Linville Gorge - Babel Tower river walk

Today, I did a river walk around the entire Babel Tower peninsula in Linville Gorge with my brother, Brian, and his girlfriend, Rachel. We had scouted the river downstream of Babel Tower to the Devil’s Hole Trail in winter of 2021, and I had river-walked upstream of Babel Tower in summer of 2022, but I had yet to explore the section of the river that rounds the Babel Tower peninsula. There is no trail along that section, so it’s only "safe" to attempt in summer temperatures when the water is low. This was the perfect time to do it, because we are currently in a drought with single-digit rain chances. As with my previous Linville Gorge entries, all rapid names are per American Whitewater and A Wet State.

I got a sneak peak at this section of the river during my first visit to Babel Tower Falls in 2017 with my friend Ty. I wandered about a quarter-mile downstream, but he was waiting for me back at the main swimming hole, so I turned back at a rapid called Nowhere to Run, where the river flowed through a 250-foot-long channel with near-vertical cliffs on both sides. It looked like passing through this area might involve a full body swim, which would be problematic with a backpack. I bought a smaller mesh backpack last year with this specific excursion in mind (but also in anticipation of some Yuba River tubing in California that didn’t come to fruition), and this was my first time getting to use it. I brought a Ziploc bag for my socks, so the only things I needed to keep dry were my hiking boots, and I figured I could hold them above my head if there were any mandatory swims. I thought my snorkel might poke a hole in my bag, so I only brought my diving mask (so all mentions of me "snorkeling" don’t actually involve a snorkel).

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

In summary, this section of the gorge had a little more going on than I thought. We found several legit swimming holes, some with low jumps (or maybe higher ones if you’re confident with precision landings). The most significant pools were Used to be a Portage, Sweet Shoulder Boof, Up Against the Wall, and Nowhere to Run. I didn’t spend much time scoping out the latter two, especially Nowhere to Run, but that one is relatively easy to reach from Babel Tower Falls, so I could possibly explore it further on a future excursion. None of today’s new swimming holes usurped the ones on my Linville Gorge top 3 list (Cathedral, Bob Ross Gorge, and Cave Falls), but this was a very scenic river walk, and I would say it’s the most rugged section of the gorge floor that I’ve seen so far.