Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

Below is an index of my swimming hole and waterfall trip reports. I have listed them by state.

( Click here to view the list )

Today, I went to Lynn Canyon in Vancouver, BC. I am here for three days with eight friends for our 20-year high school reunion (are we really that old?!), and whenever I’m along for a trip, you know I’m going to try to sneak a swimming hole excursion into it. We had tried to plan a Vancouver trip in 2015, and Lynn Canyon came onto my radar when I was looking for outdoorsy things to do in the area. It features a suspension bridge and several swimming holes both upstream and downstream of the bridge (plus a crazy natural water slide below the bridge that ends in a 30-foot drop, and which I have no desire to try). I assumed the water here would be pretty cold given how far north it is, but the park is only about ten minutes from our Airbnb, so I figured it was worth checking out if I could rope anyone into going with me (or dropping me off).

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

In summary, Lynn Canyon was a nice swimming hole destination, and the water wasn’t as cold as I was expecting from a Canadian swimming hole, which may be due to the water coming off the top of a lake just upstream. The temperature was similar to mountain streams back in North Carolina. The setting kind of reminded me of Blue Hole near Elizabethton, TN, but with more waterfalls and swimming holes. My only gripe is that it was too crowded, being that it’s in the city, accessible by public transit, and a short hike along mostly boardwalks and stairs. If I’m ever back in the area, I’d like to check out the Twin Falls swimming hole, and maybe see if there are any accessible areas of the canyon between the suspension bridge and Twin Falls (it looked like most areas were fenced off and plastered with warning signs about how cliff jumping is stupid). I probably wouldn’t try to get to the swimming holes under the suspension bridge, because it looks like you’d have to commit to canyoneering through unknown terrain for a significant distance to get in and out of that area.

Today, Brian and I walked upper Wilson Creek between FR 192 and Edgemont Road. We had previously hiked the Wilson Creek Trail in 2018, and creek-walked the section of Wilson Creek between the trail and FR 192 in 2019. During the latter excursion, we had briefly looked at the creek just downstream of the Edgemont Road bridge and saw that it had some small sliding cascades and was hemmed by cliffs as it quickly dropped out of sight. We had always been curious to return and walk the creek between FR 192 and Edgemont Road to see if there was anything interesting there, but five years went by and we never got around to it. On our previous excursions, we had checked out 13 out of 15 points of interest (POIs) I marked on Google Earth as potential swimming holes. POIs 14 and 15 are upstream of FR 192, and there is no good satellite imagery upstream of POI 15, so the upstream half of that section has always been a mystery. I wasn’t expecting to find any significant swimming holes there, but I thought there could be some nice cascades since the creek loses over 600 feet of elevation between the two roads.

I’ve noticed that the first weekend in June is almost always dry, which held true this year, although it wasn’t particularly warm in the mountains (today's forecast called for mid 60s). Since the weather wasn’t ideal for swimming, I decided now was the time to check out upper Wilson, since I wasn’t expecting to find any significant swimming holes.

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

In summary, this section of Wilson Creek didn't have anything remarkable, but there was one legit swimming hole, and a 25-30 foot waterfall about 100 feet back on a small side-stream. Other than that, the creek was basically a series of small sliding cascades and shallow pools, similar to Little Wilson Creek upstream of Edgemont Road. It did seem like the slides were starting to get bigger toward the upstream end of the walk, so it’s possible there might be higher cascades upstream, between Edgemont Road and the Blue Ridge Parkway. However, I probably wouldn’t check that out unless I really needed something to do.

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.

Today, I hiked to Harper Creek Falls, but instead of taking the trail, I hiked (almost) all the way there through the creek. The forecast for today was dry, but it was unclear if it would be cloudy. I had planned to do this hike if it was clear, but I had another one in mind if it were cloudy. It was overcast in Lenoir this morning, but the hourly forecast was sunny from noon to 2 PM, and then partly cloudy after that. I decided to go ahead and do Harper, since that meant it would be sunny for most of the hike, and late afternoon clouds might dissuade me from staying at the falls too long, since I had to drive back to Raleigh afterwards. This trek seemed ideal for a day where I was either arriving or leaving, because it’s less than a four-hour drive back to Raleigh, and I wasn’t expecting it to be too strenuous since the creek only drops about 100 feet over more than a mile.

I planned to enter the creek at its confluence with Wilson Creek and creek-walk upstream to the primitive campground near the confluence with Raider Camp Creek, where the Harper Creek Trail joins with the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST). On previous visits, I had caught glimpses of several sliding cascades over bedrock slabs on the quarter-mile section of creek just downstream of the falls, which I have never checked out, so I planned to re-enter the creek there and creek-walk the rest of the way to the falls.

