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Below is an index of my swimming hole and waterfall trip reports. I have listed them by state.

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For the seventh day of our trip, Cade and I went tubing on the North Fork American River near the Mineral Bar Campground at the Iowa Hill Bridge. The last three days of our trip are in the Grass Valley area, and we have no specific plans other than doing a whole lotta tubing. We tubed a couple of sections of the South Yuba River last year and are looking to tube more of it this year, but since we were leaving from Folsom this morning, the North Fork American River was more convenient. Since we only have one vehicle, we have to hike upstream and then tube back to the starting point. Yankee Jim’s Bridge seemed like an obvious first choice for North Fork American River tubing, but it’s closed until 2028 while they construct a new bridge. Two other access points in that general area are the Ponderosa and Iowa Hill Bridges, and the latter seemed to have more trails along the river, so we opted to go there. Maps indicated that the Pennyweight Trail followed the river upstream from the bridge for about a mile or so. I couldn’t tell from Google Earth if there were unofficial trails that continued further upstream. If we couldn’t get far enough upstream, there was a trail that went downstream for a half-mile or so, which would allow us to tube past the bridge and walk back if we wanted to float longer.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, this stretch of the North Fork American River was fairly uneventful but tube-able at today’s flow. The highlight swimming hole was the one just downstream of the put-in, which was large, deep, and had a decent jump of about 15 feet. It looks like the river gets more eventful heading toward Yankee Jim’s, which is about 5 miles downstream, so hopefully we’ll finally get to check that out when the area reopens in 2028.

Current Location: Auburn State Recreation Area, CA

For the fifth and sixth days of our trip, Cade and I ended up revisiting two of our favorite swimming holes in the Stanislaus National Forest: God’s Bath and Blue Streak. However, that was not our original plan. Yesterday, we met up with Swimming Holes of California author Timothy Joyce to explore some swimming holes on upper Cherry Creek, and today we had planned a creek walk on the Clavey River to check out a potential swimming hole upstream of God’s Bath. If we had extra time on either day, we also wanted to check out some waterfalls on the South Fork Tuolumne River downstream of the Rainbow Pools, but none of these excursions panned out as expected.

( Click here for the full trip reports with pictures an videos )

In summary, even though our attempts at finding new swimming holes over the past two days were a bust, our revisits to God’s Bath and Blue Streak were fine consolation prizes. I might try the Clavey River hike again if we can find more people to go, but it seems too remote and treacherous for only two people to attempt. We also have some loose ends on Cherry Creek, both above and below Cherry Lake, so we might return for further explorations on a future trip after I’ve done some armchair route-finding. The South Fork Tuolumne Falls are probably a no-go in the near future, since the area is now closed to the public.

Current Location: Stanislaus National Forest, CA

For the fourth day of our trip, Cade and I went tubing on the Merced River through Yosemite Valley. Cade agreed to yesterday’s Yosemite Falls hike on the condition that we do some lazy tubing today, so it was time to uphold my end of the bargain (although my arm didn’t really require twisting). This section of the Merced River has never piqued my interest from a swimming hole standpoint, since it’s relatively flat and uneventful, but it was the only tubing option I could think of in the area, and I figured it would be a cool new way to take in the scenery of Yosemite Valley.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, we didn’t find any standout swimming holes in this area, but there were a couple of good (and illegal, unbeknownst to us) bridge jumps and rope swings. It certainly wasn’t secluded, but it was a cool way to see the valley from a different perspective while getting some lazy tubing in.

For the third day of our trip, Cade and I hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls to check out some swimming holes. I had previously done this hike twenty years ago in June 2006, and the creek was such a raging torrent of whitewater that it was hard to imagine any swimming holes being up there. However, when I was looking up options for our 2023 trip, I found YouTube videos confirming there are serviceable swimming holes above the falls when Yosemite Creek reaches low summer flows. The novelty of swimming at the top of one of North America’s highest waterfalls had a certain allure, but this has never been at the top of my to-do list, as I wasn’t sure if the swimming holes per se would be worth a seven-mile roundtrip hike with a 2,700-foot elevation gain. However, I’ve crossed off most of my other Yosemite bucket list items, so I decided it was time to go for it. Since the creek is fed by snowmelt, I had to time our visit in the sweet spot where the creek has slowed down enough to eliminate dangerous currents that could sweep us over the falls but hasn’t completely stopped and gone stagnant. This was a low snowfall year, so it seemed like mid-to-late July would be the right time. Cade isn’t a fan of strenuous hikes, so he agreed to do this on the condition that we follow it with a lazy day of tubing.

The forecast today was in the 90s with no clouds, about two thirds of the trail is unshaded, and I knew of no opportunities to stop and swim during the hike. I was starting to feel apprehensive about the risk of heatstroke and thought about just going to Chilnualna Falls instead, but my tenacious side kept telling me to just try the first mile of Yosemite Falls and see how it went. After breakfast, we stopped by Big 5 in Oakhurst to get full-brimmed hats and neck rags, which we intended to soak in cold water before starting. We also filled a spray bottle with ice water to mist ourselves on the hike up. Despite these precautions, I felt like this was probably a foolish endeavor as I looked up at the sun beaming down from the cloudless sky. But, if you want to swim at the top of Yosemite Falls when the flow is right, hiking there in the midsummer heat is kind of unavoidable.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I’m glad we completed today’s hike without heat-stroking, and I can finally check swimming at Yosemite Falls off my bucket list. The pools were legit swimming holes in an awesome location, but my time there was rushed because we got there late in the day, so I basically took a quick swim and didn’t get to relax much before heading back down the trail. It also felt incomplete not to go to the overlook, but I was already super tired by that point. I don't feel the need to return to the top of the falls anytime soon, but I might be interested in checking out the base of Upper Yosemite Fall on a future trip. Since Cade did today’s hike, I will fulfill my end of our bargain tomorrow with some lazy river-tubing (which, to be honest, won’t require any arm-twisting).
___

Disclaimer: Swimming above waterfalls is extremely dangerous and strongly discouraged by park signs. I did this knowing the risks, and I am absolutely not recommending anyone else try it.

Current Location: Yosemite National Park, CA

For the second day of our trip, Cade and I went to Stony Creek in Sequoia National Park. We last visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon in 2018, but we only drove through them and didn’t have time to hit any swimming holes because we had to get to Bass Lake to check in to our cabin before the office closed. That time, we drove the entire Generals Highway, and we also drove into Kings Canyon and stopped at Roaring River Falls, which had a swimming hole with a jump. I’ve been living with the ghosts of both Stony Creek and Roaring River Falls ever since, so I put them on the itinerary for this year’s trip. Neither one seemed like an all-day affair, so our objective for today was to check out both of them.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Stony Creek was relatively small, but it had plenty of nice pools and waterfalls to explore in the section that flowed over the exposed granite canyon. Even though there are more spectacular versions of this type of landscape elsewhere in the Sierras, the short hike made the payoff worth the minimal effort to get there. The swimming hole at the confluence of Stony and Woodward Creeks was the highlight, and the slide at this pool was almost like a miniature version of Turtleback Falls in North Carolina. I bailed on Roaring River Falls today due to the flow and frigidness of the water being greater than expected. The drive to get there is long and not really on the way to anything, so I’m not sure if I’d have any reason to stop back by it in the future.

Current Location: Sequoia National Park, CA

Today, Cade and I kicked off our seventh California swimming hole marathon by checking out some swimming holes on the Middle Fork Kaweah River along the Generals Highway in Sequoia National Park. The first time we visited Sequoia was in 2018, but we only drove through it and didn’t have time to hit any swimming holes. The Kaweah hadn’t been high on my to-do list that time, but it piqued my interest after seeing glimpses of it from the road. I had marked a few points of interest on the river when preparing for last year’s trip, but we didn’t end up making it to Sequoia that time.

