Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

For the second day of our 2019 California Swimming Hole Marathon, Cade and I went to Potem Falls and Hatchet Creek Falls (aka Lion Slide Falls) northwest of Redding. These had both been on my radar for our first California trip in 2017, but we didn’t end up going this far north. Potem Falls was supposed to be the main event for today. It didn’t really look like anything exceptional from pictures, but people’s trip reports I had read online gave it high praises, so I decided that perhaps photos didn’t do it justice. Hatchet Creek Falls was not one I was terribly interested in. It kept coming up when I was researching California swimming holes, and I wasn’t sure what the big deal was looking at pictures. It looked like a good local swimming hole, but probably not something I would bother with when visiting from across the country and looking to hit the highlights. However, it was only about eight minutes up the road from the turnoff to Potem Falls, and Potem Falls didn’t seem like it would be an all-day affair, so I figured we might as well check out Hatchet Creek Falls while we were there. If anything, it looked like it would provide some jumping opportunities if Potem Falls came up short in that department.

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

Anyway, in summary, I actually ended up liking Hatchet Creek Falls a little better than Potem Falls from a swimming hole standpoint. Potem Falls was a fairly tall waterfall compared to some of the other waterfalls we have seen at California swimming holes, and the water was clear and blue, but the novelty of that has worn off for me at this point, and I just sort of expect it in California. The water was too cold for an actual swim to be enjoyable, but the temperature was sufficient for a quick depth-scoping and a few jumps with a quick exiting of the pool, except that there wasn’t really anything noteworthy to jump from (except the cliffs along the top of the waterfall, which I won’t do). There was the rope swing, but I wasn’t sure if I could swing out far enough to clear the rocks. Hatchet Falls was another cold one, but it at least had cliff jumping opportunities and a log to climb on and jump from. Ease of access from the main road made it a little too popular, though. It was a little crowded, even on a Monday. Still, Hatchet Creek Falls saved today from being a waste of time, for me at least. I would say that both Potem and Hatchet Creek Falls are decent local swimming holes, but not really worthy of national attention.