Royal Gorge revisited

[flyminion]

For the fifth and final day of this year’s California swimming hole marathon, Cade and I returned to Royal Gorge for the first time in four years. The gorge has five major waterfalls and many swimming holes, most with a variety of jumping opportunities, but the miles of sketchy dirt road driving to get there and the long hike down into the gorge make it impossible to see much of it in a day trip. On our previous visit in 2017, we had only been able to see waterfall #2, which is located about where the trail crosses the river. Waterfall #1 is upstream of the trail, and 3-5 are downstream. The third one appears to have the best swimming hole, from what I’ve seen on social media. The second waterfall is a spectacular spot in its own right, but I wanted the full gorge experience. My original plan for this summer was to learn backpacking back home in North Carolina during June and July and then apply my knowledge to Royal Gorge at the end of the summer. However, since we had to do our trip way earlier this year to stay ahead of the drought and inevitable wildfire season, I came in unprepared to camp. I hadn’t planned on returning to the gorge if we weren’t going to overnight it, but Cade wanted to go again regardless, so I put it on the itinerary. However, after the brutal hike to and from "The Green Bridge" two days ago, Cade wasn’t sure he was up for the gorge anymore. We had originally planned the gorge for yesterday and Emerald Pools for today, but Cade’s legs were too destroyed for a long hike, so we swapped days and did Emerald Pools yesterday. Cade still wasn’t sure about the gorge since he was still hurting and wasn’t sure the water would be warm enough to be enjoyable. Last time, the water temperature had ranged from 56-60 °F in different pools, which was too cold for a swim to be pleasant. I insisted we do it though, because we had kind of already committed to it schedule-wise, so blowing it off would mean resorting to lame backup plans for the final day of our trip. Plus, since the water was so warm downstream at “Green Bridge” and Yankee Jim’s, I was curious to see if it would be warmer this year in the gorge as well, because Royal Gorge with comfortable water temperatures would be pretty much the best thing ever.

We left Auburn around 10:30 AM and arrived at the beginning of the gravel road that leads to the trailhead around 11:45. The road for the most part was as rough as last time, but there was a small section where it was improved. As we crossed a bridge over the North Fork American River (which was just a small stream at this point) about five miles in, I took the water temperature and it was 72 °F, which seemed promising. From this point, the road seemed somewhat improved from last time until we turned off the "main" road onto the scenic side road that leads to the trailhead along the edge of the gorge.



Like last time, this road was laden with berms that could haved caused us to bottom out if we weren't careful. We successfully passed over 12 of them without incident (I counted), but the 13th berm posed a problem.



Our rented SUV was front wheel drive, and Cade was able to get the front wheels over the berm, but then they would just spin, and the bottom of the car was less than an inch from touching the road. We tried from several different angles to no avail. The only way to get the back tires over the berm would be to get a running start, but that probably would have caused the SUV to bounce and bottom out when the front wheels went over. We had learned our lesson on our previous visit and weren’t trying to push our luck today, especially not in a rental car. It was a little past 1 PM at this point, and we were deliberating between cutting our losses and going somewhere else, or walking the last mile to the trailhead. We deliberated for almost 45 minutes and finally decided to suck it up and walk the extra mile. It sucked to add two miles round trip to an already intense hike, but the silver lining was that we didn’t have to drive over anymore berms (and there were plenty of them ahead).

I’ll spare you the details of the hike since I covered that in my first entry on Royal Gorge, but I will say it looked like they had done some fire management along the trail, as most of the underbrush and dead trees had been cleared from the hillside, with only the large live trees remaining. We reached the river around 4 PM.



The first thing I wanted to do was check out a slide we had missed on the first trip, which was just upstream of where the trail first reached the river.

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I had neglected to save the GPS location in my offline maps, but I knew from studying Google Earth approximately where it was. The water was definitely warmer than it had been on our first visit. I slid a couple of times and Cade slid once.



The slide didn’t seem that fast until we went airborne on the last little hump. I snorkeled the slide pool, and it was actually pretty deep and had a potential jump of about 10-12 feet above it. However, I was more interested in jumping at the main waterfall, which was where we went next.