I scheduled the Kaweah for the first day of this year’s trip, because after dealing with airline BS on my last two trips (and making the unfortunate decision to fly American Airlines), I anticipated that flight delays might impact the first day, so I wanted to start off with a low-stakes burner excursion. It turns out my flights did get delayed, and I didn’t get to Fresno until after midnight last night. Fortunately, it’s less than an hour away from Visalia, so we were able to check in to the Best Western and get to bed by 3am (which was 6am to my internal clock, since I was still on eastern time).

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, today was decent for a burner day. The Middle Fork Kaweah River had some decent swimming holes, although the ones below the potential wastewater treatment sources had questionable water quality. Upstream, the river kind of reminded me of the North Fork Stanislaus River (dark-but-clear water with temperatures in the upper 60s/low 70s). The highlight swimming hole was the Potwisha cliff jumping spot. We saw some other potentially nice ones between Hospital Rock and the Buckeye Flat campground, so we might aim to check those out on a future trip when we’re in the area and need another low-stakes burner day.

Current Location: Sequoia National Park, CA

Today, I went to Linville Gorge to check out the section of river between the Devil’s Hole and Babel Tower Trails. I had previously scouted this section in December of 2021 and identified several potential swimming holes, but most didn’t look like standouts. The ones that did were on the Devil’s Hole end, and I tried to check them out in August 2022, but the river was high and murky from recent rains, so I was unable to depth-check any potential jumps. Revisiting this area has never been high on my to-do list, but my mission for today wasn’t necessarily to find top-shelf swimming holes. My go-to water shoes (first generation Vibram V-Trails) finally wore out, so I recently replaced them with a pair of Vibram V-Alphas and wanted to test them before my upcoming California trip. Also, much of the southeast is under an intense heatwave. Raleigh is over 100 degrees without the heat index this weekend, and the mountains feel like Raleigh does normally, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to enjoy some North Carolina swimming holes with California weather. I opted not to invite anyone, because I didn’t want to be responsible for giving them a heatstroke.

Given that I needed a creek-walk that I could do alone, the Devil’s Hole to Babel stretch seemed most ideal: it’s super bouldery and paralleled by the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT) for most of the way, plus it’s a holiday weekend, so I figured it wouldn’t be entirely secluded. Given the heat risk, I deliberated on whether to use the Babel Tower or Devil’s Hole Trail. They’re both roughly the same length and elevation loss, but Babel is more gradual with a brutal descent packed into the very end, whereas Devil’s Hole maintains a consistent grade for most of the way. I opted for Devil’s Hole, since it’s shaded while Babel is on an exposed ridge. Plus, I remember the climb out on the Babel side kicking my ass pretty hard in winter, so I wasn’t trying to do it when it was 90 degrees with the sun beaming down. Just a note: the swimming hole and rapid names I use in this entry came from A Wet State.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )
In summary, none of the swimming holes I checked out today were top-shelf material, but I wasn’t expecting them to be based on my previous scouting trip. Now that I’ve seen them all at river level and snorkeled them with clear water, I would say the highlights for this section are Cyclops and “Jean Grey”, which both had serviceable jumping opportunities, although Cyclops is only safe in low flows. Skylight gets honorable mention for having the cool pothole that can be jumped through. Overall, today served its purpose: I tested my new Vibrams and beat the heat! Then again, after ascending the Devil’s Hole Trail, the winner of that battle is debatable...

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Today, I returned to Linville Gorge for the first time since Hurricane Helene. The forecast was iffy earlier this week, but it looked dry as of yesterday, so I decided at the last minute to take a daytrip. My plan for today was to tie up some loose ends from a 2022 trip where I hiked the section of the river that wraps around a peninsula called Hyatt’s Knob (I think). I stopped at a rapid and swimming hole called Four Foot Ledge, which is about halfway around the peninsula starting from the downstream end, but I doubled back instead of completing the loop. My objective for today was to check out the upstream half of that section, which includes a potential swimming hole below a rapid called Two-Tiered Slide. I also planned to check out a small waterfall about 0.4 miles upstream of the Cabin Trail called Brushy Ridge Falls (or Bynum Bluff Falls, depending on the source). Speaking of sources, all rapid names in this entry are from A Wet State.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, the swimming hole highlight of the day was Brushy Ridge Falls. It had a large, deep pool and some serviceable jumps of about 6-8 feet high, which I didn’t try since I was alone. Most pictures I’ve seen of it focus only on the waterfall and don’t showcase the size of the plunge pool, so it was a nice find. It’s not the best swimming hole in the gorge, but I’d say it’s top 5 material. Two-Tiered Slide was a legit swimming hole, but it was nothing to write home about. It was only about 7 feet deep with no vertical elements. There were a few other swimming holes between Brushy Ridge Falls and Two-Tiered Slide, but they were unremarkable (for Linville Gorge), except perhaps the surrounding scenery at the ones near the Cabin Trail bend.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

For the sixth, eighth, and ninth days of our trip, Cade and I went tubing on the South Yuba River at the Highway 49 and Purdon Crossing areas. I had hoped to do this on our 2023 trip, but I couldn’t find any places that did take-away tube rentals. That time, when we were scoping out new swimming holes near Purdon Crossing, we encountered a group of tubers who said they had bought their tubes at Big 5 in Grass Valley. This year, we stopped at a Big 5 in Sonora earlier in the week and went ahead and bought tubes, since they were only $20. We had hoped to do some tubing on the North Fork American River at Yankee Jim's as well, but I looked up the area and discovered it will be closed for the next three years (including hiking to the river) while they construct a new bridge next to the old one, so we stuck to the South Yuba this time.

On Friday, August 22, we tubed from Hoyt’s Crossing to the Highway 49 Bridge, which we first explored on foot in 2017. Yesterday (August 24), we tubed from the bridge to Jones Bar, and today we hiked about 1.5 miles upstream from Purdon Crossing and floated back to the road. This trip report mainly focuses on yesterday’s float, since it was the only section we tubed that we hadn’t previously explored. I had marked two points of interest (POIs) that looked like swimming holes on Google Earth on the one mile section between the Highway 49 bridge and Jones Bar. I had originally envisioned this as a creek-walk, but now that we had tubes, I figured that would be a more fun way to explore the river. I originally wasn’t going to blog today’s Purdon Crossing float, since I’ve already covered that area in my 2019 and 2023 trip reports, but the day ended up being more eventful than anticipated due to some unexpected search-and-rescue drama (more on that later).

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, we found some legit swimming holes yesterday between the Highway 49 bridge and Jones Bar. None of them were very secluded, though, since the road paralleled the river from above with scramble trails down to various areas. The fact that it was the weekend didn’t help, either. The best spot was POI 1, which had jumps of various heights above deep water. POI 2 was the biggest pool, but we kind of rushed through it to save time. It looked like it would be a worthwhile spot to hang out, and I think it was the only spot we floated through that didn’t have any people. Jones Bar was fairly unremarkable by South Yuba standards, and its easy road access makes it crowded.

We didn’t find any new swimming holes upstream of Purdon Crossing today, but we found that section to be more suitable for tubing, with gentler rapids and fewer portages. It probably would have been even better if the water were a few inches higher. I’m surprised our tubes held up, because we scraped a lot of rocks. Even though the water was darker this year, the South Yuba was the only river we hit with water temperatures above 70 °F, so it was nice to be able to get in and stay in for a while. The helicopter hoist rescue was interesting to see, but it also served as a reminder of the difficulty of rescues in remote, rugged areas. The last time I encountered SAR drama was the 2021 Harper Creek yellow jacket incident, so I was relieved to only be a spectator this time around.

