The Moon Pool

There is a secluded place on a popular hiking trail that I call the Moonpool. Warm rocks surround a pool that, depending on the time of year, is either pleasantly cool or frigidly freezing. Leading into the pool is a small waterfall, that you can get under if you want to get really wet. Don't go down the creek leading out of the pool, or you'll be inevitably pulled over a gigantic white waterfall, down to the jagged rocks below. Sometimes it is a perfect swimming hole, other times it is only safe to cling to the side of the pool as you wade in. I discovered it in high summer, when it was cool and still, unlike now, when it is cold and currents swirl through its dark blue waters. You can get to it by branching off the main trail in one of two ways: following a small trail, surrounded on all sides by manzanitas and overgrown bushes, or climbing the rocks next to the giant waterfall and follow the river for a while to reach it. I know that I am not the only one to know about it, as I have met others while swimming in it, but it feels like my place, like a place that no mere tourist knows about, and that only the very worthy should be filled in on its whereabouts. It is enchanted, the Moonpool. My legs cannot touch the bottom at the center of it. On one side there is a small cave made by an overhang in the rock, as deep as the center of the pool. On the other side, flowers like penstamen and small succulents grow in the cracks between rocks, and your first step into the water, even in high snowmelt season, is only ankle deep. Right now, if you throw a piece of pine bark into the turbulent waters near the small waterfall, it will be swept out of the Moonpool, into the white waters of the river, and the last glimpse you will see of it, ever, will be the bark taking a sharp turn down into the waterfall. Yesterday I visited the Moonpool. I felt like I had to at least try to describe its beauty. The water was freezing and restless, but I still waded in thigh-deep from the flower side, staying in for a few minutes at a time. I loved it.
P.S. Warriors Fans rejoice! The Moonpool has been found by Twolegs and named according to the Medicine Cat tradition.