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

In summary, there are a couple of legit swimming holes (and several pockets of deep water) on the lower section of Harper Creek, but they are all forgettable in comparison to the pair of primo swimming holes at Harper Creek Falls. I'd say the new pools I found today would probably only appeal to fishermen looking for solitude upstream from the commotion of Wilson Creek Gorge.

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.

Today, I finally got to go to Cave Falls in Linville Gorge, which has been on my to-do list for a while. I had tried to get to it alone last month by swimming through the Bob Ross Gorge and climbing up the rocks next to a rapid/small waterfall the boaters call Seal Launch Portage (aka A Good Way to Die), but I decided it was too sketchy to do alone (as with my previous entries, all rapid names are per American Whitewater and A Wet State). I’ve been trying to find people online who are into this sort of thing, and I networked with this guy Chris from Asheville who said he liked intense hikes and might be up for it, so we planned to meet up and tackle it today. Unlike my previous trips to this section of the gorge where I had used the moderate Spence Ridge Trail, today we would be using the more strenuous but more direct Devil’s Hole Trail, which loses about 1000 feet of elevation in a about a mile and meets the river about a quarter mile upstream of Cave Falls.

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

In summary, Cave Falls is a pretty cool spot. It has a large swimming hole with a low jump of about six feet, and it’s surrounded by some pretty impressive geology. From what I’ve seen so far, I would say the best swimming hole in the gorge is easily Cathedral, both in terms of swimming hole functionality and geological grandeur, but Cave Falls is a contender for runner-up, along with the Bob Ross Gorge and Babel Tower Falls (the latter actually isn’t one of my top picks, but it’s a fan favorite, so I felt obligated to throw it in there). I was hoping to tie up a few loose ends from my winter scouting trip (e.g., Jailhouse) today, but we were unable to do so since the rain cut things short. After experiencing the Devil’s Hole Trail for the first time, I can say one thing for sure: I did NOT skip leg day.

Today I needed to re-start this vacation off right, so I (mostly) tied up a six-year-old loose end and re-visited the Horsepasture River under more ideal conditions. I had previously visited in 2016 with Cade, but that was during a period of heavy rainfall, and the river was too high and turbulent for swimming to be safe. The main attraction of the Horsepasture River from a swimming hole standpoint is Turtleback Falls, which is a 15-20 foot sliding waterfall that ends with an eight foot drop into a deep pool. Not getting to do this in 2016 was a bummer, so it has been high on my bucket list for the past six years. The main waterfall attraction is Rainbow Falls, a 150-foot behemoth that also has a swimming hole with a jumping ledge. I thought this pool might have strong currents even at low flow due to the waterfall’s size, but people still swim in it, so I definitely wanted to see if it was hospitable. Other loose ends from my last visit included not checking out the swimming hole situation at Stairway Falls, and not making it to Side Pocket Falls, so I wanted to check those out if I had time after visiting Turtleback and Rainbow.

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

In summary, today was a much nicer day at the Horsepasture River than last time. I would say it’s one of the overall best rivers in the state when it comes to delivering multiple quality swimming holes. It also had moderate water temperatures (for a North Carolina mountain stream). The current was still kind of strong today, but the main attractions were still serviceable for strong swimmers. The weather was also really nice. I think it was in the upper 70’s with no clouds in the sky, so it was warm in the sun and comfortable in the shade. I would say the best swimming hole per se was the Rainbow Falls plunge pool, but sliding down Turtleback Falls is obviously the main attraction. I wouldn’t really say the Turtleback plunge pool is a great swimming hole, though, because the current is actually stronger there than in the Rainbow Falls plunge pool. It’s one of those ones where you want to get out ASAP after dropping in from the slide. Stairway Falls offered a couple of serviceable swimming holes, mainly the one at the very bottom. Those pools didn’t have any jumps or slides (well, maybe the top one, but I wasn’t going to test it), but they are a more secluded alternative to the more popular spots if you’re looking for less people. Now that I’ve finally gotten to experience the main swimming holes under (somewhat) more hospitable conditions, I will have to check out some of the river’s more secluded ones, starting with Side Pocket Falls.

