After a short climb up the canyon, a trail descends to the creek where there are a variety of approach options. Climbers can traverse right around a wall. Scramblers can go left across a slab, and smart people just walk straight up the creek. It’s a swimming hole; you might as well get wet.
The main feature is a 20-foot falls pouring over a slab facing directly south. Lots of boulders in the pool, but good and deep in the middle, as much as 20 feet. Good walls on both sides make the hole feel nice and cozy. The right wall is about 80 feet, the left wall is around 60 feet. Lounging is on a boulder jumble, the best of which is a fifty-square-foot monster directly downstream from the foot of the fall. Slabs to the left offer more space, but they are tilted at a steepish angle.
Lots of granite domes around the Feather River. Cycles of heating and cooling combined with rain are at least in part responsible for the exfoliation that produces the domes. When water is added to feldspar it forms clay which swells when wet then crumbles when dry. And since feldspar crystals are longer in one direction, that helps orient the cracks.Bonus feature: The wall on the right side below the hole has rappel slings at the top and it’s bolted with some very old hangars. Kinda sketchy since the hangars appear to be homemade.
Copyright Running Water Publications 1997