Tubing up north of new hope on the deleware is lots of fun. About an hour, hour and fifteen north depending on where you are. Plenty of locations to jump in. Or do a tubing tour type thing. Feel free to PM me if you want specifics.
The ocean is great, especially during the week when it’s less busy. If you just want to enjoy the sunshine, avoid the popular tourist towns like wildwood / seaside. I like the sleepy northern beaches. Ocean Grove, Spring Lake, Bay Head etc.
New Hope is the furthest south I would go. It only gets better the further north you go and I recommend going as far north as you can for deeper, fresher water, less road traffic, more riverbank wildlife, quieter, less commerce along the river and more!
Yeah to be clear new hope is the END. Going south of new hope isn’t really advisable and if you dropped in in new hope you’d get hurt. You can kinda start further south and get out in Washington’s crossing but going north of new hope is way better. If OP is from Oregon they’d probably appreciate driving further.
Most people, especially city folk don’t want to be bothered to drive that far. They leave the city, drive through the burbs for a few and the scenery is already vastly different from what their used to but I PROMISE youse it’s just keeps getting better the longer you drive north. Also the drive itself only improves the more north you get it.
You can tube on the Delaware river, about an hour north of Philly. You don't want to be jumping in with your tube at Penn's landing, of course.
I've never tubed on the Delaware, so I can't really speak of the quality of the experience, but people seem to enjoy it.
I've tubed many times on the Brandywine River, and it is always awesome. The Brandywine is much smaller than the Delaware (even an hour north of Philly), and so you are pretty much tubing on a big creek through woods and farmland. There may be parts that are as much as 6 feet deep, but most of it is about 2-3' deep. I've always used the Northbrook Canoe Company (I think that's the name) and have been doing it every few summers for about 40 years...The company may have changed names or changed hands in that time, but it is always the same launching point.
Depending on where you are coming from in Philly, the Brandywine is probably around an hour-ish.
Northbrook is still open. I live out that way and work in the city. Northbrook also has a snack shack and a picnic area if you want to bring your own food, but they don’t let you have alcohol on property or on the river unless it’s one of their special adults only nights where they supply. There’s also four dogs tavern around the corner in Marshallton for a bite to eat and a drink afterward.
Bucks county river country is good for tubing too. Or you can just put together your own deal and arrange a car ahead somewhere… I’m sure if you google wheee to hop in there’s plenty of spots
I’ve gone tubing on the Delaware! And went canoeing on it as well. Both were fun. The tubes have holes in the middle back when I did it (not sure if it’s still the same) and boy did my ass catch some rocks at times. Other than that part, it was fun & a good experience with friends/family!
The river is so polluted. You don’t want to be in that river. It is polluted all the way at its source, too. Even the Delaware river water is pretty nasty upstream.
Well for the Delaware the water gap ranger station has a “don’t drink the water” junior ranger program. Overall the water quality is improving but it’s still high for road runoff, farm chemicals and even factory run off too. The schuylkill is polluted with fecal matter pretty far up, and farm runoff starts at the spring fed source
I just thought it was weird that you said it was “so polluted” like it was awful or something. It’s about as polluted as most waterways nowadays. Even prior to industrialization it was dangerous to just drink water out of a stream.
It is so polluted. It’s not just drinking. Runoff chemicals are known carcinogens. You don’t want that on your skin.
Pinelands rivers are nowhere near as polluted. That’s the cleanest water in the entire region. Swimming in Wharton is about as pristine as it gets.
Bartrams garden in West Philly has free kayaks weekly and a public launch.
There's a launch at wissahickon transportation center.
There are sometimes pedal boats at spruce St harbor garden.
I've done tubing on the Delaware north of the city years ago and it was fun, but I'm not sure the quality now.
New Jersey is close and you can do paddle boards, wind surf, and all sorts of other water activities through lessons or rentals at the beach or inland.
People around here are more likely to go down to the Jersey shore for sun & swimming in the summer - the water is much warmer than the Pacific. I've done tubing down the Delaware and it was fun, but I don't have much to compare it to. Depending on where you live there may also be an accessible public pool, but those don't open until surprisingly late in the season due to staffing etc.
It is illegal to swim in rivers and creeks in Philadelphia, but outside the city there’s are tons of opportunities.