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of this year’s Climate Change Christmas to go scouting for swimming holes in Linville Gorge. After my most recent visit in September, I found that the Linville Gorge Trail (LGT) stayed fairly close to the river, but the summer foliage blocked the view and made it difficult to scout for swimming holes. The air temperatures over the Christmas holidays this year have been in the 60’s, even in the mountains, so I figured this would be a good time to look for potential swimming holes to check out next summer. In addition to the unseasonably warm temperatures and the leaves being off the trees, the river is currently near summer flow due to a drought, so it looks about the same right now as it does in summer as far as water levels are concerned (the river yesterday was at 59 cfs/1.08 ft, according to the USGS gauge).

On my last visit, I had checked out the section of the river between the Spence Ridge Trail and the Devil’s Hole Trail. My objective for yesterday was to pick up where I left off and check out the section between the Devil’s Hole Trail and Babel Tower. I wasn’t sure if there would be any worthwhile swimming holes here, which was all the more reason to explore it during winter so as not to waste a nice summer day if there weren't any ideal swimming spots. I had marked a few points of interest on Google Earth that I wanted to check out, all but one of which were directly above or below named rapids (all rapid names are according to American Whitewater). The points of interest (starting at Babel Tower and going downstream) were Used to be a Portage, Wheelie, Zoom Flume, Zig Zag, Skylight, Diagonal Chaos, Death Penalty, Adam’s Oof, Jailhouse, Cyclops, and an unnamed spot just upstream of Cyclops that I dubbed “Jean Grey” (since I’m an X-Men fan and it’s close to Cyclops). Of these, I was most interested in checking out Jailhouse. My plan was to hike down from the Babel Tower Trail to the intersection of the LGT, and then follow the LGT downstream as far as Jailhouse, or maybe all the way to the Devil’s Hole Trail depending on how I was doing on time.

( Click here for the full Babel Tower to Jailhouse scouting report with pictures and videos )
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Today, in sticking with the Linville Gorge winter exploration theme, I went to Linville Falls with Miranda. She wanted an easy/moderate hike so she could bring her dog, so we only did the overlooks and didn’t hike down to the plunge basin. This was fine with me, since my legs were pretty angry from yesterday. Also, swimming is prohibited at Linville Falls (with signs warning of a $5,000 fine and/or 6 months in jail for violators), so there wasn’t much point in scouting out the plunge basin. The last time I visited Linville Falls was way back in 2000, and as I recall, the plunge basin would be among the most epic swimming holes in the state if swimming were allowed (some people still do it, though).

( Click here for the full Linville Falls trip report with pictures and videos )
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In summary, after yesterday’s scouting, I would say the pools that warrant further exploration in the summer are Jean Grey and maybe Jailhouse, both of which are close enough to the Devil’s Hole Trail that they could potentially be tacked onto the end of a Cave Falls expedition. The section of the LGT between Babel Tower and the Devil’s Hole Trail stayed pretty close to river level (usually no more than 50 feet above it), and there were scramble trails that allowed river access near most of my points of interest. On the Babel Tower end of yesterday’s hike, Skylight and the big pool between Blindside and Death Penalty might be worth a closer look, but I probably wouldn’t make a special trip for those, as they are too far upstream to include with Cave Falls.

I didn’t really learn anything new from today’s visit to Linville Falls. From the overlook views, the river does not seem very interesting below the falls, so I probably wouldn’t make a special trip to check out the Gulf Branch confluence downstream of the falls unless I were tacking it onto a Linville Falls plunge basin hike.

This is the second of three entries about my three-day vacation at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. Day 1 of the trip is covered in my first entry.

For the second day of our vacation, my mom and I paddled to Wright Creek Falls on the Thompson River arm of the lake. I had gone to this waterfall the last time I was here, but that excursion was kind of rushed because I rented a kayak from the park that I had to return by 6 PM. I had done a creek walk on the Thompson River that day, which didn’t leave much time to see anything else. Today, we had originally wanted to see the waterfalls on the northeastern arm of the lake (where the Horsepasture and Toxaway Rivers feed in), but that was too long for and out-and-back paddle, and all the kayak shuttles were booked. We opted to just do Wright Creek Falls so my mom could see at least one of the significant waterfalls.

( Click here for the full Day 2 trip report with pictures and videos )

We made it back to the boat ramp and loaded the kayaks into the truck just as it started to rain, although it wasn’t a torrential downpour like earlier. We had paddled 10.4 miles today, according to my fitness tracker (although that also includes my brief waterfall scrambles). That’s about what the distance would have been if we had taken a kayak shuttle to the more distant waterfalls and paddled back to the park. We drove back to the villa and had hamburgers for dinner. I also ate two cupcakes, because screw my arteries! Also, note to self: bring a Brita pitcher or bottled water if you ever stay in a Devil’s Fork State Park villa again, because the tap water here is wretched.