Anyway, that concludes our 2025 California Swimming Hole Marathon. Overall, it was much more successful than our 2023 trip, and I would say it has been our best one post-COVID. I think we may have found our new favorite pastime, so I wouldn’t be surprised if our next trip ends up including a whole bunch of Yuba tubing.

Current Location: South Yuba River State Park, CA

For the seventh day of our trip, Cade and I went to Rock Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Feather River in Plumas National Forest. I didn't blog the past couple of days because we went to Blue Streak on day five, which I've already posted four trip reports on, and we drove up to Grass Valley and went tubing on the South Yuba River on day six, which we plan to do more of in the next two days, so I will combine all of that into one entry at the end of the trip.

Anyway, let's get back to today's excursion. Rock Creek has a lower, middle, and upper section. Lower Rock Creek begins right off the parking area, Middle Rock Creek is accessible via a short trail with some brief rope-assisted boulder climbing, and Upper Rock Creek is only accessible by boulder-scrambling. Our objective for today was to tie up loose ends from our first visit to Rock Creek in 2019. That time, we hiked to Middle Rock Creek and did the scramble to Upper Rock Creek, but we didn’t have time to check out the lower section, which has at least one major swimming hole according to others’ trip reports. Additionally, Middle Rock Creek boasts a natural water slide that we didn’t get to try last time due to a fallen tree lying across it, and I’ve been longing for retribution ever since. The Dixie Fire burned the area in July 2021, so I wasn’t sure what kind of shape it was currently in, but I was told it had reopened. This seemed like a better excursion for a Saturday than the South Yuba River since this area is more remote. Also, this was the last day of our trip without a substantial chance of rain in the mountains, and a boulder scramble at Rock Creek is only safe(ish) when the rocks are bone dry.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, it was nice to get back to Rock Creek after six years and finally get to do the Middle Rock Creek slide. It’s not a very big one, but it’s smooth and fast. I found the creek-walk from Lower to Middle Rock Creek to be more challenging than the one from Middle to Upper Rock Creek. The latter was doable without ropes, but the former was not. We had to trust some sketchy pre-placed ropes to get past the "Jamaica" waterfall. I found it to be the most challenging obstacle from either of our trips.

The "Jamaica" swimming hole is possibly the nicest one on the creek, but we could have gotten more out of it if we had our own rope—not having one made it impractical to repeatedly scale the falls to scope out the sliding opportunities. I don’t know if I’ll be back to Rock Creek, since I’ve tied up all my lose ends there, but I will make sure to bring a rope if I return.

Current Location: Plumas National Forest, CA

For the fourth day of our trip, Cade and I went to the Preston Falls Trail on the lower Tuolumne River about 10 miles downstream of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. As with our 2023 trip, we were looking for a filler excursion to bridge the gap between Yosemite and Sonora. We considered this place last time, but we ended up going to Camp Nine instead because we anticipated the lower Tuolumne would be cold due to the record snowmelt. This year, we were trying to decide between the lower Tuolumne and doing a creek-walk upstream of God’s Bath on the Clavey River. We were mainly worried about whether the former would be too cold to be enjoyable. The USGS had a temperature gauge near the trailhead that reported the current water temperature as 65.5 °F, which is somewhat chilly but acceptable. The Preston Falls Trailhead was only 25 minutes from our hotel, and it was on the way to God’s Bath, so we decided we would stop there and take the water temperature with my thermometer. If it was "warm" enough, we would swim there. Otherwise, we would continue to God’s Bath.

After we ate breakfast at the Buck Meadows Café and checked out of the Yosemite Westgate, we drove down into a super deep canyon on a one-lane paved road. The car thermostat said it was 85 °F outside, but it felt much hotter. The sun was beaming down with no clouds. The water was clear but dark, similar to the North Fork Stanislaus River. I took the water temperature at the trailhead and got 65.5 °F, confirming the online gauge’s reading. This was acceptable, so we decided we would go ahead with this hike and save the Clavey River scramble for another trip.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, the main swimming hole with the cliffs was pretty legit. It was geologically similar to Camp 9 and about the same temperature, but with clear water and sort of a Blue Streak aesthetic. There were jumps from basically any height up to about 20 feet. My only complaint was that the water temperature made the river more chilly than refreshing, even on a hot, cloudless day like today. Preston Falls was just kind of meh. If you check it out for any other reason than to go swimming, do it during the cooler months. I wouldn’t recommend coming here in summer unless you plan on swimming and doing it A LOT, both on the way to the falls and on the way back, as the trail is mostly unshaded, and the heat can be brutal on summer days like today.

Current Location: Stanislaus National Forest, CA

For the third day of our trip, Cade and I hiked the Glen Aulin Trail in Yosemite National Park, which follows the Tuolumne River for about five miles from Tuolumne Meadows to the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. The river is crystal clear and relatively flat through most of this section and alternates between flowing through meadows and over exposed granite bedrock. In the final mile or so before the camp, it flows over numerous cascades and slides, including two significant waterfalls: Tuolumne Falls and the White Cascade. Timothy Joyce’s Swimming Holes of California book says there are so many swimming holes that you’ll be a river otter by the time you finish this hike. I thought the water temperature here would be too cold given the 8,000-foot elevation, but a temperature gauge in the meadow indicates it gets above 70 °F in some years. We came to Tuolumne Meadows on our 2023 trip and got a brief preview of the river, but the water temperature was 54 °F due to record snowmelt. That time, we didn’t spend much time here since our main objective was the Tenaya Creek Slide. This time, we set aside a full day to explore this stretch of the river.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, the Tuolumne River offered many turquoise pools between the Meadows and High Sierra Camp. I would say the surrounding scenery was more impressive than the swimming holes per se, but I can’t really pass judgement on them since I didn’t have time to swim in most of them (save for the Slabs). I did enjoy that one even though my time there was short. This ended up being more of a straightforward hike than a swimming hole trek due to time constraints, but I still liked it. If I were to return in the future, I could easily make it more swimming-hole-licious (especially with an earlier start) now that I know where the highlights are located.

Current Location: Yosemite National Park, CA

For the second day of our trip, Cade and I visited four swimming holes in and just outside of the Wawona area of Yosemite National Park. The first two, Skinny Dip and Arrowhead, were just outside the park on Lewis Fork, which we hadn’t checked out before. The other two were The Big Pot and The Ledge on Chilnualna Creek, which were loose ends from our 2023 visit. We had hiked to the top of the Chilnualna Falls Trail that time and briefly stopped by the Big Pot, but the weather was cool and cloudy that day, and the water was rough and cold due to record snowmelt, so I didn’t get in. We didn’t see The Ledge at all, as it’s only accessible by climbing up a high series of cascades, which we didn’t have time for then. I was hoping the pools would be more inviting and the water would be “warmer” this time due to typical summer weather and slightly-below-average snowmelt this year. We planned to do Skinny Dip and Arrowhead as a quick stop and devote most of our time to lower Chilnualna Creek, but it ended up happening the other way around.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Skinny Dip and Arrowhead were too cold to be top-shelf material, but Arrowhead would have been pretty legit if the water were warmer. The Big Pot is a pretty cool swimming hole, and I’m glad I finally got to swim in it. It’s not really an all-day affair, but it makes a nice stop on the hike to Chilnualna Falls. The Ledge is not a great swimming hole per se since it’s shallow, but the setting in the middle of the massive lower falls is pretty cool, and climbing up the rocks to get to it is fun. The only ghost I’m living with at this point is not getting to Honeymooners, but maybe some other time. Given the rushed nature of today’s explorations, I still feel like I have unfinished business at Chilnualna Creek. Now that I’ve confirmed the water gets to comfortable swimming temperatures in typical summer flows, I want to return to the upper falls and give those swimming holes a proper visit.

