Dinkey Creek Campground

Today, Cade and I ended up checking out some swimming holes along Dinkey Creek in the Dinkey Creek Campground near Shaver Lake, California. I say “ended up” because that was not our original plan. When we first planned the trip, we had wanted to spend two days doing stuff in Yosemite, but since the park is closed due to the Ferguson Fire, and The Forks Resort where we are staying won’t excuse us from our full reservation (as per their stringent cancellation policy that apparently stays in effect regardless of extenuating circumstances), we were forced today to choose between eating the bill and checking out early, or sticking around and doing lame filler activities. I had one more swimming hole in the maybe-pile that seemed like it might be worthwhile: the Dinkey Creek Granite Pools. I thought they looked cool enough to be worth another long, winding drive to Shaver Lake, but Cade said he thought they looked dinky (not sure if the pun was intended).

Well, after we drove nearly two hours to get there, we found that the road to the trail was being worked on and was impassable about two miles before the trailhead. They were installing a new culvert where a creek passed under the road, so that spot in the road was completely demolished at present. We parked at a campsite near the construction area and crossed a small stream (Rock Creek) to check out the view from the top of the hill. The area was mostly exposed granite, so it was easy to navigate. We could see down into the valley to the approximate location of the swimming holes, and we felt like we could get there eventually, but we weren’t sure how long it would take, and we were sort of concerned that no one would know where we were in case something happened. It was already after 2:30 PM, so we headed back down to the road.

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

In summary, Cade and I both thought today was pretty lame and a waste of a vacation day. Incidentally, this is the fifth day of our trip, and a similar situation happened on day 5 of last year’s trip (the road was closed to the place we originally wanted to go, and we ended up being disappointed by our backup plan). The Dinkey Creek campground had a couple of nice pools and a good jumping spot, but, as I expected, they weren’t really the type of swimming holes that were worth making a special trip for (especially not a nearly two-hour drive when we only had a week’s worth of vacation days). On top of that, the weather was overcast, which made getting out of the water after swimming chilly and unpleasant. If I had known today was going to turn out like it did, I probably would have just forfeited the money for our last night at The Forks so that we could have headed north and had an extra day to re-visit some of our favorite swimming holes from last year’s trip. I would like to take another shot at the Dinkey Creek Granite Pools if I ever find myself back in the Shaver Lake area, because I am kind of curious about what we missed out on.