I hit DCHS this last Sunday ( 7-10 ) with an old college friend ( Tom ) that I ran into recently. We started hiking down into the Deep Creek canyon around 11 am in temps that were hot, but not intense like they have been the last couple of days. It was Tom's first visit to DCHS, and he kept saying what a great day it was, and how bueatiful the views, hills, and creek were. When we got to the beach across from the Crab Cooker, we took our packs off and hit the Lagoon for a refreshing cool down. We then went across and made our way to a shady spot under a Sycamore, with the Beach Sand underneath it. It was a real nice mellow day with maybe around 25 people throughout the day. The stream temps are great now and Tom just had nothing but good things to say about the springs. We did get in the Womb briefly but couldn't stay too long since its running pretty hot in this summer heat. The creek waters are real clear and we did not see any chubs or catfish yet. The floods probably killed many, and sent most of the rest down the creek. There was some trash in the usual, out of the way place and we took some out. The shower pipe is clogged again. Someone has put a flexible hose into the Aniversary pool, and it goes down all the way into the Lagoon by where the shower pipe dumps. Its suction is shooting out water at the bottom end and people where using it for a shower, and to spray water up in the air :-) The cement fixes on the Aniversary Pool, and the Womb look great! There were a couple of big " Rock Stacks " up stream from the Lagoon. The Arizona Pool is down about 10 inches below its top, having leaks in the bottom. There are some nice sitting sand bars just under water, out in front of the Womb, and below the cliff just south of the Arizona pool. The recent hot and dry weather will be lowering the creek level which will be bringing these underwater sand bars closer to the surface, that will be interesting to see in the months to come. The big winter floods have made the middle parts of the stream channel in the Lagoon deeper than I have seen it before. I'll have to bring my mask next time and see if any trout got washed down with the high water. My friend Tom and I had a great time, swimming, chatting while sitting in the sand, and checking out the wonderful DCHS scenery! We had a peaceful hike out in the cooler temps, just before sunset :-) PS, Didnt' get out my camera this time around but what the heck, we all know how great DCHS looks :-)
