Having strayed from our planned route while tilting at windmills, we opened a map of Texas to find somewhere to sleep. What we discovered was a little place called Balmorhea State Park, which is just outside a sleepy town of the same name. As a camping site the park is lacking. We arrived to a vicious wind and a full on desert campground without trees. But the view was nice, and by the following morning the wind had let up enough for us to enjoy the main attraction: a spring-fed swimming pool covering nearly two full acres of desert – the picture doesn’t show half of it.
This thing is amazing. Commissioned in the 30’s as part of the New Deal, it’s got countless diving boards, a natural rock floor, and a year-round constant temperature of 74 degrees. And here’s the kicker, around 25 million (!!!) gallons of water flow in and then out of the pool every day. So even if you did manage to fill it up with peeing kiddies the water would stay pretty clean. We had the place to ourselves… except for the wide variety of fish who live in it. The outflow then goes on to feed a desert wetland (something I didn’t know existed – it’s called a “cienega”).
Now all that was exciting, but more interesting was Gwen’s reaction. She was really into the pool but for some reason wouldn’t go swimming. Turns out she’s always been terrified of “creatures from the deep” and the fish and rocky floor got her imagination going. It took nearly an hour of heckling before she jumped in and just as quickly jumped out. I’m proud of her, but I definitely plan to use this new nugget of information to my advantage. Somehow.
Filed under: Texas | Tagged: Balmorhea, camping, cienega, creatures, new deal, spring fed pool, Texas
I’m not scared. He’s lying.
Ok, there was this big turtle that kind of freaked me out. And lots of pitch black catfish swimming around. And the uneven rocky floor was all shadowy – how was I to know that there wasn’t one of those fabled Texan desert sharks lurking in the depths below?