Balmorhea: The Coolest Swimming Pool in The Universe (or Texas, anyway!)
Written: Jan 09 '01 (Updated Jan 19 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wonderfully Relaxing.
Cons: You have to drive a ways to get there.
The Bottom Line: FUN!!!
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| Ed.Williamson's Full Review: Balmorhea State Park |
Balmorhea State Park sits at the edge of the fabled, blue-hazed Davis Mountains in far West Texas. It has always been a magical place to me, a place where I could relax and let my soul feel free.
It is billed as "The World's Largest Outdoor Spring-Fed Swimming Pool", and I don't know if that's true or not, but if it's not that's okay too. It is a natural, clear pool, and at places it's 30-40 feet deep. There are rocks down there. And fish. And underwater plants. A pool of dreams.
Scuba divers come here and swim for hours in the depths of this pool. But you don't have to have air tanks and a wet suit to enjoy the underwater world. Just bring or rent a decent diving mask and snorkel and you're ready to visit a place where you imagine you're Jacques Cousteau slipping down into the silent world of the denizens of the deep.
Snorkeling's not your game? well, you can do all the normal swimming pool stuff like swimming, diving, and splashing your parents or your kids as you laugh and have some family fun. And you can rent a big truck-sized inner tube and 4 or 5 people can float around the pool together on it. All in all the pool is great for fun for a lot of people, and folks drive hundreds of miles to enjoy the pool. There is a marvelous grassy picnic area inside the enclosed fence beside the pool where you can eat and enjoy yourself with your friends or family. Everyone is always relaxed and has a good time.
One of the nice things I like about the park is the motel accommodations. You can rent them through the Texas State Park reservation system, and the rooms are not too fancy but not too bad either. They are just homey and relaxing. I always sleep peacefully there. And in the morning you can go out your back door into the quiet air of the Chihuauan Desert morning and smell the fresh sweet air and see the hummingbirds buzzing and watch the quiet springs running by, and you'd swear you were in a villa somewhere in Northern Mexico, getting ready to eat a plate of Heuvos Rancheros for breakfast. It's a beautiful and peaceful place.
The people here are nice, too, in the Balmorhea area. Many of them came north from Mexico many years ago and settled here and they are happy to feed you and to help you enjoy the land and the area around it. And if you are ready for more beauty, they will point your way down the highway to the south through the Davis Mountains, to another wonderful place, old Fort Davis.
Balmorhea State Park so far is very unspoiled and uncrowded. I give it an A+ as a place to relax and enjoy a cool dip in the coolest outdoor pool I know.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Ed.Williamson
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Member: Ed Williamson
Location: Way Out West, USA
Reviews written: 594
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"Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle." - Chinese proverb
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