Swimming Holes

Over the Labor Day weekend my wife and I and some friends met up at a campground for a bluegrass festival. I'd been checking out the Ozark Trail for spots where it runs along rivers and creeks and found an interesting spot that a spur of the trail ended at near the campground we were staying at so we drove over there and explored a bit and found this spectacular swimming hole:

That one does look remarkable, Bill. In my neck of the woods the premier place for swimming holes is the Little North Fork of the Santiam River, near the Opal Creek wilderness.

What a coincidence, I was just there Monday. It was much busier than your picture, but most of the people were up on the rocks so it wasn't crowded for actual swimming. I swam at Blue Spring on the Jacks Fork earlier that day, which is another good Ozarks swimming hole. We had it to ourselves at 10 AM, but I'm sure it was busy later.

This one is near Eminence, MO, in the Ozarks Scenic Riverways NP. I haven't gotten over that way much but that area is incredibly scenic. I think this is more Slowfoot's stomping grounds and I can see why she chose it.

We were car camping just a few miles west of Eminence and using a big K-Mart tent my wife bought years ago. Just about sun up we got smacked with a vicious nasty T-Storm that had that tent laying almost flat on top of us.

As the day wore on it got nicer and we got to make the drive to that spot and go swimming there. Of course, my neighbor Randy and I had to climb those Falls and bushwhack up the creek a bit.

There is a sweet wet meadow up there with an amazing array of herbs. I saw chives, mint, purple coneflower, goldenrod and more. I should take the time to drive over there again this Autumn and do so exploring around. There are a lot of trails there and a zillion little nooks and crannies to bushwhack along the Current and Jack's Fork rivers.

Here's a map of the area.

Slowfoot I was hoping you'd chime in!

I was there Sunday afternoon. Considering it was a holiday I thought it was pretty slow there. I was impressed with how clean the area was too.

My gosh it is a pretty area! We wanted to canoe Jack's Fork below Alley Spring on Monday but I was pretty warn out after the storm and another cold night's sleep. That swimming hole made it all worth it though, and we spent Monday cruising around a bit.

We went to Alley Spring and walked around and checked out the Mill and a few other parks and campgrounds. There are some wonderful parks around there. I think my wife and I will probably go back and spend a few nights there soon and just stroll around the area, but I will get some backpacking in there too.

Ah, nice! I'm a sucker for a swim.
Guadalupe State Park, Colorado Bend SP, and Dinosaur Valley SP all have some excellent, crystal clear swimming holes.
Some are spring fed and on a 100 deg day are quiet a shock to enter.