Hamilton Pool

Located about 45 minutes outside Austin in Dripping Springs is Hamilton Pool, a natural swimming hole half encased by a cove-like rock overhang. I visited there with some friends this past Friday afternoon.

To prevent the fragile ecosystem from being overrun, the nature preserve only allows a certain number of people in at a time. They do this by enforcing a one-car-in-one-car-out policy when the pool is at capacity. We had to wait in line about twenty minutes but eventually made it inside the preserve.

The pool is a rocky half-mile hike from the parking lot but it is worth the wait and effort. After snaking through desert then forest foliage, the trail suddenly descends into rocky terrain with a high cliff on one side. Eventually you come to a clearing where the epic pool awaits.

Looking like some kind of lost oasis, we joked that Hamilton Pool would be the perfect place to hide during a zombie apocalypse. Thin waterfalls trickle from high above into the cool, refreshing water below. We swam for an hour, waited out a short thunderstorm beneath the overhang, then got back in the water and swam for another hour before heading back to Austin.