Guffey Gorge

[flyminion]

Yesterday, Cade and I finished this year’s California swimming hole marathon by re-visiting our favorite swimming hole from last year: Lemke’s Lagoon on the South Yuba River. I don’t have any new pictures or anything new to report for that one, other than that the water was warmer than last year (79 °F this year compared to 74 °F last year), and the bottom of the river had a lot of silt and algae on it. The water was still clear, but it appeared darker and less blue than last year. The hike there was ridiculously hot (I think it was 100 °F outside or close to it), so we stayed at the swimming hole until late afternoon. The sand next to the river was blisteringly hot at 145 °F, and the rocks ranged from 115-130 °F. We spent a while jumping and snorkeling around in the pool. On the way back, we stopped at Hoyt’s Crossing, which I took pictures of but didn’t actually get into last year. I snorkeled the pool this time, and it was 8-10 feet deep in most areas. There were several people skinny-dipping, but I didn’t drop trou because only women were doing it at first, and I didn’t want to be the only naked guy. A few guys went skinny-dipping after I had gotten in, but my bathing suit was already wet at that point, so there was no point in taking it off now. After I was done swimming, we drove back to where Cade and his roommate live in the Bay Area, and we got donuts and Outback on the way.

We had to end our trip today because Cade wasn’t able to get off work tomorrow, but I had a couple more vacation days, and my friend Brook from Denver happened to be off work today, so I decided to take a detour to Denver on my way back to Raleigh. We were trying to decide what to do beforehand, and Brook suggested I find a swimming hole within reasonable distance of the city. From what I could gather, Colorado is not exactly bursting at the seams with swimming holes, but I had marked a few on my swimming hole list. The closest one I could come up with (aside from flat spots on rivers) was Guffey Gorge, also known as Paradise Cove, a little over two hours south of Denver. Brook picked me up from the airport, we had lunch, and then we headed out to the swimming hole. Traffic was pretty congested most of the way, so it ended up taking us closer to three hours to get there. Temperatures were near the 90s in the city, but they dropped to the high 70s/low 80s when we got to Guffey. The visibility of the mountains had also been bad, as with California, although it was unclear if this was also due to smoke.

The trail down to the swimming hole was only about a half a mile long. Photo by Brook:



When we got there, it was a bit smaller than it looked in the pictures, and the water was cold and muddy-looking. The “waterfall” that fed the pool was just a tiny trickle less than six feet high.

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I took the water temperature, and it was 61 °F. I’ve swam in water that cold before (e.g., Devil's Bathub, North Fork American River), but I wasn’t sure if this was worth it. I wanted to go into the pool with my snorkel to scope out the depth in the jumping area, but there were always people in line to jump, so it was never clear for me to enter the pool. There was one young woman at the top of the cliff who had been hesitating for a while, and she was holding up the line. Brook decided he wanted to jump and asked me to film it. After a while, the woman moved aside so other people could jump. I couldn't figure out how to embed videos from Instagram into my post, but you can see the video of Brook jumping on his Instagram post.

After Brook jumped, we climbed up to the top of the cliffs on the river-right side of the creek to look down into the gorge above the small waterfall that fed the pool, but the creek was shallow through that area. I was pretty lazy about taking pictures today, so all subsequent pictures are borrowed from Brook's Instagram. They were taken by Brook (or by me with Brook's phone, for the ones of Brook jumping).



Brook wanted to jump again. A cool breeze was now blowing, and the sun was behind the cliffs, so I had no desire to get wet, plus I won’t jump into anything that I haven’t personally snorkeled to check the depth (some people who jumped did say they touched the bottom). I took pictures of Brook jumping a second time.



After that, we packed up and headed out.



On the way back into town, we discovered that they have a Perkins in Denver. I was jonesing for one of their French dips, which I was dismayed to discover is no longer on the menu, but I custom-made one by special-ordering a roast beef and swiss sandwich with a side of broth.



In summary, Guffey Gorge was kind of a disappointment to see in person (granted, I have been up since 4 AM today, so I may be a tough crowd). It’s one of those places that looks bigger and more impressive in pictures. On top of that, there were too many people there, and this was relatively sparse compared to the crowds this place sometimes gets. The result is that it’s a small swimming hole that you jump into and then exit to get out of the next jumper’s way. It’s one of those places that might be a cool little hideaway if it were secret and no one knew about it, but its redeeming qualities kind of collapse under the weight of its popularity.