Current Location: Yosemite National Park, CA

Today, Cade and I kicked off our sixth California swimming hole marathon by going to the Seven Teacups on Dry Meadow Creek at its confluence with the Kern River near Johnsondale, California. I tend to think of this more as a redo of our fifth swimming hole marathon in 2023, because many of the places we plan on visiting this year are spots we either missed last time or were unsatisfactory due to cold water from record snowmelt and yucky weather from the remnants of a tropical storm passing through. I haven’t done any swimming hole excursions at home in North Carolina this year due to most of the trails still being in shambles due to Hurricane Helene. I finally got a kayak at the beginning of summer and have been enjoying it on local waters in the Piedmont, so it hasn’t been a total loss, but I was ready for some pristine mountain swimming holes with cool, clear water.

The Seven Teacups had been on my radar since before our first California trip in 2017. We didn’t come down to the Sequoia area until 2018, but we passed up the Teacups for the Middle Fork Tule River, where most of the swimming holes ended up being filled with dirt. We thought about returning to the Sequoia area on our 2023 trip, but Kings Canyon (which helps bridge the gap between Sequoia and Yosemite) was closed, so we blew off this area and just started with Yosemite that time. This time, I decided to finally hit the teacups, so we started our trip off by driving to Visalia and checking into the Hampton last night after I flew into San Francisco. The plan for today was to visit the Seven Teacups, and then maybe swing by the Middle Fork Tule River (which is right by the road) on the way back to see if the swimming holes were still filled with dirt after seven years.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Seven Teacups was a scenic hike with super rugged terrain at the end. The swimming holes per se were kind of meh because the non-rope-accessible ones were mostly shallow and/or on the brinks of sketchy waterfalls. Overall, though, I would say the scenery and remoteness still made it a worthwhile trek. I could tell there were definitely more (and bigger) waterfalls downstream of the teacups. If I came back, I might want to try hiking up the trail on the Kern River and see if we could climb up to the teacups by coming up from the bottom. We didn’t try that this time, since it would be a bummer to make it all the way to the teacups and not be able to access them, but it would be lower stakes on a future excursion since we’ve already been.

I used to wonder why Timothy Joyce put this spot in his Pro Tour book (for more hardcore swimming holes) instead of his main one, as this place seems fairly popular on social media, but now I see why. Hiking to the top of the teacups and viewing them from above is not super technical, but descending the steep gorge walls to the swimming hole would be sketchy for inexperienced rock scramblers. Additionally, the strong currents, slick rocks, and submerged hazards might not be obvious to inexperienced swimming hole goers until they’re in over their heads (literally). I saw a news report about three canyoneers drowning in a whirlpool here last August, and I thought it seemed unusual for a smaller stream to produce such strong currents at a late summer flow, but after swimming here, I can personally confirm this creek somehow pulls it off.

Current Location: Sequoia National Forest, CA

Today, I did a river walk around the entire Babel Tower peninsula in Linville Gorge with my brother, Brian, and his girlfriend, Rachel. We had scouted the river downstream of Babel Tower to the Devil’s Hole Trail in winter of 2021, and I had river-walked upstream of Babel Tower in summer of 2022, but I had yet to explore the section of the river that rounds the Babel Tower peninsula. There is no trail along that section, so it’s only "safe" to attempt in summer temperatures when the water is low. This was the perfect time to do it, because we are currently in a drought with single-digit rain chances. As with my previous Linville Gorge entries, all rapid names are per American Whitewater and A Wet State.

I got a sneak peak at this section of the river during my first visit to Babel Tower Falls in 2017 with my friend Ty. I wandered about a quarter-mile downstream, but he was waiting for me back at the main swimming hole, so I turned back at a rapid called Nowhere to Run, where the river flowed through a 250-foot-long channel with near-vertical cliffs on both sides. It looked like passing through this area might involve a full body swim, which would be problematic with a backpack. I bought a smaller mesh backpack last year with this specific excursion in mind (but also in anticipation of some Yuba River tubing in California that didn’t come to fruition), and this was my first time getting to use it. I brought a Ziploc bag for my socks, so the only things I needed to keep dry were my hiking boots, and I figured I could hold them above my head if there were any mandatory swims. I thought my snorkel might poke a hole in my bag, so I only brought my diving mask (so all mentions of me "snorkeling" don’t actually involve a snorkel).

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, this section of the gorge had a little more going on than I thought. We found several legit swimming holes, some with low jumps (or maybe higher ones if you’re confident with precision landings). The most significant pools were Used to be a Portage, Sweet Shoulder Boof, Up Against the Wall, and Nowhere to Run. I didn’t spend much time scoping out the latter two, especially Nowhere to Run, but that one is relatively easy to reach from Babel Tower Falls, so I could possibly explore it further on a future excursion. None of today’s new swimming holes usurped the ones on my Linville Gorge top 3 list (Cathedral, Bob Ross Gorge, and Cave Falls), but this was a very scenic river walk, and I would say it’s the most rugged section of the gorge floor that I’ve seen so far.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Today, I checked out the waterfalls on the Tuckasegee River in Panthertown Valley in the Nantahala National Forest. This area had been on my back burner since the third edition of Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls book came out in 2016. The state is currently experiencing an uncharacteristically long stretch of dry weather, and the rivers in the southwestern part of the state are very low, which opens up some of the larger ones for swimming. I had wanted to take advantage of this by checking out some new spots on the Horsepasture River, but they were too secluded to check out safely, and I couldn’t rope anyone into going with me. I thought about revisiting the touristy parts of the river, but I felt like I should check out something new, so Panthertown it was.

Panthertown Valley has over ten waterfalls, so today I planned to hike downstream along the Tuckasegee River and check out Warden, Jawbone, Riding Ford, Elbow, and Red Butt Falls. A sixth waterfall, Lichen Falls, spills into the river from a small tributary stream about half a mile downstream of Red Butt Falls and is only accessible by creek-walking or bushwhacking. Jawbone Falls was the only one on today’s agenda with a guaranteed swimming hole, but Elbow Falls looked like it might also have a small one. Panthertown’s most popular waterfall, Schoolhouse Falls on Greenland Creek, was only a quarter-mile detour from my route, so I planned to check it out as well, as it was unclear from pictures if the pool at its base was deep enough to be a swimming hole.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I wasn’t really blown away by any of the waterfalls or swimming holes today. I thought they were all kind of mid, as the kids say, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Warden Falls, which I would not have expected. It was the second best waterfall and the overall nicest spot, since it had a legit swimming hole. The best waterfall per se was probably Jawbone Falls, but its swimming hole was disappointing due to the underwater clutter and lack of flat rocks for lounging. The middle portion of Red Butt Falls passes with a C- for a legit water slide. It wasn’t very fast or steep, but it offered a good 10-15 feet of smooth sliding. I’m not sure I would make a special trip to check out the rest of the Panthertown waterfalls, but I might consider returning to tie up loose ends if I happen to be in the area and need a filler excursion. It might have to be on a day with subpar weather, though, because I kind of regretted passing up a sunny, low-flow day at the Horsepasture River for this.

