Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

For the third day of our trip, Cade and I went to the Tenaya Creek Slide in Yosemite, which is a massive natural waterslide where Tenaya Creek flows over a vast expanse of solid granite downstream of Tenaya Lake on its way to Yosemite Valley. The creek is very seasonal and normally dries up by the end of July. However, the record snowpack made it difficult to predict when the seasonal creeks would dry up this year, so I was hoping it would still be running in late August. I could see from Glacier Point on Monday that Tenaya Creek was definitely flowing, so I knew we were good to check it out today.

Before we went to the slide, I wanted to do some recon on the upper Tuolumne River for possible future excursions. I had originally thought about hiking to Glen Aulin on this trip, which is on the Tuolumne River a few miles downstream of Tuolumne Meadows. However, this section of the river actually has a temperature gauge, and it indicated the water temperature was currently in the 50s (as opposed to upper 60s or even low 70s in low/normal snowfall years). It had been about 60 °F before the storms came through on Sunday and Monday, but I’m guessing the rain must have washed some of the snowmelt into the river and made it colder. Still, I wanted to get a look at some of the closest swimming holes to the road just to get an idea of what the geology and water clarity looked like in person. It looked like we could get a sneak peek by hiking about a mile on the Pothole Dome Trail to where the river flowed over some exposed bedrock on the downstream end of Tuolumne Meadows. I was also interested in seeing a little bit of the Lyell Fork Tuolumne River, as it looked to have clear, blue water, and I had marked one point of interest on Google Earth near a footbridge about a mile upstream of the road at the Tuolumne Lodge.

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

In summary, the Tenaya Creek slide was an okay natural waterslide, but it wasn’t great for butt-sliding at today’s flow due to the difficulty of getting an obstacle-free route to the bottom. It would probably be best enjoyed on an innertube or some kind of inflatable device that can pad the bumps and open up more paths to the bottom. I had thought this was just going to be a slide, as the pool at the bottom was only about three feet deep, but the rock pool at the base of the upper waterfall was a legit swimming hole. Before coming here, I was wondering how one might use Yosemite Falls as an indicator of whether Tenaya Creek is still flowing (since Yosemite Falls has a live webcam that streams 24/7). Yosemite Falls was still flowing strongly two days ago, as was Chilnualna Creek yesterday, while Tenaya Creek was flowing more gently today. Therefore, I would guess that Tenaya probably dries up before Yosemite and Chilnualna Creeks do, meaning that most ephemeral streams in the park would probably be too high and cold for swimming when Tenaya is at optimal flow.

As for the Tuolumne River, I would be interested to explore more of it and hike to Glen Aulin in a drier year when the water is lower and warmer (it apparently gets up to 70 °F some years, according to its temperature gauge), but there was no way it was going to be pleasant under today’s conditions.

For the past three days, my mom and I have been kayaking on Lake Jocassee. We had been talking about going again after our trip last year, but there haven’t really been any good stretches of warm, dry weather until this week. Last year, we checked out places within out-and-back paddling distance of Devil’s Fork State Park, but we didn’t get to see all the waterfalls that spilled into the lake because the kayak shuttle was booked up that time (the kayak shuttle is a pontoon boat that hauls you and your kayaks to a drop-off point on the lake, for an exorbitant fee). The named waterfalls on the lake are Laurel Fork Falls, Mill Creek Falls, Devil’s Hole Creek Falls, Wright Creek Falls, and Bad Creek Falls (okay, the last one isn’t named, but it’s large enough to be noteworthy). We had only visited the latter two waterfalls last time, so our objective this time was to see the other three, especially Laurel Fork Falls, which looked like the highlight. The shuttle was available this time, so we were in business. There was only one available villa (#2) at the park this week, so we snagged it while we still could.