Day 3 of the trip is covered in my third and final entry.

For the fifth and final day of this year’s California swimming hole marathon, Cade and I returned to Royal Gorge for the first time in four years. The gorge has five major waterfalls and many swimming holes, most with a variety of jumping opportunities, but the miles of sketchy dirt road driving to get there and the long hike down into the gorge make it impossible to see much of it in a day trip. On our previous visit in 2017, we had only been able to see waterfall #2, which is located about where the trail crosses the river. Waterfall #1 is upstream of the trail, and 3-5 are downstream. The third one appears to have the best swimming hole, from what I’ve seen on social media. The second waterfall is a spectacular spot in its own right, but I wanted the full gorge experience. My original plan for this summer was to learn backpacking back home in North Carolina during June and July and then apply my knowledge to Royal Gorge at the end of the summer. However, since we had to do our trip way earlier this year to stay ahead of the drought and inevitable wildfire season, I came in unprepared to camp. I hadn’t planned on returning to the gorge if we weren’t going to overnight it, but Cade wanted to go again regardless, so I put it on the itinerary. However, after the brutal hike to and from "The Green Bridge" two days ago, Cade wasn’t sure he was up for the gorge anymore. We had originally planned the gorge for yesterday and Emerald Pools for today, but Cade’s legs were too destroyed for a long hike, so we swapped days and did Emerald Pools yesterday. Cade still wasn’t sure about the gorge since he was still hurting and wasn’t sure the water would be warm enough to be enjoyable. Last time, the water temperature had ranged from 56-60 °F in different pools, which was too cold for a swim to be pleasant. I insisted we do it though, because we had kind of already committed to it schedule-wise, so blowing it off would mean resorting to lame backup plans for the final day of our trip. Plus, since the water was so warm downstream at “Green Bridge” and Yankee Jim’s, I was curious to see if it would be warmer this year in the gorge as well, because Royal Gorge with comfortable water temperatures would be pretty much the best thing ever.

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

In summary, it was nice to revisit one of our all-time favorite California swimming holes. Last time, I had said that it would be the perfect swimming hole destination if only the water temperature were more comfortable, and today it was. Unfortunately, today’s visit was pretty brief. I would almost say the amount of time we spent at the actual swimming holes wasn’t worth the time and effort spent getting there and back, but it was good to see that the river has the potential to be warmer in this location than what we experienced in 2017. Since we visited three places on the North Fork American River this year, we also have a basis for comparison to predict the water temperature in Royal Gorge based on other, more easily accessible locations along the river. Although our favorite California river has been the South Yuba up to this point, the North Fork American has proven to be the nicer of the two rivers during extreme drought conditions. It stayed clean and clear this year while the places we went to on the South Yuba were brown and dirty. One decision we’ve made from today’s trip is no more doing Royal Gorge as a day trip, unless we get started super early and have a Jeep or some other robust off-road vehicle. The amount of rough dirt road driving and subsequent hiking is just too much for the amount of time we actually get to spend enjoying the swimming holes. I’ve never had any desire to backpack or primitive camp before I found this place, but now I feel like I really need to learn to backpack so I can see the other four major waterfalls (and numerous other swimming holes) the gorge has to offer. We might need to network with some people who have suitable vehicles for these roads, though. Anyone with a jeep want to be our friend?
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( Click here to see my ranking for the swimming holes we visited on this trip )

This year’s trip was a little stressful since we had to work around a number of last-minute obstacles to make it happen, and the conditions were pretty extreme this year. We were dealing with 100-degree heat on some days, which is hot even for northern California. It didn’t help that we got sunburned on day one, either. The drought narrowed down our options for this year and made the South Yuba River dirty and less appealing, but it did have the silver lining of warming the waters to bearable temperatures in some of the places that are normally too cold to be enjoyable. It was also a little disappointing that we didn’t go anywhere grandiose this year (that we hadn’t been to already), so I’m hoping we’ll finally get to explore more of the Yosemite area next time. It feels kind of weird to have a California trip in the rearview mirror and be less than halfway through July, so I’ll have to see if I can make do with North Carolina for the rest of the summer.

Today, my friend Cade and I kicked off our fourth annual California swimming hole marathon with an excursion to Yankee Jim’s Bridge on the North Fork American River, and we also checked out Shirttail Creek Falls on a side stream about a mile upstream from the bridge.