Current Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC

Today, I went to Lynn Canyon in Vancouver, BC. I am here for three days with eight friends for our 20-year high school reunion (are we really that old?!), and whenever I’m along for a trip, you know I’m going to try to sneak a swimming hole excursion into it. We had tried to plan a Vancouver trip in 2015, and Lynn Canyon came onto my radar when I was looking for outdoorsy things to do in the area. It features a suspension bridge and several swimming holes both upstream and downstream of the bridge (plus a crazy natural water slide below the bridge that ends in a 30-foot drop, and which I have no desire to try). I assumed the water here would be pretty cold given how far north it is, but the park is only about ten minutes from our Airbnb, so I figured it was worth checking out if I could rope anyone into going with me (or dropping me off).

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Lynn Canyon was a nice swimming hole destination, and the water wasn’t as cold as I was expecting from a Canadian swimming hole, which may be due to the water coming off the top of a lake just upstream. The temperature was similar to mountain streams back in North Carolina. The setting kind of reminded me of Blue Hole near Elizabethton, TN, but with more waterfalls and swimming holes. My only gripe is that it was too crowded, being that it’s in the city, accessible by public transit, and a short hike along mostly boardwalks and stairs. If I’m ever back in the area, I’d like to check out the Twin Falls swimming hole, and maybe see if there are any accessible areas of the canyon between the suspension bridge and Twin Falls (it looked like most areas were fenced off and plastered with warning signs about how cliff jumping is stupid). I probably wouldn’t try to get to the swimming holes under the suspension bridge, because it looks like you’d have to commit to canyoneering through unknown terrain for a significant distance to get in and out of that area.

Current Location: North Vancouver, BC

Today, I returned to Lost Cove Creek for the first time since 2015 to explore the area downstream of Hunt Fish Falls. The last time I visited, I did it as part of a combined hike with the waterfalls of Gragg Prong (a tributary whose confluence is a little less than a mile downstream of Hunt Fish) along the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST). I didn’t check out any other areas of Lost Cove Creek because I assumed Hunt Fish Falls was its only point of interest. However, when I was swimming at Gragg Prong on the return hike, a kid mentioned that there was a good slide just downstream of Hunt Fish Falls, so I’ve always been slightly curious to return and check it out. I subsequently looked on Google Earth, and there did appear to be some possible slides between Hunt Fish Falls and the Gragg Prong confluence. A recent kayaking video on YouTube seemed to confirm this, but it’s hard to tell in high water if a slide is hospitable for butt-sliding in summer flows. There was only one way to find out.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I guess Lost Cove Creek is a one hit wonder after all. I didn’t really find anything interesting downstream of Hunt Fish Falls. There were a few small swimming holes, but they were fairly unremarkable. The swimming hole about a mile upstream of Hunt Fish was also nothing interesting. There were three small slide cascades downstream of the falls, but they weren’t suitable for butt-sliding. It’s possible that the kid who mentioned a slide there was referring to the sloped bedrock along the side of the Hunt Fish Falls plunge pool, as opposed to one of the cascades.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Today, Brian and I walked upper Wilson Creek between FR 192 and Edgemont Road. We had previously hiked the Wilson Creek Trail in 2018, and creek-walked the section of Wilson Creek between the trail and FR 192 in 2019. During the latter excursion, we had briefly looked at the creek just downstream of the Edgemont Road bridge and saw that it had some small sliding cascades and was hemmed by cliffs as it quickly dropped out of sight. We had always been curious to return and walk the creek between FR 192 and Edgemont Road to see if there was anything interesting there, but five years went by and we never got around to it. On our previous excursions, we had checked out 13 out of 15 points of interest (POIs) I marked on Google Earth as potential swimming holes. POIs 14 and 15 are upstream of FR 192, and there is no good satellite imagery upstream of POI 15, so the upstream half of that section has always been a mystery. I wasn’t expecting to find any significant swimming holes there, but I thought there could be some nice cascades since the creek loses over 600 feet of elevation between the two roads.

I’ve noticed that the first weekend in June is almost always dry, which held true this year, although it wasn’t particularly warm in the mountains (today's forecast called for mid 60s). Since the weather wasn’t ideal for swimming, I decided now was the time to check out upper Wilson, since I wasn’t expecting to find any significant swimming holes.

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In summary, this section of Wilson Creek didn't have anything remarkable, but there was one legit swimming hole, and a 25-30 foot waterfall about 100 feet back on a small side-stream. Other than that, the creek was basically a series of small sliding cascades and shallow pools, similar to Little Wilson Creek upstream of Edgemont Road. It did seem like the slides were starting to get bigger toward the upstream end of the walk, so it’s possible there might be higher cascades upstream, between Edgemont Road and the Blue Ridge Parkway. However, I probably wouldn’t check that out unless I really needed something to do.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Cade and I decided to spend the last two days of our trip visiting swimming holes on one of our favorite California rivers: the South Yuba. We checked out some new swimming holes near Purdon Crossing yesterday, and we returned to Lemke’s Lagoon and the Highway 49 area today. I’m not dedicating a separate entry to the latter since I’ve already blogged it and don’t have many new developments, so this entry will mainly focus on our explorations at the Purdon Crossing area.

Since yesterday was a Sunday, we figured all parking areas for the river would be crowded. However, Purdon Crossing seems to be slightly less popular (which is not saying much) than Edwards Crossing and Highway 49, so we decided it would be better for a weekend. A while back, I had scanned Google Earth and marked nine points of interest (POIs) on the five-mile stretch of river between Purdon Crossing and Edwards Crossing, numbered in order from downstream to upstream. We checked out POIs 1 and 2 in 2019, and we checked out POIs 5 and 9 in 2021 (6-8 were on private property, so we were unable to get to them). POIs 3 and 4 were never a high priority, as they didn’t look terribly interesting on Google Earth, but I figured we might as well complete our explorations of this section of the river since we were in the area.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, POIs 3 and 4 upstream of Purdon Crossing didn’t top anything we’d previously seen on this stretch of the river, but they didn’t disappoint, either. Although some South Yuba swimming holes are more exciting than others, I have yet to encounter one that I thought was lame. POI 4 was much larger than 3 and had a little more going on than I assumed from first glance, but it’s also a little less accessible and doesn’t have as many flat lounging rocks that are reachable without swimming. POI 3 was still fairly large with a low jump, and it was more geologically interesting than 4. Even though these two POIs are accessible by trail, they’re still over two miles from either crossing, apparently making them less crowded even on a weekend. Now that I’ve checked out all my (legally accessible) POIs between Purdon and Edwards Crossings, I would say the highlight is POI 1 (China Dam), followed by POI 5, which is the largest and probably receives fewer visitors on account of it being more than a two-mile hike from the road in either direction. POIs 2-4 aren’t necessarily standouts, but they seem to offer a bit more seclusion since the swimming holes closer to the road draw off the exercise-averse crowds. I think it would be fun to tube this entire section of the river on a future trip, which would allow us to legally(?) float through POIs 6-8.

As for the Highway 49 area, it was nice to return there after five years. I would say Lemke’s Lagoon still ranks as one of my top swimming holes on the South Yuba. It was also cool to finally explore the chute swimming hole above Hoyt’s Crossing. It didn’t have any safe jumps, but there were some fun sliding opportunities down the sloped granite bedrock lining the river.

This concludes our fifth California swimming hole marathon (I hesitate to say “fifth-annual” since we now seem to be in the pattern of doing them every other year). Normally I rank the swimming holes we visited at the end of a trip, but the best ones were places we had already been to, and most of the new ones were bamboozled by less-than-ideal weather and/or hydrological conditions (especially the Yosemite ones), so I will have to suspend judgement on those until I can pay them proper visits in the future.