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

In summary, yesterday’s excursion from Laurel Fork Falls to Devil’s Fork State Park was a pretty good paddle. The temperature was in the 80’s with barely any clouds, and there were plenty of opportunities for swimming, snorkeling, and grapes. Now that I have seen all the named waterfalls of the lake, I would say Laurel Fork Falls is easily the highlight, with Wright Creek Falls (which we saw last year) coming in second. Mill Creek Falls looked like a great swimming spot, but it’s not the most impressive of the waterfalls. Devil’s Fork Falls wasn’t that interesting because it was so cluttered with deadfall that it was hard to get a good view of it. We didn’t really go anywhere new Monday or today, but today was a nice day to revisit some of the highlights from last year. Swimming on the lower Thompson River was much more pleasant than it had been in spring of 2021, so now I can officially give those swimming holes a thumbs up. We saved a few loose ends for a future trip, including the Whitewater River arm of the lake, which apparently has some nice cascades near the mouth of the river.

So the plan for last Sunday was to explore North Harper Creek for swimming holes, which has been on my back burner since 2016. What actually happened was that I got to call 9-1-1 for the first time (more on that later). As a result, I ended up having to bail halfway through the hike last weekend, and I returned to finish it up today.

North Harper Creek was the last major creek accessible by trail that I had not explored in the Wilson Creek Area. I had scanned it on Google Earth way back in 2015 or 2016 and marked several points of interest (POIs) that could be potential swimming holes. North Harper Creek features three named waterfalls (North Harper Creek Falls, Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, and Bard Falls), but I couldn’t find any info on whether or not there were any significant swimming holes, which is why this hike has never been a top priority for me. But, the weather was nice the past two weekends, and the larger rivers in the area were too high for swimming due to recent hurricanes, so I finally ended up doing North Harper for lack of anything better to do.

I had two options for this hike. Since the most promising-looking points of interest were all upstream of Bard Falls, I could do an out-and-back hike from the North Harper Creek Trail head to Bard Falls, or I could start at the Harper Creek Trail head and do a through hike up Harper Creek to the confluence with North Harper Creek, and then hike the entire North Harper Creek trail. I was more interested in the latter option, as it would allow me to also check out Harper Creek between Harper Creek Falls and the confluence, and the area of North Harper Creek downstream of Bard Falls. Plus, it would include Harper Creek Falls, which would be a fine swimming hole consolation prize should I not find anything interesting on North Harper Creek. I had marked three POIs on regular Harper Creek between the falls and the confluence, as well as seven POIs on North Harper Creek for a total of 10 POIs along the route I had planned to hike. The POIs are numbered from upstream to downstream, with POI 1 being the farthest upstream on North Harper Creek, and POI 10 being the farthest downstream on regular Harper Creek. The only obstacle for the through-hike option was that I needed a second vehicle and someone who was willing to do an 8-9 mile hike, so I had to wait for a weekend when Brian (my brother) was free, which ended up being last weekend.

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

In summary, I guess I don’t have any strong feelings about North Harper Creek. There were a couple of legit swimming holes, and although they weren’t anything remarkable, they are more secluded and pristine than most trail-accessible places you would find in the Wilson Creek Area. North Harper Creek does have some significant named waterfalls as well as some nice unnamed cascades. The most noteworthy sections of the creek were from Bard Falls to POI 3 (above which the creek flattens out for a while), and from POI 1 to North Harper Creek Falls. POI 4 ended up being a legit swimming hole, as did the uppermost pool of POI 3 (which was smaller than POI 4, but also less shaded). A good out-and-back waterfall + swimming hole hike would be hiking to Bard Falls from the North Harper Creek Shortcut Trail and stopping by POI 3 or 4 for a dip. The section of creek from Bard Falls downstream to the confluence with Harper Creek was pretty forgettable, as was the section of regular Harper Creek from Harper Creek Falls up to the confluence with North Harper Creek.

With about 9 miles of creek and 10 POIs to explore, this definitely ended up being more of an undertaking than I had anticipated. I probably would have ended up having to break it up into two trips regardless of last weekend’s 9-1-1 incident. I wish I hadn’t wasted an hour and a half today exploring the section downstream of Bard Falls, because my explorations of the good stuff ended up being rushed. That said, this excursion did leave some lingering curiosities. If I were to come back here in the future, I would want to explore a little downstream of POI 4, and creek walk the area between POI 1 and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, as it sounded like there were probably more cascades there than what I saw. The creek seemed like it was probably too tight and boulder-strewn in this area for there to be any significant swimming holes, but you never know. It also sounded like the area upstream of North Harper Creek Falls could have some potential as well, but most of it was not visible from the trail (plus it was basically dark out by the time I reached that point).
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Update: I returned to North Harper Creek in 2022 and thoroughly explored the area upstream of POI 1. Click here for the trip report.

