06/03/2026
Mariah Caves
West Hawk Lake, Manitoba
Upon exiting the water after this dive, I exclaimed it was my favourite West Hawk dive in 5 years.
Perhaps due to the exploration factor. We had never dove here before, we didn’t know what to expect, and we didn’t particularly know exactly where it was.
Thank Poseidon for side scan sonar. As we cruised along the shore, we we found an instant drop off from 35ish feet, down to 90, then down to 160’. It was our best bet, so we anchored in the 35 and hopped in the water.
Mariah is the local term for Burbot. And you know how much we love Burbot, so the prospect of finding “caves” full of them was too much for us to pass up.
After a short swim, we found ourselves on the edge of a sheer cliff. Straight down. At the base of the cliff, in about 75-80’ we found several undercuts in the rock, some about 10-15 feet deep. After exploring the base of the wall, we turned deeper, but turned back around 110’ after not finding anything remarkable. After some time returning to explore the “caves” at the base of the wall once again, we were approaching our NDL and began our ascent up the wall. A swimming safety stop took us past interesting underwater structures built to support cabin docks.
Alas, we didn’t spot any Mariah/Burbot on this dive, but we did find the undercuts known as the caves. We also found a few stubby beer bottles and an 80 year old Coca-Cola bottle. 🤙
The pic of the cabins is from our anchor spot. From there, swim parallel to shore to the right and you’ll soon find the edge of the cliff.
