Re: 6/17 Trip Report

That was exactly what was happening, definitely. People were showing up on the beach across from the pools and seeing 20 nude or topless people swimming or standing about seemed to convince them to join in, throw down their packs, and leave the suits they might have brought with them behind. It really reminded me of my very first visit to the springs.

It was sometime back in the spring of 2005. There is a picture posted by celtfire on the Facebook group for DCHS of five young people running nude with total exuberance into the creek from the beach toward the pool side - that is a picture by the photographer Ryan McGinley who was at the springs that day of my first visit, and was photographing this group of young people (he is known for taking road trips with groups of youths, he is (or was) pretty young too, and photographing the group skinny dipping or running around in the nude all over the place, usually out here in the West). Anyway it was my first time there, and pretty much everyone was nude (and it was a Saturday). I had hiked down and run into a couple about my age on the way, the young woman was hiking in her underwear and was taking photographs of flowers and rock formations that caught her eye along the way. Basically, a hippie chick (I mean no disrespect by the term!). We hiked down the last bit together. I remember not knowing the etiquette or how to cross the creek or what to expect. I'm a total naturist since my teenage years, but remember feeling a bit unsure, standing around in my clothes with my pack, contemplating. Some other guys arrived creekside just after us, and seemed pretty "textile." I turned to the young woman and her guy friend and asked them if they knew of a way to cross the river, maybe a log to cross downstream or something. She laughed at me, and just said in a really playful way: "No way, just take off all your clothes, get naked, and get in that water! Don't be a wimp!" Her guy friend had taken off his clothes when we first arrived creekside, then strangely, put them back on. She started laughing at him for being a bit shy, and encouraged both of us: At that point she took off the underwear she had been hiking in. "Come on you guys," she said, and her friend took off his clothes. I said, OK, you've convinced me, stripped, put my clothes in my pack, and never looked back.

That was happening for a lot of folks who were first timers this past Friday, I think. Wish it were still like this at DCHS on the weekends, but I'll take the Fridays I can grab down there at any rate.