There’s something about a swimming hole that feels like summer: no sunscreen shimmering on top of the resort pool surface, no cars around, and definitely no concrete. Just cold water, granite, trees, and often that feeling* that you’ve discovered somewhere you’re not quite sure you should know about (*or sometimes too many people know about).
I’m doing this month’s guide a little differently. Instead of simply giving you five swim holes, I wanted to curate a list that I could rank from one star to five stars and give you my visitor perspective of why (and if you’re paying attention, there are some bonus ones sprinkled throughout this page with details in the caption of the photos).
Some of them are famous, while others very few people know anything about. Some are worth driving across California to visit, while others are still fun, but come with enough tradeoffs that I’d suggest you probably only visit once, and only if you were in the area.
Before we jump in, let’s talk about something far more important than the destinations themselves. And help me reach my goal of 20,000 email subscribers by the end of this year simply by subscribing for free:
Every summer we hear tragic stories about people drowning in places that looked calm from the shore or edge. Most of the time, the danger wasn’t obvious. The quick lesson is this: clear water doesn’t equal safe water.
Whenever I’m considering getting into a river or swimming hole, I work through a few things first.
Spend a couple of minutes just observing. Look for:
Fast current moving around bends
Foam or bubbles racing downstream
Recirculation below waterfalls
Sudden changes in water color that often indicate depth
If leaves or sticks are moving faster than you can swim, that’s usually enough to say those five famous Shark Tank words: ‘for those reasons, I’m out’.
If you accidentally fell into the current, would you drift into calm water...or into rocks, a log jam, or something more dangerous?
Always think about what comes after the spot you’re swimming in.
California rivers often stay surprisingly cold even during triple digit heat. Cold water can cause an involuntary gasp reflex and make it much harder to swim than people expect. See Lake Tahoe as an unfortunate example: On average, multiple drownings tragedies occur there every year.
So what should you do to lower risk but still get wet? Avoid the cliff jumps; ease in slowly, and know how your body responds to cold water.
Many of these locations are completely different depending on the season. A calm August swimming hole can become a dangerous torrent during spring snowmelt.
If you’re looking at photos online, make sure they were taken during a similar time of year. Often times there are water flow rates you can review online: safe recreational river swimming typically requires flows under 200 cfs (cubic feet per second). And I’m not even getting into bacteria levels.
I don’t think every beautiful place needs to become a proving ground. Every year I hike to places where people sadly never made it home.
You have to do you, but in my opinion, you don’t need to risk everything for one jump.
One brief update before we get into this month’s swim holes: after nearly two years of hiking, writing, photographing, researching, and far too many hours staring at maps, my very first book manuscript is officially finished.
It’s now in the final editing stage before publication next May. Pretty wild! What started as posting California trail videos online has turned into writing an entire hiking book filled with pictures of places most people have never seen and will excite any nature lover.
I’ll probably start a wait or interest list eventually - let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thank you for reading these newsletters every month, it’s the reason these keep coming.
Now...let’s go swimming.
Location: Angeles National Forest
Distance: ~1.25 miles round trip
Difficulty: Moderate
Trail: Not available on AllTrails; search “Barrett-Stoddard Canyon Falls” on Google Maps and follow well marked signs. Adventure Pass required for parking.
California Map: I didn’t have my phone on me (see why below), so I do not have GPS tracks for this hike. But it’s super easy to follow the well marked trail.
This waterfall is beautiful; the natural waterslide is definitely fun to watch.
But unfortunately, the experience around it wasn’t. This was one of the most overcrowded, littered waterfalls I’ve visited in California. It felt less like escaping into nature and more like attending a very crowded outdoor party. Compare the picture above to the one I took as the afternoon wore on:
Ironically, this hike wasn’t actually why I drove down to hike here. A week earlier, I’d lost my phone while filming a trail guide at a legendary but dangerous Northern California swimming hole (aka it dropped out of my pocked while scooting over a narrow ledge). My mom and wife still have nightmares about this one.