Today, I kayaked up Lake Jocassee to explore some more swimming holes on the Thompson River. I was sort of intent on reaching a swimming hole by unconventional means, and my first idea was to bike (well, partway) to Wintergreen Falls on the Toxaway River, but renting a bike seemed like too much trouble, so I decided kayaking might be fun. Plus, my lower body got a workout yesterday, so I figured I would give my upper body a workout today. Yesterday’s hike at the upper Thompson River had nice waterfalls and a couple of swimming holes, but none that were really primo (plus the air and water were both too chilly for a swim to be pleasant). I was hoping the lower section of the river might be an improvement on both counts, since it looks less shaded on Google Earth and is at a lower elevation. I had noted a couple of significant-looking sliding waterfalls with pools on Google Earth, and it looked like the river had continuous cascades and pools from the lower slide down to where the river flows into the lake. When researching Lake Jocassee, I had also come across Wrights Creek Falls, one of several waterfalls that spill directly into the lake (that was actually how I got the idea to go kayaking in the first place; I didn’t actually decide to do the lower Thompson River until after finding out it fed into the lake near Wrights Creek Falls).

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

In summary, I found the lower stretch of the Thompson River to be a little more swimming-hole-licious than Big Falls and the other upstream waterfalls. There were at least three legit swimming holes and one potentially slide-able sliding waterfall. I would say the best swimming hole would be the big one with the log over the cascade that spills into it. I didn’t check the depth there, but it was the largest swimming hole and seemed to have the most potential for vertical tomfoolery. The water was also slightly warmer less frigid here than the upper section, although if you want warmer water, then you might as well just swim and cliff jump in Lake Jocassee, which was about 12 degrees warmer than the Thompson River today. That said, this lake is on my “would come back to” list. The weather was still a little cool for a swim to be totally refreshing, but the lake would be great on a hot sunny day. It has clear blue water and a lot of nice coves to explore. I probably wouldn’t rent a kayak and try to redo an excursion like the one I did today. Having to return the boat at a certain time made things too rushed, and I didn’t have much time to just relax and enjoy being out on the water. It would have been nice to have an extra hour or so. My upper body is sore and stiff from aggressive paddling, my legs and shoulders are sunburnt, and the paddle blisters on my hands are epic. I’m looking forward to a hot bath in the jaccuzi tub and some aloe vera when I get to my parents’ house in Virginia tomorrow. I am now ready to collapse from exhaustion.

I went to Harper Creek Falls today with Miranda. I wasn’t super craving a swimming hole excursion this weekend, as I was still somewhat satiated from last week’s Florida spring trip and kind of wanted to relax at home, but I wanted to take advantage of the dry-ish weather while it was here for the taking. The trend for the previous two years was that early June was nice in the mountains, but then it rained pretty much every subsequent weekend until late July. After making the mistake of passing up the first nice weekend of June last year, I decided not to make the same mistake this year. This was my first time back to Harper Creek Falls since my first visit in 2014. It was pretty much the same as last time, except the bench at the top of the switchbacks at the beginning of the trail was gone, and the ropes on the river-left side of the upper waterfall had all been taken down, which meant I couldn't climb up to the footholds on the river-left side of the falls and jump (that didn't stop me from trying, though). There were some people there who had brought slacklines with them. One of the lines was stretched high above the falls, and they were crossing it with harnesses on when we got there (photo by Miranda):

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

Based on my first visit, I have regarded Harper Creek Falls as a candidate for the best swimming hole of the Wilson Creek Area, with Upper Creek Falls being its top contender. I suppose that still holds true, although the removal of the ropes at Harper has eliminated any non-sketchy jumping opportunities. There is also a slide, but I think Upper Creek wins in terms of natural water slides. I would say the pools per se at Harper Creek still beat anything else I’ve seen in the Wilson Creek area in terms of size, depth, and water temperature. The lower pool is so big that you could swim laps in it. I’ve had a hike on the back burner for three years that entails starting at North Harper Creek Falls and hiking along the creek all the way down to Harper Creek Falls, although I wouldn’t expect to find any swimming holes that beat this one.

