Devil's Bathtub

Today, I returned to one of my (formerly?) all-time favorite swimming hole spots: Devil’s Fork near Fort Blackmore, Virginia. Devil’s Fork is a small crystal clear creek that runs along a trail that used to be an old mining railroad. The understory of the forest is covered in ferns and moss. Its main attraction is the Devil’s Bathtub, which is an oval pothole about ten feet deep that has been carved into the rocks, and it is shaped exactly like a bathtub. Just downstream is a larger swimming hole, also about ten feet deep. About a half mile upstream of the bathtub is a 15-20 foot waterfall that spills into Devils Fork from a side tributary (most people don’t see this, or at least they didn’t used to, as they turn back after reaching the bathtub). I had first discovered this area ten years ago in 2006 when I was trying to expand my swimming hole repertoire. At that time, this place was pretty obscure. There were no pictures of it on the internet, and the few sources that did mention it had really vague directions. I didn’t even find it on my first attempt. I first came out here with Miranda (on July 17, 2006, according to the time stamps on the digital photos), and as I recall, we drove all over the place before we even found the parking area, and even then, we couldn’t find the trail because there were several creeks converging on the vicinity, and we couldn’t figure out which one we were supposed to follow, so we gave up for the day. I came back with my brother the next day (I think), and we took an old logging road that we thought was the correct trail to the top of the mountain, and we came out in an area in the middle of the woods with a bunch of abandoned campers and trailers (it looked like something straight out of a Wrong Turn movie). We went back down to the trailhead, and we found a faint path through the weeds that connected to an obvious trail along another creek, and this ended up being the correct trail. When I saw the swimming holes, I immediately fell in love with them for how gorgeous and secluded they were. I came back here with friends numerous times from 2006-2009, and we usually didn’t see anyone else there. We rarely saw one or two other people.

( In 2012, I hiked the entire Devil's Fork Loop Trail. Click here for a summary of that miserable experience. )

Before today, the last time I went to Devils Bathtub was in 2013 with my friends Mary and Jordan. I can’t remember if this was on a weekend, but there had been about ten other people there, which was not excessive, but kind of unprecedented. Since then, word has apparently gotten out over social media, and the area has become mainstream. There was a news report from last year about the parking area filling up and people parking their cars illegally on private property. Mary had tried to go here in either 2014 or 2015, and there had been a large crowd, so she left in disgust. I had sort of written this place off as a loss after hearing about this, because it is not the type of swimming hole that can accommodate crowds, and part of its charm was that it was so secluded and obscure. Now there are signs everywhere making it easy to find. As bummed as I was to hear what has become of Devil’s Bathtub, I had been watching some youtube videos of people swimming around and going underwater in the pools, which made me want to go back. I had planned on going home to my parents’ house in Virginia this weekend, and I wanted to do two swimming hole treks (Steels Creek being one of them), so I figured a return to Devil’s Fork could be my second. My knees still have not quite forgiven me since Three Forks last month, but I figured they could take two more days of punishment this summer since they are about to have the entire winter to recover. I really need to invest in some trekking poles for next year, though.

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

In conclusion, I would say the crowds at Devil’s Bathtub take this place down a few notches. I overheard some people saying that they had driven over three hours to get here. Having to wait my turn to get into Devil’s Bathtub is some bullshit. Standing in line is for water parks, and that’s half the reason I prefer natural swimming holes. This used to be my second favorite swimming hole spot after Upper Creek Falls, but now I’m not even sure if it’s Top 5 material. Fortunately the aesthetics of the area haven’t really suffered yet (aside from the people themselves being eye sores); there was a plastic bottle and a beer can here and there, but the place wasn’t covered in trash like I expected it would be. Someone must have come through and cleaned it recently. One upside to the increased visitation is that the trail is in much better shape, especially beyond the bathtub, although I would personally rather have a rough trail and no crowds. Even though the creeks here aren't very big, I sort of want to explore some of the other creeks not accessible by trail, because it's really hard to find crystal clear streams as unique as these, and I would love to find an obscure swimming hole as pretty as the ones on Devil's Fork.