The Potholes on Big Creek (CA)

Today, Cade and I went to The Potholes on Big Creek near Shaver Lake, CA. I found out about this one from Timothy Joyce’s new book, Swimming Holes of California Pro Tour. When I first mentioned this one to Cade, he said it looked like a mini version of Candy Rock, so I started referring to it as “lame Candy Rock” when I would mention it as a possibility. I was excited about this one, because I think we’ve established by this point that I have a thing for potholes, but I figured it would get blown off in favor of doing stuff in Yosemite since 1) Cade didn’t seem super interested in it, and 2) it’s a 90-minute drive from Bass Lake (where we are staying). However, with Yosemite being closed due to the Ferguson Fire, we had to dig into the maybe-pile for some backup swimming holes, which meant that we were going to make it to “lame Candy Rock” after all.

It was a long, winding 90-minute drive through the mountains between Bass Lake and Shaver Lake. There was some pretty impressive scenery along the way (although it would have been more impressive if not for the smoke haze). After passing through Shaver Lake and making mental notes of numerous good dinner options, we drove out of town and turned into Camp Sierra. This looked like sort of a mashup between vacation rental cabins and a summer camp. We were concerned that perhaps we weren’t supposed to park here, but there were no signs saying we couldn’t, and a lot of other people who ostensibly weren’t guests were doing it.

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

In summary, The Potholes on Big Creek are a pretty great swimming area. Like yesterday, the swimming hole itself did not have a distinctly Californian aesthetic, although the sheer granite mountains in the background certainly didn’t look like anything that would dominate the landscape in North Carolina. One drawback to this place is that the ease of access means it’s going to be crowded, and I probably wouldn’t give the slide an A+ since you can’t fully let go and enjoy the ride without potentially getting banged up (as I learned the hard way). Although the jump doesn’t have a nice flat launching pad, it still fell within the realm of jumps I would do given my stringent safety standards and level of wimpiness. Cade said this place would be great if only the water temperature were in the 70s. That would definitely be an improvement, but I still approve of The Potholes nonetheless. Crystal clear water, deep rock pools, and a good jump are all ingredients of a good swimming hole for me, so I was satisfied with today’s excursion. I had scanned Google Earth before today’s excursion, and it looked like there were plenty more potholes and pools along the creek, but I figured the swimming hole we were at would be hard to beat, so we didn’t bother exploring further.