PARKS IN PERIL
IN JULY, ON A 100-DEGREE DAY IN THE DESERT, 562 miles west of Houston, I stood on the concrete bank of the San Solomon Springs Pool at Balmorhea State Park in Far West Texas, one of my favorite places anywhere. The water is so clear, it’s like jumping into a dream. The water temperature hovers around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, refreshingly cool in the heat of the summer and comfortably warm in the winter. It is the best swimming hole on Earth.
I always figured Balmorhea was too far away, too in the middle of nowhere to get overrun, so I didn’t mind tooting its horn in a number of publications. I was wrong.
Set against the Davis Mountains where the Chihuahuan Desert transitions into the low, flat Permian Basin, the San Solomon complex of springs gush out 15 million gallons of unsullied artesian water every day, feeding a canal system that runs to nearby farms and to the town of Balmorhea, 4 miles away.
In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built walls around the desert marsh to create the pool. Today, more than 200,000 people stop by every year to swim with fish, waterfowl and amphibians.
I have swum at Balmorhea every month of the year. Many times, I’ve had the entire pool to myself. One Sunday morning in summer 2017, though, so many people were crammed into the park that volunteers improvised parking in open fields and lines formed outside the bathrooms. I had hardly jumped in before getting fed up with the crowds and leaving.
I always figured Balmorhea was too far away, too in the middle of nowhere to get overrun, so I didn’t mind tooting its horn in a number of publications. I was wrong. In recent years, visitation has surged. For families between Van Horn and Odessa, Balmorhea is the one affordable place within 100 miles to cool off and picnic. Scuba clubs from as far away as Kansas and Arkansas explore the springs on weekends year-round. Fitness buffs motoring coast to coast make detours to get a swim in.
When I visited in July,
