Union Pacific appears to have quite the set of crew change tracks out here in Marysville with potentially a couple mains, one or two MOW (Maintenance Of Way) tracks, along with four or more crew change holding tracks. (Marysville, KS, June 19, 2016, 13:14 PDT, SX700 1/800 f5.6 ISO 160)
What, another train picture? (Marysville, KS, June 19, 2016, 13:17 PDT, SX700 1/800 f4.5 ISO100, looking south off the overpass and into the ‘question mark’ curve leading into the UP crew change area.)
The Big Blue River rolls on below the overpass, muddied and somewhat swollen with relatively recent rains across the plains. (Marysville, KS, June 19, 2016, 13:22 PDT, SX700 1/800s f4 ISO100, looking north off the bridge)
Map Of Lawrence Kansas Photo Gallery
Although the dense kelp makes swimming on the bottom a bit of a struggle, this is the ideal location for a novice diver’s first open water dive. The islets themselves, on the seaward side, are huge, almost vertical pillars, rising up from the bottom at 15 metres and make an interesting dive site. On the seaward side the current can be very strong and it literally rages on a spring tide. Thirty metres out into Seal Gut, in a northeasterly direction from the centre of the islets at low water, is a shallow and rather flat, kelp-covered reef, which is the western end of the Seal Gut reef. The south-facing edge of this reef has a 3-5 metre wall down onto sand and stone with a few bits of wreckage strewn about but little else to recommend it. There are very few crevices on the reef at this end and the tide runs up to 5 knots on the springs. The top of the reef is in about 10-12 metres but gets deeper the further you go out, while depths on the south side drop away down to 20 metres. This is a rather uninteresting dive site. Very shallow, rather flat ground, covered in dense tangleweed, 2-3 metres long at low water but with a couple of narrow, 10-metre deep gullies running south-north. The nearest one to the islets has a dark narrow cave at the southern end of it where the seals play about.
