Little River Canyon & Hippie Hole

Little River Canyon was selected by the Travel and Leisure magazine as one of the best swimming holes in the United States:

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-best-swimming-holes/2

In northeastern Alabama, the Little River snakes across the top of Lookout Mountain before plummeting into the 12-mile-long Little River Canyon. Bordered by broad-faced cliffs, with large blocks of sandstone jutting from the water, this canyon-at 600 feet, the deepest this side of the Mississippi-is home to a handful of perfect swimming holes. Just downstream from the Alabama Highway 35 bridge, follow the short paved path to the bottom of Little River Falls for an easy-access dunk when water levels are low. (...)

The plan is to visit two of those swimming holes. You need to know how to swim to best enjoy this trip. I will not keep you from signing up if you don't. It is still a nice place to take pictures, but you may get bored waiting for the group. Here is a warning: the depth changes abruptly from a few inches to several feet in some places and the submerged rocks are very slippery.

We'll start at Little River Canyon. The hike to the falls is short, but you will have to scramble a little bit and the terrain is very uneven in some places, with lots of loose rocks. Wearing shoes or sandals that protect your toes is recommended. After getting there, you can swim about 50 yards to get to the waterfalls; or just stay around, sunbathe and take pictures.

After spending a couple of hours at the falls, we'll walk to Hippie Hole. The hike is less than one mile and it should be easy. There are steep parts on the trail, but they are short, some rock scrambling is again necessary. At Hippie Hole, there are some cliffs and rocks from where you can jump in the water. The jumps are from 7ft to 25ft (!!). You don't have to do it if you don't want to. You can walk downstream and there are some easy places of access.

Here are some pictures of Hippie Hole from my last trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9614880@N07/sets/72157626317892679/

I'm rating this trip a D3 mostly because of one scramble to get down to the river gorge. Here is a picture of the place we need to climb down. There are also two very steep but short sections on the trail.

Important: If it rains a couple of days before or if rain is forecast, the trip may be cancelled or postponed. The water quality in rivers drops after rainstorms and we can only swim there if the water level is low.