Since the past couple of days of our vacation were spent doing filler activities due to not being able to get out of our reservations near Yosemite while the park was closed, Cade and I decided we would spend the last two days of our vacation re-visiting some of the highlights from last year’s trip, rather than take a chance on new swimming holes that may or may not be good. Cade had been itching to go to Blue Streak all week, so that was our plan for today. After last year's visit, we hadn’t been super impressed with Candy Rock, which is about a mile upstream on the same river, but we had neglected to check out some of the pools upstream of the main attraction, so I wanted to do that while we were there. Specifically, there was a photo from Timothy Joyce’s Swimming Holes of California book that had piqued my interest for Candy Rock when I was planning swimming holes for last year’s trip, and after we went, it occurred to me that we never actually saw the pool in the photo. I figured it must have been upstream of the main swimming hole, so I e-mailed Tim, and he confirmed this to be the case. I marked a pool on Google Earth that I thought might be it, but it was hard to tell because the pool in the photo appeared to be partially obscured by a rock overhang.

It took us about 3.5 hours to get to Candy Rock Road from Bass Lake, partially due to surprise road construction along 49 that required us to take a 30-minute detour. When we finally got to Candy Rock Road, we were hoping that it would be open this year (it was closed last year due to winter storm damage, and we had to park at the gate and walk in). We got half of what we were hoping for: the road was open down to a parking area near the Blue Streak trailhead, but the last 1.5 miles down to the Candy Rock parking area were still closed. The closure looked permanent, as there were two dirt mounds and several boulders placed across the road to prevent vehicles from passing. The road past that point was getting overgrown, so it looked like they were letting it go. This has apparently deterred people from visiting, as this reportedly used to be a crowded area before the road closure, but there were only three or four other cars there today (not complaining).

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

So yeah, not a whole lot of new developments for Candy Rock/Blue Streak this time around. The pool just upstream of Candy Rock was nice and probably would have increased my opinion of Candy Rock if we had seen it last year, but we both still maintain that Blue Streak is pretty unbeatable as far as accessible swimming holes on this stretch of the North Fork Stanislaus River. Perhaps next time we will find the elusive pool further upstream from Candy Rock, but that’s probably not a project that would be worth undertaking if it cut into time that we could be spending at Blue Streak, so it might have to happen on a trip where we could dedicate two days to this stretch of the river.
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Update: We returned in 2019 and devoted a full day to exploring the river upstream of Candy Rock. Click here for the trip report.

After doing some research online and buying Timothy Joyce’s Swimming Holes of California book last year, I discovered a few more points of interest along the creek that seemed worth checking out. On the itinerary for today (in order from downstream to upstream) were Angel Falls (the location of the Rescue 911 segment), a series of potholes referred to as the Washing Machine and Dryer in Tim’s book, Willow Creek Falls, and an unnamed swimming hole upstream of Willow Creek Falls. There is also a waterfall called Devil’s Slide downstream of Willow Creek Falls that I wanted to look at, but I didn’t anticipate there being any good swimming opportunities here.

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

In summary, Willow Creek is a great swimming hole location with several worthwhile spots. The pool at Devil’s Slide was easily the winner (it kind of reminded me of a combination of Screaming Right Hand Turn Falls on Steels Creek and the upper pool at Harper Creek Falls back in North Carolina). In fact, the whole creek reminded me a lot of streams in the North Carolina mountains, namely Upper Creek and Steels Creek (albeit with a more generous serving of potholes). If you had just plopped me down and told me I was in North Carolina, I would have believed it. Angel Falls was my second favorite, although I found it to be a bit treacherous. Although Willow Creek kind of lacked that California grandeur found at some of the places we visited last year, its clear water and numerous slides, potholes, and rock pools should make it a fun playground for swimming hole enthusiasts and casual hikers alike.

