Linville Gorge - White Oak Flats to Pinch-In

Today, I decided to begin my swimming hole explorations of the lower section of Linville Gorge (i.e., downstream of the Conley Cove Trail). I didn’t bother with this section of the gorge last summer because I hadn’t really researched it, and I assumed the river would be relatively mundane through this area. In the upper section of the gorge, the river snakes around several peninsulas while losing over 1000 feet of elevation between Linville Falls and Conley Cove over near-continuous class III-V rapids, which is conducive to geologically interesting swimming holes in low summer flows. Below Conley Cove, the river still loses about 700 feet of elevation over the 8-ish miles to Lake James, but it follows a relatively straight path through boulder-strewn areas with few named rapids. I had scanned Google Earth and marked 14 points of interest (POIs) in the lower gorge, which are numbered from downstream to upstream. My original plan was to do a winter hike to scout them out and determine which ones warranted further exploration in the summertime, since the summer foliage makes it difficult to see the river from the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT). However, I got sick over Christmas break, and the weather/my schedule were uncooperative after that, so I didn’t end up getting down there.

Accessing the gorge floor downstream of Conley Cove is more practical (er, direct) from the west rim, where there are four rim-to-floor trails (that I know of): The North Carolina Mountains to Sea Trail (MST), White Oak Stand Trail (aka the Unnamed Trail), Pinch-In Trail, and Conley Cove Trail. POIs 1-3 are in the two-ish mile stretch between White Oak and Pinch In, 4-12 are in the 3-mile stretch between Pinch-In and Conley Cove, and 13-14 are just upstream of Conley Cove. I’ll still probably save 4-12 for a winter scouting trip, given the impracticality of checking out 9 POIs without a clear view, but I figured I could do POIs 1-3 as an out-and-back hike from the White Oak Stand Trail. Allen T. Hyde’s book The Linville Gorge and Wilson Creek Hikers Guide: An Introduction also mentions two spots in this section called Blue Hole and Lunch Rock, so those were on my to-do list as well. I chose to do this hike today because I didn’t have any major expectations. I was mainly just hoping to find a nice pool where I could lie around and catch tan. The flow as of this morning was about 90 cfs, which was a bit higher than any of my previous excursions, but I wasn’t necessarily concerned since this would likely be a less turbulent stretch of river.

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

In summary, POIs 1-3 and the Blue Hole were all legit swimming holes, but they were all kind of similar: large pools with rocky areas on the opposite side that offered low but somewhat sketchy jumps of 7-10 feet. I would say the best overall was POI 2, followed by POI 1. POI 3 required a slight bushwhack to get to, and the Blue Hole was mostly lined with herbaceous vegetation on the river-right side, making access annoying. Given that the swimming holes are fairly mundane, and the hike to access them is grueling, I would say they’re not worth the effort of a day trip. They are all located behind primitive campsites, so they would make nice bonuses for campers and backpackers, but I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip for them if your main objective is to go swimming.