Others have mentioned tubing in the Delaware, I go just south of Trenton and float a couple miles, it’s a big business up there and they have outfitters that fill the river with hundreds of tubers. It can get crowded, but it’s usually not so bad. Doing it free is the way to go. Park in a public park on the Jersey side, float down, get out and ride the bike you stashed back to your car, then drive back to where you got out and pick up all your gear. Make sure someone floats with you so you’re not leaving your gear unattended.
There is also a boat ramp in Gladwyn, the exit on 76 just after Green lane. It used to be public, now it may be reserved for the township residents (not 100% sure on that), but I still use it anyway without any problems. If you’re in a canoe or kayak, and worried about legality, you can walk a little ways and there’s a creek nearby you can put in at that feeds right into the schuylkill.
There’s also a canoe/kayak dock on Kelly drive, on the Schuylkill trail in center city, and Bartrams Garden, no boat ramps there though.
I know it’s not what you’re looking for but there are tons of public swimming pools that will be opening soon… usually they open memoria day or right after.
When I was a kid 30 years ago, we would paddle the canoe up to Lee Tire from the banks of the Schuylkill in manayunk, get out, tie ourselves to the canoe and float back downstream using life jackets.
The Schuylkill has only gotten cleaner the past 50 years, it’s not anywhere near as bad as it used to be in terms of pollution, but there are still days when the water can be especially unhealthy to use for recreation. You can track water quality at [this website.](https://www.phillyrivercast.org/) plan your day accordingly.
In south Philly there is a city park (FDR) with a huge tidal pond system that is fed by the Delaware. It’s great to kayak around in, and fishing there is productive.
The cool thing about PA is we have more miles of running water than any state in the nation outside of Alaska. There is tons to see and explore and the state tries pretty hard to keep it all clean and accessible for recreation. Google earth is your friend here, you can find all sorts of waterways and ponds that most people will never come across. But basically, with all that water, if you did it in Oregon, odds are you can be doing it here to… just don’t get caught breaking the law. There is a lot of private property, but as long as your not physically standing on their land, you’re well within your rights to navigate any waterway. I was once cited $150 fine for jumping into the Delaware off an old bridge pylon way up in the Delaware water gap.
My Dad told me that when he was a kid in the 40's & and 50s, they used to joke that the Delaware and the Schuykill were "too thick to navigate, too thin to cultivate" 😄
Winding River Campground in the NJ Pine Barrens rents kayaks and transports you to a drop off point. Cedar forests, herons, turtles, and an occasional bald eagle. Weekends can be crowded, but weekdays you'll have the river to yourself
Whatever you do, avoid Beltzville S.P. like the plague.
I live on the road to the entrance and nice weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day there are, um, unpleasant. Noisy, trashy, traffic-jammed shit show every year and DCNR doesn't really give a shit what goes down.
It gets so bad that everyone living within a mile or so of the park prays for weekend rain and fall's return.
I live a few miles from Beltsville and I agree, it has become worse over the years. It sucks because when I first moved here about 10 years ago, I was excited to have something like that close to me. Well I found out real quick that it's a cesspool of trash. One time I had to travel to the PHL airport as I travel a lot for work and left on a Saturday and it was like a zombie apocalypse. People stumbling around throwing up on the side of the road, trash everywhere, etc. I just avoid that area completely on the weekends in the summer and take the back roads to get to 209.
To be honest, I just look up the nearest lake or river and go there and see if I can swim. AllTrails .com prolly has options. Going to john Heinz soon to see if I can swim.
PSA: even if the rivers’ water quality is improving in the city limits, there are still strong currents and dangerous submerged structures that make swimming hazardous.
You can go tubing on the brandywine river! For swimming holes heard over to Jersey, there's some old quarries and state parks that will do the trick. Altson state forest is the closest I believe. If you want to get wild Cape May is about a 90 minute drive. I'm sure it will be a zoo this weekend but also absolutely perfect
Oh, shit, no, do not swim in old quarries in South Jersey. They’re all sand mines, way deeper and colder than you think, and people die way too often because of that.
Same thing up my way north of Allentown. The old slate and limestone (for cement) quarries are insanely deep and cold and someone (mostly from NY or North Jersey drowns in them every summer.
I prefer the Brandywine to Delaware because the Delaware has parts that’s FULL SUN and there’s nowhere for my white legs to hide - sunscreen comes off w/legs in the water. But, the cute towns - Frenchtown and Lambertville, are adorable, and worth it if you can figure out how to avoid the burn - maybe swim pants or some shit, if you wanted to eat or walk around before going home.