For the seventh and final day of our California swimming hole marathon, Cade and I went to Candy Rock and Blue Streak, two swimming holes about a mile apart on the North Fork Stanislaus River near Sonora, CA. When I first saw videos of Candy Rock, I thought it looked pretty sweet (pun sort of intended). It had been at the top of my list of swimming holes to visit in California, but I wasn’t sure if we were going to get to go when I was planning the trip because I had heard that the road was closed and the river was high. However, Cade went and checked it out about three weeks ago and said the road was still open to foot traffic; it would just add an extra 2.5 miles to the hike. Candy Rock is apparently a pretty popular and well-known spot, so I was hoping the extra hike combined with the fact that it was a Friday would deter the crowds. Cade said that he thought Candy Rock was a bit overhyped, but he had not checked out Blue Streak when he first visited, so that was his main objective for the day. I had initially thought Candy Rock would be the highlight, but given that Lemke’s Lagoon on the South Yuba River had been our favorite swimming hole so far, we now both had higher hopes for Blue Streak, since Blue Streak looked to be more similar to Lemke’s Lagoon than Candy Rock.

There were no other cars there when we got to the parking area where the road was gated off. A sign on the gate said that the road was open to foot traffic, horses (I think), and bicycles. It said that the hike to Candy Rock was 2.5 miles. The road started off along the rim of a gorge about 600 feet deep.

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

In summary, I would say Blue Streak turned out to be the highlight of today’s excursion, as expected. It seems to get less attention than Candy Rock, not because it sucks, but because it is more difficult to access. Candy Rock was okay, but I would have to agree with Cade that it is a bit overhyped. I think it gets glorified on social media because it’s low-hanging fruit (or at least it was before the road was closed), being only a short hike from the parking area. Also, Candy Rock is a bit more interesting from a geological standpoint, which makes it more visually attractive. If we had been able to drive all the way to it, then I might have thought more highly of it (although it probably would have been crowded), but I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth a three-mile hike. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a worthy daytrip destination if you live within driving distance, but I don’t think Candy Rock is really worth flying across the country on its own merit. Luckily, Candy Rock has Blue Streak to back it up, so it’s still worth visiting if you combine the two into a package deal and consider Candy Rock as an appetizer before the main course (i.e., Blue Streak). It would take a pretty tough crowd of swimming hole goers to find Blue Streak disappointing. Blue Streak had pretty much everything one could want in a swimming hole, although it didn’t quite stack up to the South Yuba River on account of the dark water. If Blue Streak had water like the Yuba, then it easily would have been the number one swimming hole of the trip.
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As I said in my first entry of this trip, the main reason I chose California for this year’s swimming hole vacation was the weather, and it was pretty reliably warm and dry everywhere we went. Some of the swimming holes were a bit chilly, but most had sun-heated rocks to warm up on. I’m not sure how I would say that California swimming holes compare to southeastern swimming holes, as both sides have some pretty good ones, but I think California definitely wins the favorable weather award. On this trip, we mostly focused on the area north of Yosemite to just north of Lake Tahoe. We cleared all but one of the swimming holes in that region that I really wanted to see (the loose end being Seven Falls in the Feather River basin). Two things we sort of missed out on for this trip were a good natural water slide and some good pothole-style swimming holes. Curtain Falls sort of had a sliding waterfall, but the flow was a bit high to go down all the way from the top on the day we visited. God’s Bath and Candy Rock were sort of pothole/tub style pools, but I was hoping more for the exquisite teacup-style potholes like those found at Steels Creek Falls in North Carolina. When I was researching California swimming holes, it looked like most of the good slides and teacups were in the Yosemite and Sequoia areas. We had originally planned to spend a couple of days in Yosemite on this trip, but we ended up blowing it off due to no budget-friendly accommodations being available on short notice. I plan to concentrate my efforts in Yosemite and Sequoia on my next swimming-hole-centric trip to California. Cade also has a thing for Big Sur, so it’s possible we could make an appearance there. Big Sur has some gorgeous but obscure Hawaiian-looking swimming holes, so it’s possible I could be enticed to go there if I can find one that doesn’t involve a backpacking trip (or, by some unexpected twist, I get into backpacking).

( Click here to see my ranking for the swimming holes we visited on this trip )

Now that we have reached the end of this year’s trip, I will say that I consider it a much bigger success than last year’s trip to Georgia. That time, five out of six of our excursions were unsatisfactory (in my opinion) due to rain-swollen rivers and/or the swimming holes being subpar. We hit swimming holes for seven days in a row this year, and I would say at least five of those excursions were satisfactory or better. Some of the places we went had an abundance of great jumping opportunities, which allowed me to improve my jumping confidence, which has waned over the past decade. Also, I think my trekking poles really helped this year. I used them on almost every hike, and my knees are not sore at all (as opposed to last year when they were angry for months after the trip).

