Elk Grove

Most people don’t expect to have any scuba diving experience in Lake Michigan, let alone an exciting one. While diving is usually synonymous with warm, turquoise water and dazzling marine life, scuba divers in the Great Lakes region guard a well-preserved secret.

“If you’re diving and you want to see fish you have to go to the tropics,” says Cris Kohl, author of eleven books on the Great Lakes. “But if you want to see the best preserved shipwrecks in the world you have to dive here, because you sure won’t see them in saltwater.”