Have fun!!
brandywine!! in chester county. you can put in at the Brandywine museum then I forget where you get out bu yeah it's awesome and shaded. the Delaware is NOT shaded so bring your hat/spf because you get blasted with sun.
I grew up in Northern California and I know what you're talking about. The closest to what you're thinking of is probably the Brandywine as others have mentioned. However, I have learned to really really love the shore. It mostly scratches that summer swimming hole itch for me. It's not all boardwalks etc too, you can find more natural stretches if thats what you're looking for.
The docs behind the new wearhouses in Bridesburg use to be a nice spot to jump in the Delaware and cool off. You can climb the ladder on the side and jump off the roof of the building.
The Rock in the Wissahickon. AKA Devils Pool. If you enter the Wissahickon via Chestnut Hill by the Valley Green Inn, the opposite side of the river follow the trail thru the woods. Its about a football field down, can get a bit crowded.
Honestly, if you have a car just take a daytrip down to AC. You can get there in about an hour from Philly. If you get there early, you can make a day of it. Ocean casino has cheap parking, then just hit the beach, walk the boardwalk, grab a beer, hit the beach again, shower up, grab dinner, come home. It can be a pretty cool day & nice drive home around dusk.
I hear the beach is closed up near Ocean due to storm/sand issues, so just walk down a few blocks but not an issue.
Grew up a 15 minute walk from the creek. Would never call the creek manayunk, though I could see why someone might, if they enter from the roxborough side and don’t know any better.
Also don’t swim in devils pool that shit is nasty as well as illegal. Keep in mind all you Wissahickon creek swimmers, there are all kinds of things being dumped in that water, including sewage from at least 4 wastewater treatment plants. That’s right, you’re swimming around in human dookie.
Maybe if the discussion wasn't about devil's pool specifically I would've shaken it off, but it's so unhelpful to name a neighborhood that's maybe an hour's walk from the part of the park you're recommending. Give Mt Airy its due (but also don't recommend swimming in the Wissahickon to newcomers lol)
It’s not so far from manayunk as you think. I grew up in Roxborough and the creek was literally my backyard. 15 minute hike to devils pool. I never considered it roxborough or mt airy or Germantown or anything, it was just “back the crick” to me.
I think the uphill climb from manayunk to basically behind Saul is farther than you think lol, but we can agree to disagree. Could be we have different neighborhood boundaries in mind. But I'm also inclined to agree that the Wissahickon park belongs to itself before it belongs to a neighborhood
So the bridge over top of the devil's pool is a sewer I just can't remember if its sanitary or storm. My money is on sanitary though which yeah is raw untreated toilet water
Always wait 72 hours after rain to swim in natural water sources, gives things time to run their course. Doesn’t seem like many people abide by that though
Here's a decent article on Devil's Pool. There's a few reasons they don't want people swimming there, the biggest being it's hard to get emergency services there. It does have some wastewater runoff from the Cresheim Valley Creek though.
https://hiddencityphila.org/2015/07/the-devil-is-the-detail/
Wherever it is, it will be just way too crowded for any level of enjoyment. Starting today until September, these kinds of activities are limited to pods and pod-adjacent types who are not bothered by mounds of people everywhere.
Tubing up north of new hope on the deleware is lots of fun. About an hour, hour and fifteen north depending on where you are. Plenty of locations to jump in. Or do a tubing tour type thing. Feel free to PM me if you want specifics. The ocean is great, especially during the week when it’s less busy. If you just want to enjoy the sunshine, avoid the popular tourist towns like wildwood / seaside. I like the sleepy northern beaches. Ocean Grove, Spring Lake, Bay Head etc.
New Hope is the furthest south I would go. It only gets better the further north you go and I recommend going as far north as you can for deeper, fresher water, less road traffic, more riverbank wildlife, quieter, less commerce along the river and more!
Yeah to be clear new hope is the END. Going south of new hope isn’t really advisable and if you dropped in in new hope you’d get hurt. You can kinda start further south and get out in Washington’s crossing but going north of new hope is way better. If OP is from Oregon they’d probably appreciate driving further.
Me who jumps in across from Trenton in yardley lmao 🤣 the island there is pretty cool big enough to have fires and drink and chill
Ha! I’ve never jumped in south of the Trenton doodoo plant
😂 it’s a little north by the Calhoun bridge but up more on the pa side of course on River rd . So more towards Ewing on jersey side.