Well, I guess that about wraps things up for this adventure. I may end up hitting another Appalachian swimming hole or two before the end of the summer, and I have plans to go to Havasupai soon, so I’m hoping this continues to be a productive swimming hole year despite the slow start.

Today, Cade and I finally got to go to Tallulah Gorge State Park, which was the purpose of our weeklong trip to the area. I had gotten the idea to come here after seeing the gorge in the movie Deliverance. Incidentally, this was my second trek to a swimming hole featured in a movie with a rape scene (the first being Krause Springs from the movie Teeth). Is that weird? Anyway, I remember seeing the scenes in Deliverance where the protagonists unwittingly go over a sliding waterfall in a canoe, and then Jon Voight climbs the gorge wall above the pool to confront the hillbilly who is trying to snipe them from the top of the gorge. I thought that it looked like a spectacular swimming hole, but as a teenager, I was unaware of the magic of the “filming locations” section on IMDb, so I had no idea where the swimming hole was. Some time later, I was browsing swimmingholes.org and came across the listing for Tallulah Gorge, and I thought it looked a lot like the gorge from Deliverance. The text for the listing confirmed this. I wasn’t quite as adventurous in my teens and early twenties (and also didn’t really have the resources to travel), so I never visited the gorge, even though it was on my radar. Now that I have an income and paid time off, Tallulah Gorge has climbed higher up on my to-do list. Cade and I had planned to go last year, but we got rained out, so we changed plans and went to some Florida springs instead. Cade had some vacation time to burn this summer, so we decided to come to north Georgia for a week to give Tallulah Gorge another shot, and also check out other swimming holes in Georgia and the Carolinas.

Tallulah Gorge State Park is pretty stringent about issuing gorge floor permits, and they won’t do it when the rocks are wet or when there is a sufficient chance of rain. The weather had been uncooperative thus far, and today (day 4 of our trip) was the only day in the foreseeable future with less than a 60 % chance of rain. Even so, it had rained the night before and there was a 20% chance of rain today, so it was still pretty iffy. I was pretty anxious about it, because if they didn’t issue permits today, then it meant that we had come here for nothing, since everything up to this point had been lackluster (although that was due to the weather/water level rather than the quality of the swimming holes in yesterday’s case). To make things even more challenging, today was a Saturday, and I had read that so many people line up outside the park that gorge floor permits (limited to 100 visitors per day) effectively run out before the park even opens at 8 AM. I insisted that we get there at 7 AM just to be safe, because I did not drive five hours from Raleigh and burn a week of vacation leave to get screwed out of a gorge floor permit. When we got there, there were already people walking up to the gate from the campground, and there were about ten people already at the gate. At first we thought you weren’t allowed to block the road, so Cade parked the car while I secured a spot in line. However, I saw that people were starting to line up in their cars behind the gate, and I knew all they had to do was zoom past the pedestrians, so we ran back and got the car. There were already about ten cars in front of us by the time we got back at around 7:15. They opened the gate around 7:40, and we drove in and lined up outside the visitor center while we waited for the rangers to decide if they would open the gorge floor. One of the rangers or attendants came out and took a head count, so we figured that was a good sign. At 8:01 AM, they opened the doors and we filed inside. One of the rangers took about 50 of us into a classroom and explained the rules and the route through the gorge (there is no official trail along the floor). She said that it was more like climbing and bouldering than hiking, and that most people say that it’s the most difficult hike of their lives (then again, most people don’t do the things we would do to get to swimming holes). We then filled out our permits, and Cade and I left to get breakfast. We returned a little after 10 AM and started on the North Rim Trail behind the visitor center.

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

In conclusion, Bridal Veil Falls in Tallulah Gorge is one of the best swimming holes I have been to. I don't know if I would say it's the best (Upper Creek Falls and Harper Creek Falls are also strong contenders), but it's easily top-five material. It definitely has that natural waterpark feel to it, and the scenery is gorgeous. Get it gorgeous? Forgive me if I already used that pun somewhere else. Anyway, after today, I feel fulfilled and that the entire trip was worthwhile, regardless of how the prior and upcoming swimming holes turned/will turn out.