Current Location: South Yuba River State Park, CA

Today, Cade and I went to some lesser known teacup swimming holes just above a lake in Eldorado National Forest. I'm keeping the location details vague on this one, because swimming holes and waterfalls in this area are prone to weekend crowds, but this spot has somehow managed to stay below the radar. It caught my attention when I saw it featured in some kayaking videos on YouTube. It looked to have many big slides and rock tubs, but all the videos were taken during torrential spring flows, and I couldn’t find any information on this place being used as a swimming hole spot or what it even looked like in summer flows. I figured the slides probably weren’t hospitable for butt-sliding, but it looked like there were probably several good swimming holes. I was mainly interested to check out a section called the Teacups, which is a series of small waterfalls spilling into deep-looking rock tubs. However, these are just above a 60-foot waterfall comprised of a steep series of cascades and tubs (boaters regard the upper and lower tiers of the waterfall as two separate rapids). Kayaking and waterfalling websites mentioned a use trail leading to the main waterfall, but they didn’t specify if it continued upstream to the Teacups. I assumed the waterfall was surmountable, as several kayaking videos showed spotters standing on the sloped bedrock slab next to it, so I was confident enough to take a chance on exploring this area. I also figured it would be a good place for a Saturday excursion, since this spot seemed fairly unknown to anyone other than kayakers.

Another thing I was slightly concerned about was whether the creek flowed year-round or dried up in late summer. Google Earth imagery from different years seemed to indicate that it rarely goes completely dry, but it appeared to be only a trickle in drier years with less snowfall. However, I wasn’t too worried about it since this had been a record snowfall year. According to Dreamflows, the creek was flowing at ~14 cfs today.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I ended up enjoying this spot more than I thought I would. It had crystal clear water and many sculpted rock pools to explore. It kind of reminded me of Rock Creek, although the surrounding scenery was not quite as striking. It didn’t have any major slides (at least not that would be slidable without a kayak), but it did have some potential low jumps that might be possible with a precision landing. I should note that I didn’t thoroughly explore the pools downstream of the main waterfall, so I can’t say for sure that there aren’t any serviceable jumps or slides there. The water temperature today was 61°F, but it felt a little ~~warmer~~ less freezing than that (maybe 64-ish). The air temperature was in the upper 70s, but the teacups got sun exposure all day, which made the warm rock slabs an ideal place to bask after a brisk swim. Perhaps the temperature is warmer in drier years, when the flow is probably much lower in late summer.

Current Location: Eldorado National Forest, CA

Yesterday, Cade and I went to Camp Nine on the Stanislaus River, and today we went to our favorite California swimming hole: Blue Streak on the North Fork Stanislaus River. I’m not dedicating a separate entry to the latter, as I’ve already blogged it three times (in 2017, 2018, and 2019), so this entry is mainly about yesterday’s excursion to Camp Nine.

After the cooler weather in Yosemite the past three days, we were ready for the California swimming hole weather we know and love (i.e., hot AF with a zero percent chance of rain). It looked like yesterday was going to deliver. We decided not to do a fourth day in Yosemite, so we headed up to Murphys to hit Blue Streak. However, Cade wanted to save it for tomorrow when we could get there earlier, which meant we needed a filler excursion for today that was on the way there. I had considered the Preston Falls Trail on the Tuolumne River, but given the unseasonably cold water temperature of the upper section of the river the day before, I decided it would probably also be cold downstream of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Camp Nine, on the other hand, was near Murphys and on the Stanislaus River (downstream of the confluence of the North and Middle Forks). I’ve known about it since our first California swimming hole marathon in 2017 (a waitress or store clerk in Sonora had recommended it), but I’ve always regarded it as maybe-pile material. The pictures of it in Timothy Joyce’s Swimming Holes of California book show plenty of jumping opportunities, but it didn’t look very geologically interesting. Still, I figure anything in the watershed that gave us Blue Streak deserves a chance, and it’s only a half-mile hike from the road, so we decided to check it out.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I was not really a fan of Camp Nine. It was like a colder, murkier version of the “Green Bridge”. The vertical elements were there, but the combination of the cold water and turbidity made it difficult to scope out the jumps. The water quality was no better than an Appalachian swimming hole (in fact, I’ve been to nicer spots in the Linville Gorge). I would liken it to the Guest River Gorge, although the water was not quite as nasty-looking. If the water were crystal clear and/or about ten degrees warmer, then this would be a great jumping spot, but it just wasn’t very pleasant under yesterday’s conditions. Blue Streak, on the other hand, was primo as always. After a streak of bad weather and cold swimming holes, we knew we could count on Blue Streak to make it all better.

Current Location: Stanislaus National Forest, CA

For the third day of our trip, Cade and I went to the Tenaya Creek Slide in Yosemite, which is a massive natural waterslide where Tenaya Creek flows over a vast expanse of solid granite downstream of Tenaya Lake on its way to Yosemite Valley. The creek is very seasonal and normally dries up by the end of July. However, the record snowpack made it difficult to predict when the seasonal creeks would dry up this year, so I was hoping it would still be running in late August. I could see from Glacier Point on Monday that Tenaya Creek was definitely flowing, so I knew we were good to check it out today.

Before we went to the slide, I wanted to do some recon on the upper Tuolumne River for possible future excursions. I had originally thought about hiking to Glen Aulin on this trip, which is on the Tuolumne River a few miles downstream of Tuolumne Meadows. However, this section of the river actually has a temperature gauge, and it indicated the water temperature was currently in the 50s (as opposed to upper 60s or even low 70s in low/normal snowfall years). It had been about 60 °F before the storms came through on Sunday and Monday, but I’m guessing the rain must have washed some of the snowmelt into the river and made it colder. Still, I wanted to get a look at some of the closest swimming holes to the road just to get an idea of what the geology and water clarity looked like in person. It looked like we could get a sneak peek by hiking about a mile on the Pothole Dome Trail to where the river flowed over some exposed bedrock on the downstream end of Tuolumne Meadows. I was also interested in seeing a little bit of the Lyell Fork Tuolumne River, as it looked to have clear, blue water, and I had marked one point of interest on Google Earth near a footbridge about a mile upstream of the road at the Tuolumne Lodge.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, the Tenaya Creek slide was an okay natural waterslide, but it wasn’t great for butt-sliding at today’s flow due to the difficulty of getting an obstacle-free route to the bottom. It would probably be best enjoyed on an innertube or some kind of inflatable device that can pad the bumps and open up more paths to the bottom. I had thought this was just going to be a slide, as the pool at the bottom was only about three feet deep, but the rock pool at the base of the upper waterfall was a legit swimming hole. Before coming here, I was wondering how one might use Yosemite Falls as an indicator of whether Tenaya Creek is still flowing (since Yosemite Falls has a live webcam that streams 24/7). Yosemite Falls was still flowing strongly two days ago, as was Chilnualna Creek yesterday, while Tenaya Creek was flowing more gently today. Therefore, I would guess that Tenaya probably dries up before Yosemite and Chilnualna Creeks do, meaning that most ephemeral streams in the park would probably be too high and cold for swimming when Tenaya is at optimal flow.

As for the Tuolumne River, I would be interested to explore more of it and hike to Glen Aulin in a drier year when the water is lower and warmer (it apparently gets up to 70 °F some years, according to its temperature gauge), but there was no way it was going to be pleasant under today’s conditions.