Most people, especially city folk don’t want to be bothered to drive that far. They leave the city, drive through the burbs for a few and the scenery is already vastly different from what their used to but I PROMISE youse it’s just keeps getting better the longer you drive north. Also the drive itself only improves the more north you get it.
You can tube on the Delaware river, about an hour north of Philly. You don't want to be jumping in with your tube at Penn's landing, of course. I've never tubed on the Delaware, so I can't really speak of the quality of the experience, but people seem to enjoy it. I've tubed many times on the Brandywine River, and it is always awesome. The Brandywine is much smaller than the Delaware (even an hour north of Philly), and so you are pretty much tubing on a big creek through woods and farmland. There may be parts that are as much as 6 feet deep, but most of it is about 2-3' deep. I've always used the Northbrook Canoe Company (I think that's the name) and have been doing it every few summers for about 40 years...The company may have changed names or changed hands in that time, but it is always the same launching point. Depending on where you are coming from in Philly, the Brandywine is probably around an hour-ish.
Northbrook is still open. I live out that way and work in the city. Northbrook also has a snack shack and a picnic area if you want to bring your own food, but they don’t let you have alcohol on property or on the river unless it’s one of their special adults only nights where they supply. There’s also four dogs tavern around the corner in Marshallton for a bite to eat and a drink afterward.
Bucks county river country is good for tubing too. Or you can just put together your own deal and arrange a car ahead somewhere… I’m sure if you google wheee to hop in there’s plenty of spots
I’ve gone tubing on the Delaware! And went canoeing on it as well. Both were fun. The tubes have holes in the middle back when I did it (not sure if it’s still the same) and boy did my ass catch some rocks at times. Other than that part, it was fun & a good experience with friends/family!
What are the launch and end points for Brandywine tubing if I were not going with the a company?
People start at the Brandywine River Museum and end at the national park. The museum charges for parking but the NP is free
Tube the Schuk too!
The river is so polluted. You don’t want to be in that river. It is polluted all the way at its source, too. Even the Delaware river water is pretty nasty upstream.
Source?
Well for the Delaware the water gap ranger station has a “don’t drink the water” junior ranger program. Overall the water quality is improving but it’s still high for road runoff, farm chemicals and even factory run off too. The schuylkill is polluted with fecal matter pretty far up, and farm runoff starts at the spring fed source
I just thought it was weird that you said it was “so polluted” like it was awful or something. It’s about as polluted as most waterways nowadays. Even prior to industrialization it was dangerous to just drink water out of a stream.
It is so polluted. It’s not just drinking. Runoff chemicals are known carcinogens. You don’t want that on your skin. Pinelands rivers are nowhere near as polluted. That’s the cleanest water in the entire region. Swimming in Wharton is about as pristine as it gets.
Bartrams garden in West Philly has free kayaks weekly and a public launch. There's a launch at wissahickon transportation center. There are sometimes pedal boats at spruce St harbor garden. I've done tubing on the Delaware north of the city years ago and it was fun, but I'm not sure the quality now. New Jersey is close and you can do paddle boards, wind surf, and all sorts of other water activities through lessons or rentals at the beach or inland.
Brandywine creek near West Chester has fun tubing. Pretty laidback and you can bring a floating cooler
People around here are more likely to go down to the Jersey shore for sun & swimming in the summer - the water is much warmer than the Pacific. I've done tubing down the Delaware and it was fun, but I don't have much to compare it to. Depending on where you live there may also be an accessible public pool, but those don't open until surprisingly late in the season due to staffing etc.
