Welcome to My Favorite Swimming Hole

Welcome to my private lake! Or at least you'd think so if you saw us there. My husband and I arrived early at the lake on this morning because we love to take a morning swim. And it turns out that at this very moment, at least for a little while, we were the first and ONLY ones there!

Many of the state parks that have swimming areas begin to close them down this time of year. They used to all close after the Labor Day weekend, which is generally the first Monday in September. However, one year a bunch of them stayed open through mid-October, and what fun we had then!

This past week or two, I emailed a few of our favorite parks with swimming areas to find out when they would be closing their beaches. The answer from Whipple Dam was that they will be open through this coming weekend and the following weekend, but that's it. So on this morning, we were making what just might be our last swimming trip of the season to my favorite swimming hole of all, Whipple Dam.

Early in the summer, we had constant rain, every day or two. And there was that one morning that the yard flooded after we got three inches of rain in a very short period of time, and a neighbor's house caught fire after being struck by lightning. Those were exciting times indeed.

But since then, it has stopped raining. It's been weeks since we've had a decent rain, in fact. So the water levels are a bit lower than usual. The lake wasn't up to its usual places on the shore line.

One of the things I cherish most is clean and chilly water for my swim. The colder the better, in fact! And the water on this day was not quite as cold as usual, but still refreshing and cool. This is a picture of the swimming area, taken from the beach area. The water is still as glass and awfully fine for reflections. When I am swimming, all I see on the surface is a shimmer of green. (See one additional photo in the extra photos area.)

The song to accompany this image of my favorite swimming hole is Emmylou Harris with a favorite song, Beneath Still Waters. Oh, and if you want to swim, DO IT SOON! For the swimming areas will be closing as summer draws down to its end. Seize the day! Enjoy one last summer swim!