Clio's Bath

Cleo's Bath

Steep-sided pools cored into the granite. Fun, but not too user friendly. Vertical walls in the lower two pools complicate the exit once you’re in and the granite slabs are at a fairly high angle, making it uncomfortably steep and slippery for less sure-footed people. There’s very limited shade and often at least one other group of people. Better to try your luck upstream where a couple of good pools don’t receive as much traffic. One in particular has a fine, vertical rock impound which, as it rises out of the water to the right, creates a dandy privacy curtain where you duck to pull on your clothes if you hear people approaching upstream. Hikers coming downstream from the high country, however, will get the full show.
Several parts of this canyon were once submerged. Beginning in 1853 the forerunner of PG&E used log dams to flood three meadows as a source of water for hydraulic miners. Lake Eleanor was at 5,800 feet and Lake Gertrude was about three miles farther up the canyon. In 1916 PG&E dismantled the upper dams and replaced the lowest dam with a modern structure creating, Pinecrest Lake.
Water quality was dark and little sluggish toward the end of August. Visibility was three to four feet, which is to say, poor. It’s probably better earlier in the year before warmer temperatures allow the moss to take over.