I figured it was gone forever. The ‘Find my iPhone’ showed it was in the middle of the river, beyond the depths I could swim. Distraught with years of lost photos and videos, I was introduced to Ben, via my friend Peter.
Ben is basically a real-life treasure hunter. He drove nearly eight hours with scuba gear, descended roughly 40 feet into the pool below the waterfall, somehow located my phone beneath the water, and recovered it after it had spent more than a week underwater.
Even crazier? When I drove down from the Bay Area to Long Beach to pick it up, the phone powered on. Since I was already in Southern California, Ben invited me to join him at Stoddard Canyon Falls so I could watch him in action and at the same time, I could finally see this famous natural waterslide.
Meeting Ben was easily the highlight of the trip. The trail itself? Not quite.
Location: Near Leggett, Northern California
Distance: 1/3 of a mile out and back
Difficulty: Easy
AllTrails: None
GPS Track: No AllTrails; can also be found by searching on google maps, but the pin location is slightly off. There are enough trail signs from the large parking area; head north once in the lot (the river will be on your right).
California Map: The pin is on my map, but for whatever reason the GPS tracks didn’t record. Next time I’m up this way, I’ll grab tracks and add it to my map.
This place is one of those spots you’re surprised isn’t famous: crystal clear water, beautiful rock formations, and hardly anyone around.
So why only two stars?
Because getting there means weaving through a lot of poison oak. The graffiti on the trail isn’t the prettiest to look at. And, the swimming area also isn’t especially deep compared to many of California’s best swim holes.
I’d absolutely stop again if I were passing through; but I probably wouldn’t plan an entire trip around it. Add it to your list if you’re headed up the 101 and towards the Avenue of Giants.
Location: Palisades Falls Trail
Distance: ~15 miles round trip
Difficulty: Strenuous
Trail: AllTrails Link.
If I were rating only the waterfall, this would be six stars out of five.
The gorge, the emerald pools, the scenery…it’s one of the most spectacular river canyons I’ve explored anywhere in California. But there’s another reason I always think about this place.
This area was the site of multiple cliff jumping fatalities in recent years. That’s a reminder that conditions impact the analysis of what’s safe to swim in my safety section above. Late summer, when flows have dropped significantly, is completely different from spring runoff.
If you’re visiting, you absolutely need to respect the power of moving water. Personally, I skip the cliff jumping. The scenery is more than enough.
The only other thing holding this hike back? The return trip: nearly all of the climbing comes on the way out.
After a long day in the river, that uphill grind will test your limits along with the distance. It’s one I’d recommend a very early start at (or a backpacking overnight trip).
Location: Northern California, about an hour from Lake Tahoe.
GPS Track: update 8/4/2026: trail access to get here likely requires navigation through private property, which I don’t promote. Out of abundance of caution, I am removing this location but keeping the picture of this famous cliff jumping spot. Rivers and waterways are public; but given the legalities involved, I am no longer disclosing the location.
I know, using an entire national park is probably cheating. Actually it’s definitely cheating.
But I’ll take that criticism. Yosemite simply deserves all five stars: the Merced River is essentially an easy hike that stretches through the valley. You can spend an entire day moving from swimming hole to swimming hole without ever feeling like you’re repeating yourself.
If you’re looking for something a bit more adventurous, there are incredible swimming spots near Upper Yosemite Falls that combine unbelievable scenery with surprisingly peaceful pools.
If you’re planning your first Yosemite trip, I’ve linked two of my favorite free resources below:
My guide for getting the most out of Yosemite Valley.
My family guide featuring lesser-known, kid-friendly places throughout the park.
Hopefully they’ll help you spend less time figuring out where to go and more time actually enjoying it.
The best swimming holes usually aren’t the deepest, have the tallest waterfalls, or are the places where people do the biggest cliff jump. They’re the places where you can disconnect long enough to appreciate where you are.
If you end up visiting any of these this summer, I’d love to hear what you thought. And if you’ve found a California swim hole that belongs in next year’s rankings...
Hit reply and tell me about it. And as always, I hope to see you on the trails.
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