The falls were flowing pretty well considering the drought, but you can see from these comparison shots that the falls were much stronger on our previous visit (1st and 3rd photos are from today, 2nd and 4th photos are from 2017):





I snorkeled the plunge pool. It was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom. It was just a dark blue abyss. I went back to the downstream end of the pool where the bottom was visible about 12 feet down, but it abruptly dropped off into oblivion. I was kind of unsettled by this, but I ended up jumping three times. The rock wall opposite of the falls is perfect for beginners (or wimps like myself) because it’s almost like a ramp where you can choose any height from five feet up to about 20 feet. I jumped from about 12 feet the first time, and then I moved up to the 20 foot jump.



The sun had mostly dipped below the chasm wall at this point, giving the pool a dark ominous look. Cade also jumped from 20 feet, and I jumped once more so he could take a video.

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It was around 5:30 by this point, so we went back up to the large swimming hole a short distance upstream of the falls, where the river empties out from a narrow slot canyon.



Cade ate a Subway sandwich he had brought with him while I snorkeled the pool and swam up the slot canyon as far as a ten-foot waterfall just upstream of the bridge.

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The pool under the small waterfall was about ten feet deep, but it had a lot of large boulders sticking up from the bottom, so it wouldn’t be ideal for jumping. There was another waterfall about the same size just above this one, but I didn't check it out. We had jumped into the very downstream end of the slot canyon on our first visit, but the water was too low for that today (1st photo below is from today, 2nd is from August 2017):



I returned to the swimming hole just downstream of the slot canyon and put my hiking boots back on. I took the temperature of the water, and it was 68 °F in this pool (it had been 60 °F in 2017, and 56 °F in the pool below the main waterfall, although I didn’t take the temperature at the waterfall this time).

We began hiking out just after 6 PM, and we reached the car around 8:45. The sun had set and the moon was out by this time.

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We were completely exhausted and thirsty. I had a LifeStraw bottle I had filled up with river water, but I wasn’t sure if I trusted it. There had been a spring where the trail passes through a deep wash, but the spring mouth had yellow jackets and other wasps swarming around it, so I didn’t attempt to fill my bottle there. We didn’t get back to the paved road until about 10 PM, but we made it without getting lost or bottoming out this time. We stopped at a service station on the way back to Auburn to get water, and then we picked up food at In and Out burger, which is one of the only places open late around here.

In summary, it was nice to revisit one of our all-time favorite California swimming holes. Last time, I had said that it would be the perfect swimming hole destination if only the water temperature were more comfortable, and today it was. Unfortunately, today’s visit was pretty brief. I would almost say the amount of time we spent at the actual swimming holes wasn’t worth the time and effort spent getting there and back, but it was good to see that the river has the potential to be warmer in this location than what we experienced in 2017. Since we visited three places on the North Fork American River this year, we also have a basis for comparison to predict the water temperature in Royal Gorge based on other, more easily accessible locations along the river. Although our favorite California river has been the South Yuba up to this point, the North Fork American has proven to be the nicer of the two rivers during extreme drought conditions. It stayed clean and clear this year while the places we went to on the South Yuba were brown and dirty. One decision we’ve made from today’s trip is no more doing Royal Gorge as a day trip, unless we get started super early and have a Jeep or some other robust off-road vehicle. The amount of rough dirt road driving and subsequent hiking is just too much for the amount of time we actually get to spend enjoying the swimming holes. I’ve never had any desire to backpack or primitive camp before I found this place, but now I feel like I really need to learn to backpack so I can see the other four major waterfalls (and numerous other swimming holes) the gorge has to offer. We might need to network with some people who have suitable vehicles for these roads, though. Anyone with a jeep want to be our friend?
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Anyway, this wraps up our abbreviated fourth-annual California swimming hole marathon. Here’s how I would rank the places we visited:

1. Royal Gorge revisited

I wouldn’t say this was the best day of our trip, but this is easily one of the best (if not THE best) swimming hole destination in California. The water was too cold for me to rank it #1 for our 2017 trip, but this year’s moderate temperatures made it swimming hole paradise. I would say it even has the potential to be better than Blue Streak, although a day trip to Blue Streak is generally going to be a better time than a day trip to the floor of Royal Gorge. The gorge is just too much of an undertaking for one day. I hope to become adept enough at camping to get the full Royal Gorge experience someday, and hopefully on a year like this when the water temperature is comfortable.

