcas cavort there the evening before. That's what the divers who stayed overnight saw.
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