When thinking of diving in North Carolina, we often think about such sites as Queen Anne's Revenge and other famous shipwrecks, including German U-Boats and others dating back to WWII, plus many others that are even older. Sometimes though, arranging for a charter isn't possible, and weather often puts shore diving along the coast out of reach. Thankfully, Fantasy Lake Scuba Resort and other inland dive areas like it are there to save the day. Let's take a closer look at this fun and fantastic dive site.
Diving Fantasy Lake: Features and Attractions
A great place for checkout dives and training, with a number of platforms just right for practicing skills at various depths, Fantasy Lake also features plenty of sunken attractions. To begin with, there are a number of entry points. The most popular is the dock at the park's southeast end, which leads you right to the beginning of the sunken quarry road that runs approximately east / west across the lake bottom. This road splits the dive site in two sections and makes and excellent reference point. Along the road, you'll find sunken boats, including a pair of glass-bottomed boats, and even a sunken graveyard; while no one is really buried in this Halloween-style attraction, there are plenty of spooks to see, and since there's a replica of Elvis' grave here, you never know - you might encounter "The King" himself here!
Just to the south of the sunken cemetery, you'll find a plane wreck; this Nomad, built in Australia, is just a little north of the old rock crusher, which was part of the quarry's original works. Beyond this, there's a school bus, and all along the way, you'll encounter plenty of fish and other freshwater aquatic life. Watch for largemouth and striped bass, bluegill, bewhiskered catfish, and lots of turtles, plus some crayfish hiding in the rocks.
The quarry's rock walls are fantastic too; they offer a look at Wake County's geology. Formed from just a small portion of the Rolesville Granitic Batholith, and fed by a cool underwater spring, the quarry covers about 50 acres; on three sides, you can see granite cliffs rising up to an average height of 50 feet from the surface. This amazing quarry turned dive site began operating in the early 1800's, and the stone it produced was used for constructing local buildings, including some of the elaborate houses you can still see today, along with many of the headstones in local cemeteries. Projects far away also benefitted from the granite the quarry produced; for example, the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel contains some stone sourced from this quarry.
Located near Rolesville, just 14 miles northeast of Raleigh, Fantasy Lake is home to Wake County's highest point, at the top of Fantasy Lake Mountain, as well as its lowest, at the deepest part of the quarry, 80 feet below the surface.
This resort features a number of amenities including picnic tables and gazebos, change rooms, and clean porta-potties, plus primitive campsites, hiking trails, and more. No children or pets are allowed, but non-diving guests are welcome to camp, hike, or sunbathe. There are air fills and tank rentals available May - October, and the area is open year-round. There's a small fee to dive, and new attractions are added on a regular basis. An enjoyable place to practice skills or try out new equipment before a tropical vacation, Fantasy Lake offers some of North Carolina's best inland diving.