2. "The Green Bridge"

This was my favorite of the new places we visited. I’m thinking the water might be a bit chillier under average conditions, but it somehow managed to stay clear and blue despite being over 80 °F this month. While this place was no Royal Gorge, it was still very geologically conducive to cliff jumping. I only jumped from about 15 feet, but there were higher options up to probably 40 or 50 feet. We only checked out the area close to the bridge, but the paths continued both up and down the river, so this place definitely warrants further exploration.

3. Emerald Pools

I wouldn’t say Emerald Pools is a choice spot for swimming per se because the water is just too cold for prolonged swimming to be enjoyable. It was 54 °F when we first visited in August 2017 (a record high snowmelt year), and it was still only 62 °F this year (a record low snowmelt year). The water comes from the bottom of Lake Spaulding about a mile upstream, so it doesn’t have much time to warm up even in hotter conditions. However, even though it’s not the best spot for swimming, it’s one of the best cliff jumping spots I’ve ever seen. There are tons of ledges and non-sketchy natural platforms directly over deep water from pretty much any height you could want up to about 70 feet. Plus, there are a number of different pools along this stretch of river, making it possible to find some solitude despite the area’s popularity.

4. South Yuba River – Purdon Crossing to Edwards Crossing (Part 2)

You can’t really go wrong with the South Yuba River, but some sections are more interesting than others. We found a fine set of swimming holes on this stretch about halfway between Purdon and Edwards Crossings. The pools were expansive, had several jumps up to about 15 feet (maybe 25 to 30 if you’re good at precision landings) and had many nooks and crannies to explore. The reduced flow due to the drought caused more silt and algae on the river bottom than we’ve seen in previous years, taking away from the river’s striking blue color, but that doesn’t really factor into my rating; I know the aesthetic the river is capable of. It’s just that this particular section of the river wasn’t quite as geologically striking as Lemke’s Lagoon or the old dam remains a little farther downstream.

5. Yankee Jim’s

Nothing wrong with this swimming hole. It’s large, deep, and has a few low jumps (and some higher ones that are kind of sketchy). On the other hand, there’s nothing exceptional about it by NorCal standards, and it gets crowded due to being right off the road. Its main allure for me was that it was featured on a Rescue 911 episode. I probably wouldn’t devote time to visiting here again unless I ended up moving to the area, in which case I might hike the Indian Creek Trail and see what swimming holes might be hidden upstream, away from the crowds.

6. Shirttail Creek Falls

Nothing wrong with this swimming hole, either. It was just a little smaller and less geologically interesting than the others we visited. It did have some jumps up to about 30 feet or so. It wasn’t deep enough to where I felt comfortable jumping from higher than 15 feet, but that could just be because I’m tall. Others did it and emerged unscathed. I would say it’s a decent local swimming hole. It’s not really worth a long trip in its own right, but it does make a nice little add-on to Yankee Jim’s.

This year’s trip was a little stressful since we had to work around a number of last-minute obstacles to make it happen, and the conditions were pretty extreme this year. We were dealing with 100-degree heat on some days, which is hot even for northern California. It didn’t help that we got sunburned on day one, either. The drought narrowed down our options for this year and made the South Yuba River dirty and less appealing, but it did have the silver lining of warming the waters to bearable temperatures in some of the places that are normally too cold to be enjoyable. It was also a little disappointing that we didn’t go anywhere grandiose this year (that we hadn’t been to already), so I’m hoping we’ll finally get to explore more of the Yosemite area next time. It feels kind of weird to have a California trip in the rearview mirror and be less than halfway through July, so I’ll have to see if I can make do with North Carolina for the rest of the summer.