Stunning Swimming Hole Near Tahoe – Emerald Pools
After many months holed up inside the house, I was craving nature, but I was still a bit cautious about going out due to the pandemic. So I decided to visit less mainstream nature spots in hopes that there would be less people, and that is how I ended up at the gem that is Emerald Pools.
A gem it was, but empty it wasn’t. When we arrived the parking lot was full and there were tons of cars parked on the side of the road. It’s a very short walk to the pools, like maybe 5 minutes or less, through tall trees and spacious grounds for picnics and campsites. The first pool you see is the main pool and is perfect for swimming and cliff jumping. It was crowded so we skipped it and instead hiked up on the rocks to see where that would take us.
After a few minutes, we escaped the people and found this tiny gorge with the most crystal clear water. The water was cold when we first got in, but felt soo nice once we were in, especially since the day was hot. The water wasn’t too deep, probably 3-4 ft at the deepest point, so you can walk through it. The rocks on the side jut out here and there and make for solid chairs. We could have hung out here all day.
We decided to continue walking to see what else was here. We found another pool area, this time it was smaller and way more shallow, probably 1 ft at most.
We found lots of pretty rocks everywhere. I recommend wearing water shoes when visiting Emerald Pools.
Emerald Pools leads to the South Yuba River, so if we kept walking that’s where we would have ended up. We had walked quite a bit at this point and wanted to just hang out in the water, so we didn’t explore further.
Location
Emerald Pools is located in Tahoe National Forest and is around 45 minutes from North Lake Tahoe.
