North Fork American River

Today, Cade and I went to a lesser-known swimming hole on the North Fork American River. I learned of this one from a cliff jumping video on youtube, but the person who posted the video did not reveal the exact whereabouts or name of the waterfall, so I had to do a fair amount of search-engine detective work and scanning of Google Earth to pinpoint the location. And finding the location on a map per se was only half the battle; once I found it, I then had to figure out how to get there. There were enough clues and tidbits of information scattered about in various corners of the internet, but finding them and compiling them into something usable was sort of like a swimming hole treasure hunt. It seems that people who glorify this area as a swimming hole and/or cliff jumping spot want to keep the location a secret, so I will follow suit and only use vague location references. This place had sort of gone into the ‘maybe pile’ when I was researching California swimming holes, but Cade said the he wanted to go, so we ended up deciding to do it. I had initially dismissed it as a possibility for this trip when I first discovered it, because the only information I could find about accessing it said that it was accessible via a long hike down into Royal Gorge (reports of the trail length varied from 6-9 miles one way depending on the source), and I was only looking for swimming holes that could be done as day trips. However, when scanning Google Earth, I saw bits and pieces of what looked like a possible shortcut trail (and by “shortcut”, I mean 3 miles instead of 9). On the satellite imagery, the maybe-trail disappears into the forest a few times and re-emerges, and it was unclear whether the trail segments I was seeing were actually connected. I did manage to find one blog entry that seemed to confirm the existence of a shortcut trail in that same vicinity, but the blogger didn’t provide any information on the exact whereabouts of the trailhead. I decided to take a chance and assume that the trail I could see on Google Earth was the same one the blogger had mentioned.

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

In summary, the section of the North Fork American River we explored today has an amazing set of swimming holes. I found out afterwards that this area is part of the National Wild and Scenic River system, and it’s easy to see why. The scenery is gorgeous, and I have yet to see a place with a more ideal jumping setup. I would say that the only thing that keeps this place from being a perfect 10 is the water temperature, but other than that, it basically looks like an island paradise hidden away in a rugged Sierra wilderness. I would say that today’s swimming holes have easily been my favorite so far, and this is the type of place I came to California to experience. Despite the difficulty of access, I would say the whole ordeal was very worth it (if Cade doesn’t end up experiencing subsequent car trouble due to the rough roads). That said, there is no way in HELL either of us would ever come back here with anything less than a high-clearance, four wheel drive vehicle. I definitely see paved roads in store for tomorrow’s outing.