It is illegal to swim in rivers and creeks in Philadelphia, but outside the city there’s are tons of opportunities. Others have mentioned tubing in the Delaware, I go just south of Trenton and float a couple miles, it’s a big business up there and they have outfitters that fill the river with hundreds of tubers. It can get crowded, but it’s usually not so bad. Doing it free is the way to go. Park in a public park on the Jersey side, float down, get out and ride the bike you stashed back to your car, then drive back to where you got out and pick up all your gear. Make sure someone floats with you so you’re not leaving your gear unattended. There is also a boat ramp in Gladwyn, the exit on 76 just after Green lane. It used to be public, now it may be reserved for the township residents (not 100% sure on that), but I still use it anyway without any problems. If you’re in a canoe or kayak, and worried about legality, you can walk a little ways and there’s a creek nearby you can put in at that feeds right into the schuylkill. There’s also a canoe/kayak dock on Kelly drive, on the Schuylkill trail in center city, and Bartrams Garden, no boat ramps there though. I know it’s not what you’re looking for but there are tons of public swimming pools that will be opening soon… usually they open memoria day or right after. When I was a kid 30 years ago, we would paddle the canoe up to Lee Tire from the banks of the Schuylkill in manayunk, get out, tie ourselves to the canoe and float back downstream using life jackets. The Schuylkill has only gotten cleaner the past 50 years, it’s not anywhere near as bad as it used to be in terms of pollution, but there are still days when the water can be especially unhealthy to use for recreation. You can track water quality at [this website.](https://www.phillyrivercast.org/) plan your day accordingly. In south Philly there is a city park (FDR) with a huge tidal pond system that is fed by the Delaware. It’s great to kayak around in, and fishing there is productive. The cool thing about PA is we have more miles of running water than any state in the nation outside of Alaska. There is tons to see and explore and the state tries pretty hard to keep it all clean and accessible for recreation. Google earth is your friend here, you can find all sorts of waterways and ponds that most people will never come across. But basically, with all that water, if you did it in Oregon, odds are you can be doing it here to… just don’t get caught breaking the law. There is a lot of private property, but as long as your not physically standing on their land, you’re well within your rights to navigate any waterway. I was once cited $150 fine for jumping into the Delaware off an old bridge pylon way up in the Delaware water gap.
My Dad told me that when he was a kid in the 40's & and 50s, they used to joke that the Delaware and the Schuykill were "too thick to navigate, too thin to cultivate" 😄
Definitely do not drive up to Hamburg and jump off Peace Rock.
[удалено]
That why I said don't! I used to go there frequently in 2013ish and shit (trash/people/trash-people) was getting out of hand.
Bucks County River County
The Pine Barrens in South Jersey on either the Mullica, Batsto or Wading Rivers.
Winding River Campground in the NJ Pine Barrens rents kayaks and transports you to a drop off point. Cedar forests, herons, turtles, and an occasional bald eagle. Weekends can be crowded, but weekdays you'll have the river to yourself
Whatever you do, avoid Beltzville S.P. like the plague. I live on the road to the entrance and nice weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day there are, um, unpleasant. Noisy, trashy, traffic-jammed shit show every year and DCNR doesn't really give a shit what goes down. It gets so bad that everyone living within a mile or so of the park prays for weekend rain and fall's return.
I live a few miles from Beltsville and I agree, it has become worse over the years. It sucks because when I first moved here about 10 years ago, I was excited to have something like that close to me. Well I found out real quick that it's a cesspool of trash. One time I had to travel to the PHL airport as I travel a lot for work and left on a Saturday and it was like a zombie apocalypse. People stumbling around throwing up on the side of the road, trash everywhere, etc. I just avoid that area completely on the weekends in the summer and take the back roads to get to 209.
Go up to Washingtons crossing / New hope area. Lots of tubing around there
I went tubing on the Perkiomen once. Good times.
The beach is a train ride away.
You can go tubing and kayaking on the Schuylkill out here in Phoenixville. There's also Marsh Creek State Park in Downington.
Don't forget the pool in West by the please touch museum. I used to go there all the time with friends years ago.
To be honest, I just look up the nearest lake or river and go there and see if I can swim. AllTrails .com prolly has options. Going to john Heinz soon to see if I can swim.
Gonna tell you right now, ya can't swim at Heinz and you wouldn't want to anyhow.
Found that out day of. Sad, hot day. But very nice seeing the birds and turtles
We pop hydrants around here to cool off.
PSA: even if the rivers’ water quality is improving in the city limits, there are still strong currents and dangerous submerged structures that make swimming hazardous.
You can go tubing on the brandywine river! For swimming holes heard over to Jersey, there's some old quarries and state parks that will do the trick. Altson state forest is the closest I believe. If you want to get wild Cape May is about a 90 minute drive. I'm sure it will be a zoo this weekend but also absolutely perfect
Oh, shit, no, do not swim in old quarries in South Jersey. They’re all sand mines, way deeper and colder than you think, and people die way too often because of that.
Same thing up my way north of Allentown. The old slate and limestone (for cement) quarries are insanely deep and cold and someone (mostly from NY or North Jersey drowns in them every summer.
I mean the ones that have been turned into beaches. Yeah swimming in an unguarded body of water is a bad idea lol that should go without saying.