Current Location: Yosemite National Park, CA

Today, Cade and I kicked off our fifth California swimming hole marathon by hiking to Chilnualna Falls in Yosemite National Park. This creek was one of the first swimming hole spots I had put on my list when researching our first trip back in 2017, but we didn’t end up making it to Yosemite that year or on any of our other trips for one reason or another. The closest we came was in 2018, but they closed the park due to the Ferguson Fire three days before we arrived, and we couldn’t get out of our vacation rental, so we ended up having to resort to smoky backup plans outside the park. This time, we booked hotels with flexible cancellation policies, as you never know what’s going to happen in California, but I’ll admit that a tropical storm is the last thing I would have expected. The original plan was to do Chilnualna yesterday and do the touristy stuff in Yosemite Valley today, but yesterday's forecast called for scattered showers and a high of 68 °F with the remnants of Hurricane Hilary passing through, so we swapped the days and did the valley yesterday. We were hoping the weather would be better today, since this was our last day staying in Oakhurst (near the southern entrance of the park in Wawona, where Chilnualna Creek is), but it was still partly cloudy and in the low 70’s.

Chilnualna Creek boasts two sections of interest. The lower section near the trailhead features two swimming holes known as The Ledge and Honeymooners, and a short distance upstream from those (as the crow flies) is the Big Pot. I had marked another point of interest on Google Earth about a quarter mile upstream of the Big Pot, but it looked like it might be in the middle of a waterfall, so I was unsure if it would be accessible. The upper section of interest is Chilnualna Falls, which is a three-tiered waterfall about five miles up the trail. The uppermost tier features a large swimming hole at its base, and several teacup cascades above the main drop. It was unclear from pictures if the teacups were accessible, as the terrain around them looked pretty steep depending on the angle, but I was interested to find out. I knew we probably wouldn’t be able to hit all the swimming hole highlights of the creek in one day, so my main objective for today was to check out Chilnualna Falls. This meant we would probably have to come back another time to see everything on the lower section, but I still wanted to check out the Big Pot, as it had been the swimming hole that initially piqued my interest for this creek.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Chilnualna Creek would be a great swimming hole destination in hot, perpetually sunny weather. Today’s hike offered some great views, but the cool, overcast weather made it disappointing and uninviting from a swimming hole standpoint. The increased flow and freezing cold water did not help. Chilnualna Falls was swimmable, but the creek picked up a few more tributary streams between there and the lower swimming holes, making the Big Pot a little too rough. Even though I didn’t really get into any of the pools today (other than the base of upper Chilnualna Falls for a few seconds), I’m thinking the best swimming hole would be the uppermost significant tub above Chilnualna Falls. It was large in diameter, appeared deep, and had a perfect rock diving board (if the water under it is deep, which I didn’t check). I would like to revisit Chilnualna Creek in a more typical year, so I can do a proper exploration of the Big Pot, and also check out The Ledge and Honeymooners. Even though hiking all the way to Chilnualna Falls is kind of a drag, the payoff would be worth the effort in nicer weather, so I would consider going back up there again as well.

Current Location: Yosemite National Park, CA

Today, I hiked to Harper Creek Falls, but instead of taking the trail, I hiked (almost) all the way there through the creek. The forecast for today was dry, but it was unclear if it would be cloudy. I had planned to do this hike if it was clear, but I had another one in mind if it were cloudy. It was overcast in Lenoir this morning, but the hourly forecast was sunny from noon to 2 PM, and then partly cloudy after that. I decided to go ahead and do Harper, since that meant it would be sunny for most of the hike, and late afternoon clouds might dissuade me from staying at the falls too long, since I had to drive back to Raleigh afterwards. This trek seemed ideal for a day where I was either arriving or leaving, because it’s less than a four-hour drive back to Raleigh, and I wasn’t expecting it to be too strenuous since the creek only drops about 100 feet over more than a mile.

I planned to enter the creek at its confluence with Wilson Creek and creek-walk upstream to the primitive campground near the confluence with Raider Camp Creek, where the Harper Creek Trail joins with the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST). On previous visits, I had caught glimpses of several sliding cascades over bedrock slabs on the quarter-mile section of creek just downstream of the falls, which I have never checked out, so I planned to re-enter the creek there and creek-walk the rest of the way to the falls.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, there are a couple of legit swimming holes (and several pockets of deep water) on the lower section of Harper Creek, but they are all forgettable in comparison to the pair of primo swimming holes at Harper Creek Falls. I'd say the new pools I found today would probably only appeal to fishermen looking for solitude upstream from the commotion of Wilson Creek Gorge.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

After driving up to the mountains last weekend, I was looking forward to a lazy weekend at home, but the forecast turned to totally sunny. However, it's supposed to be pretty rainy after this, so I figured I should take advantage of the nice weather now and chill at home when it’s rainy. Today, I continued my explorations of lower Linville Gorge by checking out some swimming holes near the Conley Cove Trail. I had scanned the 8-ish mile stretch of river between the Conley Cove Trail and Lake James on Google Earth and marked 14 points of interest (POIs), numbered in order from downstream to upstream. Last weekend, I checked out POIs 1-3, which are the farthest downstream. POIs 4-12 are located on the ~3.5 mile stretch of river between the Pinch-In Trail (on the downstream end) and the Conley Cove Trail (on the upstream end), and 13-14 are just upstream of the Conley Cove Trail. The river is easier to see from the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT) when the leaves are off the trees, so I had originally planned to scout out POIs 4-12 over Christmas break, but I got sick and wasn't able to. I decided to go ahead and knock out a few of the upstream POIs on a summer out-and-back hike, which will leave more time to explore the ones in the middle on a future thru-hike. My plan for today was to definitely check out POIs 11-14, and possibly continue as far downstream as POI 9 depending on how I was doing on time. I decided to start on the upstream end and work my way downstream, since it looked like POIs 13-14 would lose sunlight earlier in the day.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, I found some legit swimming holes today, but as with last weekend, none were terribly interesting. POI 14 was probably the most geologically striking by this excursion’s standards, but it’s just carry-over from Cathedral Gorge. If you’re going to come this far, then you might as well swim at the superior Cathedral just upstream (granted, for all its awesomeness, Cathedral loses sunlight fairly early in the afternoon). POI 12 was probably the runner-up for today, boasting a potentially doable jump of about 15 feet, but you’d have to jump out pretty far or you might break a leg. POIs 9, 11, and 13 were also legit swimming holes but were basically just deep spots in the river with no bells or whistles.

Today’s excursion has me thinking twice about trying to do a thru-hike from the Pinch-In to the Conley Cove Trail. In hindsight, I (or my car, rather) probably would have been better off if I had used the Spence Ridge Trail and just hiked the extra couple of miles. My car made it through today (although it took some abuse), but that was partly because the road was bone-dry. I don’t think I would attempt the section of road between the Cabin and Pinch-In Trails again without four-wheel drive, and that would mean wrangling two people with four-wheel drive vehicles. And from what I've seen so far, the swimming holes on this section of the river haven’t been terribly interesting, so it may not be worth the effort. As for the Conley Cove Trail itself, I would say it was a tad more strenuous than the Spence Ridge Trail, but not as bad as the Devil’s Hole, Cabin, and Unnamed (White Oak Stand) Trails.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Today, I finally got to tackle the waterfalls of Flat Laurel Creek, which has been up there on my wish list since the third edition of Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls book came out in 2016. This is a stretch of creek that loses about 800 feet of elevation in a series of cascades and waterfalls over three quarters of a mile. I wasn’t sure if there would be any swimming holes, but it seemed like the creek walk would be worthwhile regardless. Also, there are a couple of roadside attractions in the immediate vicinity (Bubbling Spring Branch Cascades, Sunburst Falls on the West Fork Pigeon River), and I knew that the former had a swimming hole. I was curious to see if Sunburst Falls did as well.