Lining up this year’s trip proved to be challenging because Murphy’s Law was attacking from all angles. We normally hit up California swimming holes in late July or August because many of the rivers are fed by snowmelt, and they don’t become (relatively) warm and hospitable until later in the summer. However, California had record low snowfall this past winter, and everything is drying up at a greatly accelerated rate due to the drought. I checked the water levels for the rivers we had visited in the past, and the levels this June were already below where they usually are in late summer. I kept seeing on the national news that lakes were so low that the water levels had dropped below the ends of the boat ramps. I knew we needed to get a move-on if we wanted to stay ahead of the drought (and the inevitable accompanying wildfires), so we scheduled a seven-day trip from July 5-11. However, I got hit with a job interview request for that week, and they were unable to be flexible with the dates. Cade already had some work projects on the back end of those dates and was only able to push the dates back by a day, so we ended up having to shave two days off the trip. I had originally planned to take us to Yosemite for the first couple of days, and then move up to gold country (i.e., the area of the Sierras just north and east of Sacramento) to spend more time exploring the South Yuba and North Fork American Rivers. However, after cutting the trip down to five days, we decided to blow off Yosemite yet again and spend the entire time in gold country. If these setbacks weren’t enough, we then found out that the area would be under an excessive heat warning with temperatures in the 100’s (not including the heat index) for pretty much the entire duration of our trip. That was going to make the excursions with long hikes potentially dangerous, but we thought that this in conjunction with the drought might have the silver lining of making some of the colder swimming holes (e.g., Emerald Pools, Royal Gorge) a little warmer this time.

Yankee Jim’s didn’t strike me as a standout swimming hole, but I wanted to go there for two reasons. First and foremost, it was featured on a Rescue 911 episode (aptly titled “American River”, which you can watch here), and I heard they were possibly going to tear down the bridge soon to put in a new one, so I wanted to see it while it was still there. Second, we hadn’t checked out any spots on the North Fork American River other than Royal Gorge (which was awesome, but the water was way too cold), so checking out more swimming holes on the North Fork American was my main objective for this trip. I had come up with a few potential spots to check out, but most of them require a fair amount of effort to get to, so I figured Yankee Jim’s might be a good starting point since it’s right off the road. It would also give us a chance to test the water temperature to see if arduous hikes to more remote spots further upstream would be worth it in the coming days. Yankee Jim’s had apparently become Instagram-famous and blown up with tourists last year during covid, causing a 300-car traffic jam on the small one-lane dirt road that leads to it, so I made it a point to schedule this excursion for a weekday.

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

In summary, Yankee Jim’s was nothing spectacular (for California), but it was a decent swimming hole with some jumps and a comfortable water temperature (with the caveat that this is an unusually low flow year). I can now say I’ve crossed it off my Rescue 911 bucket list. I’m not sure why it has gotten so blown up with tourists, though. I doubt many of them are viewers of Rescue 911. Probably from influencers on Instagram going down there and taking selfies, but it seems like a pretty ordinary California swimming hole, so I’m not sure why this particular spot is Instagram famous. Maybe just because it’s so close to the road? Shirttail Creek Falls was okay. It's not something I would make a special trip for on its own merit, but it makes a nice bonus if you’re already doing an excursion in the area.

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.

Today, I went to Middle Creek near Mount Mitchell. I was hoping to do something bigger and bolder, like one of the four major rivers (i.e., the Whitewater, Thompson, Horsepasture, and Toxaway Rivers) that drain into Lake Jocassee, which all have lots of waterfalls and swimming holes. I don’t think any of those have their own gages, but I looked at the state map to get a general idea of how high the rivers were in the southwestern part of the state. Green and especially orange dots (normal and low flow, respectively) are good, but light and dark blue dots mean the rivers are high, and southwest NC was a swath of blue, which meant I would need a smaller waterway for safe swimming today.

I admittedly hadn’t done my homework on the area of the state west of Boone, as I hadn’t expected to have to make do with North Carolina this year, so I didn’t know of many swimming holes on smaller streams that I hadn’t already been to. Earlier this week, I noticed that Kevin Adams had posted some waterfalls on his website that hadn’t made the third edition of his North Carolina Waterfalls book, and Middle Creek caught my attention. It had a number of waterfalls, a couple of which looked like they had deep pools at the bottom. The waterfalls of interest (in order from downstream to upstream) were Lower Middle Creek Falls, Squawroot Falls, and Middle Creek Falls. The latter didn’t appear to have a very big plunge pool, but it was so close to the other two that it looked worth checking out. There are several more waterfalls beyond Middle Creek Falls, but there is no trail to them, and they didn’t appear to have swimming holes, so I figured they probably wouldn’t be worth the effort. I had also scanned Google Earth and marked five points of interest (POIs) downstream of the main waterfalls. Well, I had actually marked six, but the sixth one ended up just being part of Lower Middle Creek Falls.