In the mountains, just one weekend day above 80 °F with no rain is rare, but BOTH weekend days sunny and above 80? This called for back-to-back swimming hole treks. I booked a room at the Pineola Inn since it is convenient to the Wilson Creek area, the land of swimming holes that are TOTALLY BALLER. As usual, my local friends were either busy or just not feeling enthusiastic enough about mountain swimming holes to make a 3.5 hour drive from Raleigh. Miranda was home in Abingdon visiting her parents and wanted to go to a swimming hole that we had never been to, but under the stipulation that it did not require a long or strenuous hike. I had driven through Wilson Creek Gorge two summers ago on the way to Harper Creek Falls (arguably the best swimming hole in the Wilson Creek area) and snapped a few pictures, but I had not had time to swim in Wilson Creek or explore it thoroughly.

Normally I consider easily accessible swimming holes to be low hanging fruit, but since I have two days to visit swimming holes, I figured one of them did not have to be a grueling expedition. Plus, the gorge had seemed scenic enough on my last visit to warrant further exploration, despite being right off the road. I met up with Miranda at the motel, and after I checked in, we headed to the gorge. The scenic area is a four-mile stretch of Wilson Creek that runs along a dirt road and is basically a continuous expanse of rapids and pools lined with boulders and sloping rock walls. The first thing we noticed when we got there was that the road was basically a dust storm due to the traffic (crowds are one obvious downside of low hanging fruit). It was a constant fog, and all the vegetation lining the road was covered with dust. Miranda’s black car was gray after a couple of minutes

I had examined Wilson Creek on Google Earth and marked the points on my GPS that looked like the best swimming holes. One of the areas was Ten Foot Falls, a class IV rapid which I had somehow missed on my last trip. After about two miles, we parked near where I thought Ten Foot Falls was supposed to be. There was a full parking area where we wanted to pull off, but we were able to park on the side of the road a couple hundred feet ahead. We walked down to the creek from where we had parked, and there was a pool about five feet deep just above a small sliding rock.

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

I haven’t decided where I will go tomorrow. Raven Cliff Gorge on Upper Creek is topping my to-do list for this area, and I still have loose ends to tie up at Steels Creek and Gragg Prong. However, Raven Cliff Gorge is not something I would do alone, and I’m not too fond of going to Steels Creek by myself either, so I’m leaning toward Gragg Prong. I am also considering checking out North Harper Creek Falls and Bard Falls on North Harper Creek, but I don’t know if they have swimming holes, and I will be supremely disappointed if I don’t take a dip tomorrow.

Last August, I decided to start going on solo swimming hole treks due to the difficulty of finding swimming/hiking buddies. Two thirds of the summer had gone by, and most of my attempts at swimming hole adventures had been foiled by last-minute cancellations. When I saw a sunny Saturday coming up, I tried to find someone to accompany me to my favorite swimming hole, Upper Creek Falls. One of my friends said she could go, but she got sick and had to cancel at the last minute. Fortunately, I had a backup plan. I had a list of other swimming holes to explore in the Wilson Creek area (to which Upper Creek Falls belongs), and Harper Creek Falls was at the top of the list. I had read that getting down to the swimming hole requires holding onto a rope while walking backward down a steep rock, and I wasn’t sure if any of my friends would go to that extreme for a swimming hole, so I figured it would be a good solo trek if no one could go with me.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )
When it started getting late, I climbed back up the rock (which was way easier than going down) and hiked back to the car. I stopped and checked out a few more places in Wilson Creek Gorge that I had passed up on the way in. Harper Creek Falls is one of the best swimming holes I have been to. It even gives Upper Creek Falls a run for its money.

So yeah, that’s the story of how I got into the habit of going on solo swimming hole treks. It would have been more fun with friends, but it was definitely worthwhile in its own right. Still, it feels like something is missing when I don’t have someone to share the experience with, so I have decided to blog my recent swimming hole treks so I can share indirectly (and hopefully entice my friends in reasonable proximity to join me on future adventures). I have also found other people’s blogs helpful in planning my trips for some of these places, so this will be my way of paying it forward to other swimming hole aficionados.