The main obstacle for the Flat Laurel Creek walk is that it’s a thru-hike where you leave a vehicle at each end of the trailhead (otherwise you have to backtrack through the creek down hundreds of feet of cascades), so I needed a second person who was both willing and able to do this type of hike. My friend, Chris (who did Cave Falls with me last summer) was up for it, so we planned to do it today since the forecast was cloudless and bone-dry.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Flat Laurel Creek lived up to my expectations and was worth the wait. It was definitely one of the best creek walks I’ve been on in terms of effort vs reward. It was a workout, but it wasn’t super strenuous or technical (for experienced off-trail hikers). Chris got through the whole thing without getting his feet wet (except for intentionally soaking them in the main swimming hole, with his shoes off). Once the cascades get going, they are pretty much non-stop all the way to the top. I wasn’t sure if there would be any legit swimming holes, but there was one at the base of cascade 7(ish). There were also a couple of smaller pools that looked like they might be legit. The creek walk would still have been worth the price of admission even if the main swimming hole hadn’t been there, but it really rounded things out. That particular spot was probably the highlight of what we saw today.

As for the roadside attractions, Bubbling Spring Branch Falls failed to impress after Flat Laurel Creek. The supposed swimming hole at the top looked kind of dinky, so unless there was something upstream that I missed, then I would say it’s probably not worthy of a return visit unless I happen to be passing by for some other reason. Sunburst Falls, on the other hand, looked like a legit swimming hole, so now I’m interested to find out if it’s a one-hit-wonder or just a sneak peak at what else the West Fork Pigeon River has to offer.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

Today, I decided to begin my swimming hole explorations of the lower section of Linville Gorge (i.e., downstream of the Conley Cove Trail). I didn’t bother with this section of the gorge last summer because I hadn’t really researched it, and I assumed the river would be relatively mundane through this area. In the upper section of the gorge, the river snakes around several peninsulas while losing over 1000 feet of elevation between Linville Falls and Conley Cove over near-continuous class III-V rapids, which is conducive to geologically interesting swimming holes in low summer flows. Below Conley Cove, the river still loses about 700 feet of elevation over the 8-ish miles to Lake James, but it follows a relatively straight path through boulder-strewn areas with few named rapids. I had scanned Google Earth and marked 14 points of interest (POIs) in the lower gorge, which are numbered from downstream to upstream. My original plan was to do a winter hike to scout them out and determine which ones warranted further exploration in the summertime, since the summer foliage makes it difficult to see the river from the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT). However, I got sick over Christmas break, and the weather/my schedule were uncooperative after that, so I didn’t end up getting down there.

Accessing the gorge floor downstream of Conley Cove is more practical (er, direct) from the west rim, where there are four rim-to-floor trails (that I know of): The North Carolina Mountains to Sea Trail (MST), White Oak Stand Trail (aka the Unnamed Trail), Pinch-In Trail, and Conley Cove Trail. POIs 1-3 are in the two-ish mile stretch between White Oak and Pinch In, 4-12 are in the 3-mile stretch between Pinch-In and Conley Cove, and 13-14 are just upstream of Conley Cove. I’ll still probably save 4-12 for a winter scouting trip, given the impracticality of checking out 9 POIs without a clear view, but I figured I could do POIs 1-3 as an out-and-back hike from the White Oak Stand Trail. Allen T. Hyde’s book The Linville Gorge and Wilson Creek Hikers Guide: An Introduction also mentions two spots in this section called Blue Hole and Lunch Rock, so those were on my to-do list as well. I chose to do this hike today because I didn’t have any major expectations. I was mainly just hoping to find a nice pool where I could lie around and catch tan. The flow as of this morning was about 90 cfs, which was a bit higher than any of my previous excursions, but I wasn’t necessarily concerned since this would likely be a less turbulent stretch of river.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, POIs 1-3 and the Blue Hole were all legit swimming holes, but they were all kind of similar: large pools with rocky areas on the opposite side that offered low but somewhat sketchy jumps of 7-10 feet. I would say the best overall was POI 2, followed by POI 1. POI 3 required a slight bushwhack to get to, and the Blue Hole was mostly lined with herbaceous vegetation on the river-right side, making access annoying. Given that the swimming holes are fairly mundane, and the hike to access them is grueling, I would say they’re not worth the effort of a day trip. They are all located behind primitive campsites, so they would make nice bonuses for campers and backpackers, but I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip for them if your main objective is to go swimming.

Current Location: Pisgah National Forest, NC

For the past three days, my mom and I have been kayaking on Lake Jocassee. We had been talking about going again after our trip last year, but there haven’t really been any good stretches of warm, dry weather until this week. Last year, we checked out places within out-and-back paddling distance of Devil’s Fork State Park, but we didn’t get to see all the waterfalls that spilled into the lake because the kayak shuttle was booked up that time (the kayak shuttle is a pontoon boat that hauls you and your kayaks to a drop-off point on the lake, for an exorbitant fee). The named waterfalls on the lake are Laurel Fork Falls, Mill Creek Falls, Devil’s Hole Creek Falls, Wright Creek Falls, and Bad Creek Falls (okay, the last one isn’t named, but it’s large enough to be noteworthy). We had only visited the latter two waterfalls last time, so our objective this time was to see the other three, especially Laurel Fork Falls, which looked like the highlight. The shuttle was available this time, so we were in business. There was only one available villa (#2) at the park this week, so we snagged it while we still could.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, yesterday’s excursion from Laurel Fork Falls to Devil’s Fork State Park was a pretty good paddle. The temperature was in the 80’s with barely any clouds, and there were plenty of opportunities for swimming, snorkeling, and grapes. Now that I have seen all the named waterfalls of the lake, I would say Laurel Fork Falls is easily the highlight, with Wright Creek Falls (which we saw last year) coming in second. Mill Creek Falls looked like a great swimming spot, but it’s not the most impressive of the waterfalls. Devil’s Fork Falls wasn’t that interesting because it was so cluttered with deadfall that it was hard to get a good view of it. We didn’t really go anywhere new Monday or today, but today was a nice day to revisit some of the highlights from last year. Swimming on the lower Thompson River was much more pleasant than it had been in spring of 2021, so now I can officially give those swimming holes a thumbs up. We saved a few loose ends for a future trip, including the Whitewater River arm of the lake, which apparently has some nice cascades near the mouth of the river.

Current Location: Oconee County, SC

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Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

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North Fork American River - Iowa Hill Bridge area

Weekend misadventures & old favorites in the Stanislaus National Forest

Yosemite Valley tubing

Yosemite Falls

Stony Creek (Sequoia National Park)

Middle Fork Kaweah River

Linville Gorge - Babel Tower to Devil's Hole

Linville Gorge - Brushy Ridge Falls & Two-Tiered Slide

South Yuba River - Highway 49 to Jones Bar

Rock Creek - Part 2

Tuolumne River - Preston Falls Trail

Glen Aulin

Skinny Dip/Arrowhead & Lower Chilnualna Creek

Seven Teacups

Linville Gorge - Babel Tower river walk

Panthertown Valley - Tuckasegee River waterfalls

Lynn Canyon

Lost Cove Creek walk

Upper Wilson Creek

South Yuba River - Purdon Crossing to Edwards Crossing - Part 3

Eldorado Teacups

Camp Nine & Blue Streak

Tenaya Creek Slide & Tuolumne Meadows

Chilnuanla Falls & Yosemite Valley

Harper Creek walk

Linville Gorge - Conley Cove area

Flat Laurel Creek Cascades

Linville Gorge - White Oak Flats to Pinch-In

Lake Jocassee 2022

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September 2026

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