Backpacker Magazine has found what it considers to be the best swimming hole in the United States. It is in crystalline Rock Creek in Pennsylvania's Loyalsock State Forest, north of Williamsport in the north-central part of the state. The anointed spot is along the Old Loggers Trail where Yellow Dog Run spills down a rockface into the impossibly clear waters of Rock Creek. The hole is 8-10 feet deep, shrouded in a canopy of hemlocks with flat shelves of rock that make entry easy for two- or four-legged swimmers.
Rock Creek has fine swimming holes aplenty and this one may not even be your favorite. The Old Loggers Trail is a 27-mile loop and the swimming hole at Yellow Dog Run is about a six-mile hike from the nearest trailhead to the east but you can get there by parking at the bridge across Rock Creek and following the water upstream with a little bushwhacking for about a mile. If you plan to join your dog in a swim, be ready for some c-o-l-d water.
On a hot summer hike there is no better find for your dog than a swimming hole. I have posted some of our favorites: Best Swimming Holes. If you want to share your dog's best dog paddling spot, send it along and we'll post that as well.
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