So now that this year’s California (with a Colorado cameo) swimming hole marathon has come to an end, here’s how I would rate the places we visited:

1.Blue Streak revisited

I didn’t rank this one as highly last year, but that was based on a one-time visit. Blue Streak definitely warrants repeated visitation, and one would be hard pressed to find another swimming hole with this combination of good jumping options, comfortable water temperature, and overall aesthetics. It was still worth the effort to reach last year, but being able to park closer to the trailhead meant the same reward with less effort (although it was still strenuous). The increased ease of access is nice as long as it doesn't increase Blue Streak's popularity.

2. Lemke’s Lagoon revisited

Last year’s higher water flows due to the increased snowmelt were a disadvantage at some of the places we visited, but I think the South Yuba River actually benefitted from it, as it was crystal clear last year. Although this is still a great swimming hole, the “nutrient richness” of the water took it down a notch this year in terms of aesthetics. Also, the higher jumps here require landing in a certain spot to avoid hitting rocks, whereas at Blue Streak you can land pretty much anywhere and be in deep water, which is another reason Lemke’s Lagoon got bumped down this year.

3. The Potholes on Big Creek

I thought this one was pretty great, and in my opinion, it was the best of the new swimming holes we visited this year. Cade wasn’t feeling it, but he said it would be awesome if the water were warmer. It had rock tubs, a jump that was challenging yet doable for my level of wimpiness, and a slide (although the slide was kind of rough due to the pitfalls on the sides). If this place were a little more secluded, and the water were about 5 °F warmer, then I would have ranked it #2 for this year.

4. North Fork Willow Creek

I wasn’t expecting much going in (compared to other California swimming holes), but I actually liked this one, and not just because I was geeking out due to it being featured on Rescue 911. It had plenty of potholes and rock tubs, and it reminded me a lot of some of my favorite places back in North Carolina. It could use some higher jumps and less treacherous slides, but it’s still a worthy swimming hole destination with plenty of pools to explore.

5. Middle Fork Tule River

This one would have been really great, but all the swimming holes were filled with dirt. The South Middle Fork was pretty much a total loss for the areas we wanted to hit, but the North Middle (Wishon) Fork still had some swimmable areas, and with somewhat of a Yuba River (as it appeared last year) aesthetic. Perhaps I’ll have to revisit in a few years after the river has had time to excavate the pools to their former glory.

6. Dinkey Creek Campground

I wasn’t super into this one. The creek was pretty, but it lacked seclusion, and the weather sucked on the day we went. The pools here would be nice if they were more secluded, but they still probably wouldn’t be worthy of a special trip from far away. These are the kind of swimming holes that would be best enjoyed by locals and people staying in the campground.

7. Guffey Gorge

I’m not sure if this one counts, since it’s in Colorado rather than California. It was basically just a small pool of nearly-stagnant (but somehow super cold) water in a gorge that was just a small anomaly in a landscape mostly dominated by rolling fields. On top of that, it was a little crowded, and today wasn’t even a busy day. I probably wouldn’t stop back by this one unless I was already doing something else in the area and needed a place to cool off.

Well, I guess that’s it for this year’s west-coast swimming hole exploits. It sucked that the wildfires foiled some of our plans, but the silver lining was that we got to see a couple of cool places that we probably would have skipped had the main attractions been open. We will probably make another attempt at Yosemite next time, and there are a still a few new places I want to check out in the Chico area, but we also might spend a greater portion of our next trip doing a more thorough exploration of rivers we know deliver the goods (namely the South Yuba, North Fork Stanislaus, and North Fork American Rivers) rather than check out new places. My stomach issues that I mentioned in my first entry were pretty tenuous during the trip and didn’t really interfere with my traveling ability or my enjoyment of the swimming holes.

Now that I’ll be back in the east for the rest of summer, I might hit some swimming holes in the Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee (as I intended to do last year) within the next month if the weather cooperates. Stay tuned.