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

In summary, I didn’t see anything remarkable on Middle Creek, but Lower Middle Creek Falls had a legit swimming hole that, while unremarkable, definitely had secret spot appeal. I doubt many people are going to make the effort to bushwhack to it, let alone hike that far on the narrow path. Squawroot Falls also had a swimming hole, but the pool wasn’t very big. Middle Creek Falls was probably the most impressive waterfall of the day; it looked kind of like Upper Catawba Falls, but with less water going over it. POIs 1-4 weren’t terribly interesting, but at least my curiosity is satisfied. The rocks at Middle Creek were pretty slippery today, making this a somewhat treacherous outing, especially alone (I didn’t see anyone all day). I was kind of over the bushwhacking and ‘paths of least resistance’ by the end of the day, although I think if I had blown off the POIs and just went to the three named waterfalls, I might not have gotten quite as fed up with it.

Today, I went to DuPont State Recreational Forest. My original plan had been to check out the waterfalls and swimming holes of Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the forecast had changed to a 60% chance of rain today (which in the mountains is usually a 100% chance). I decided DuPont would be a more rain-friendly excursion, since most of the “trails” there are gravel roads, and DuPont’s main allure is waterfall viewing rather than swimming. DuPont is immensely popular, which is why I saved it for a weekday. It features three popular waterfalls (Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and High Falls) over about a mile stretch of the Little River, with Hooker Falls featuring a swimming hole. A fourth waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls, is about 1.5 miles upstream from High Falls. Two additional waterfalls, Grassy Creek Falls and Wintergreen Falls, are located on Grassy Creek, a tributary to the Little River. My main objective for the day was to see the four Little River waterfalls and Grassy Creek Falls. Wintergreen Falls didn’t look especially enticing, since it is small and doesn’t appear to have a swimming hole, but I figured I might check it out if I needed to kill time after seeing the others (spoiler alert: I didn't).

I headed out a little after 10 AM, and it took me about an hour to get there from Asheville. The weather in Asheville had been partly cloudy, but it was gray and overcast when I arrived at DuPont. I was hoping the fact that it was a gray weekday morning with rain in the forecast would deter the crowds, but no such luck. There was a parade of cars circling the Hooker Falls parking lot waiting for a space to clear up. After circling once, I thought I would try what appeared to be an overflow lot that I had passed coming in about a quarter mile up the road, but I decided to circle one more time and managed to nab a spot as someone was leaving. My plan had been to hike to Hooker and Triple Falls from here, and then go to the High Falls parking lot for the rest of the hikes. However, I was now afraid to relinquish my parking spot for fear that I would have to waste more time trolling the High Falls lot for a space, so I decided I would just hike to the other falls from here. Overall the distance would be about the same; I just wouldn’t be able to return to my car to pick stuff up and drop stuff off as needed between waterfalls.

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

In summary, DuPont State Forest doesn’t have it going on from a swimming hole standpoint, but it does have some impressive waterfalls and nice trails for mountain biking and horseback riding. So yeah, it’s mostly a waterfall viewing destination with a couple of opportunities for swimming. Hooker Falls is not what I would call a primo swimming hole, since it doesn’t have any extras (e.g., jumps, rope swing), and the current is somewhat concerning, but it will do for simply taking a dip. I also took a refreshing dip in Lake Julia, but I don't really consider lakes to be swimming holes. The crowds around the three main waterfalls were annoying, but the crowds thinned out once I got to the trails upstream of High Falls. From a waterfall viewing perspective, I would say the highlights were High Falls and Triple Falls. Bridal Veil was the one I was most looking forward to seeing, but I would rank it #3 of the ones I saw today. Grassy Creek had clean, clear water and looked like it had potential for a nice swimming hole, but I didn’t devote much time to exploring it since I mainly focused on the Little River waterfalls. Grassy Creek also features Wintergreen Falls, which I didn’t get to today, and one or two more cascades that the park doesn’t advertise (judging by Google Earth). I doubt I would return to DuPont unless I were vacationing with friends or family who wanted to go there, but if I did go back, I would probably make it a point to check out Wintergreen Falls and the other Grassy Creek cascades.