National park
Hamilton Pool Preserve
Collapsed limestone grotto with a jade pool and fifty-foot waterfall, swim access by daily permit.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Hamilton Pool Preserve outside Austin turns on a rule the park supervisor stated flatly in twenty twenty-three: swimming here is allowed only when the water and the weather say so. You'll hear how the pool itself formed as a collapsed limestone grotto, how a rancher's young son is said to have discovered it in the eighteen eighties, and how a run of winter storms turned an overhanging cliff into a hazard the county still can't fully control. Best listened to at the rail above the water, before you check whether today is a swimming day.
This audio guide was created using AI.