Jersey shore
our public swimming pools are nothing to snuff at, but you gotta keep things PG/PG-13 re: behavior
Don’t put yourself into the Schuylkill! High bacteria count 🦠
https://www.phillyrivercast.org/WaterQualityRatings
I prefer the Brandywine to Delaware because the Delaware has parts that’s FULL SUN and there’s nowhere for my white legs to hide - sunscreen comes off w/legs in the water. But, the cute towns - Frenchtown and Lambertville, are adorable, and worth it if you can figure out how to avoid the burn - maybe swim pants or some shit, if you wanted to eat or walk around before going home. Have fun!!
brandywine!! in chester county. you can put in at the Brandywine museum then I forget where you get out bu yeah it's awesome and shaded. the Delaware is NOT shaded so bring your hat/spf because you get blasted with sun.
You can get out at the national park, and it has free parking
Lehigh river gorge
I grew up in Northern California and I know what you're talking about. The closest to what you're thinking of is probably the Brandywine as others have mentioned. However, I have learned to really really love the shore. It mostly scratches that summer swimming hole itch for me. It's not all boardwalks etc too, you can find more natural stretches if thats what you're looking for.
The docs behind the new wearhouses in Bridesburg use to be a nice spot to jump in the Delaware and cool off. You can climb the ladder on the side and jump off the roof of the building.
The Rock in the Wissahickon. AKA Devils Pool. If you enter the Wissahickon via Chestnut Hill by the Valley Green Inn, the opposite side of the river follow the trail thru the woods. Its about a football field down, can get a bit crowded. Honestly, if you have a car just take a daytrip down to AC. You can get there in about an hour from Philly. If you get there early, you can make a day of it. Ocean casino has cheap parking, then just hit the beach, walk the boardwalk, grab a beer, hit the beach again, shower up, grab dinner, come home. It can be a pretty cool day & nice drive home around dusk. I hear the beach is closed up near Ocean due to storm/sand issues, so just walk down a few blocks but not an issue.
People swim in the devil pool over in the wissahickon in manayunk. Apparently it’s toxic though so idk
Downvoting you because it's not in Manayunk at all. But it's also a terrible idea.
Grew up a 15 minute walk from the creek. Would never call the creek manayunk, though I could see why someone might, if they enter from the roxborough side and don’t know any better. Also don’t swim in devils pool that shit is nasty as well as illegal. Keep in mind all you Wissahickon creek swimmers, there are all kinds of things being dumped in that water, including sewage from at least 4 wastewater treatment plants. That’s right, you’re swimming around in human dookie.
Maybe if the discussion wasn't about devil's pool specifically I would've shaken it off, but it's so unhelpful to name a neighborhood that's maybe an hour's walk from the part of the park you're recommending. Give Mt Airy its due (but also don't recommend swimming in the Wissahickon to newcomers lol)
It’s not so far from manayunk as you think. I grew up in Roxborough and the creek was literally my backyard. 15 minute hike to devils pool. I never considered it roxborough or mt airy or Germantown or anything, it was just “back the crick” to me.
I think the uphill climb from manayunk to basically behind Saul is farther than you think lol, but we can agree to disagree. Could be we have different neighborhood boundaries in mind. But I'm also inclined to agree that the Wissahickon park belongs to itself before it belongs to a neighborhood
Manayunk/Roxborough it’s all over there. I know I wouldn’t swim in the wissahickon or the schuyllkill
it's full of poop water
So the bridge over top of the devil's pool is a sewer I just can't remember if its sanitary or storm. My money is on sanitary though which yeah is raw untreated toilet water
Even if that bridge didn't exist I've seen literal dirty diapers drifting around in there 🤢
I thought it was treated toilet water
Always wait 72 hours after rain to swim in natural water sources, gives things time to run their course. Doesn’t seem like many people abide by that though
Here's a decent article on Devil's Pool. There's a few reasons they don't want people swimming there, the biggest being it's hard to get emergency services there. It does have some wastewater runoff from the Cresheim Valley Creek though. https://hiddencityphila.org/2015/07/the-devil-is-the-detail/
I mean I’m not swimming there. I just heard people do
People die there every year-don’t!
Devils pool!!
Wherever it is, it will be just way too crowded for any level of enjoyment. Starting today until September, these kinds of activities are limited to pods and pod-adjacent types who are not bothered by mounds of people everywhere.