Balmorhea State Park, Natural spring swimming pool in Reeves County, US.
Balmorhea State Park is a natural park in Reeves County, West Texas, built around a natural spring. The swimming pool is fed by San Solomon Springs and stays between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius year-round.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built the pool and San Solomon Courts between 1936 and 1941 as part of New Deal programs. Mexican settlers had already dug irrigation canals from the springs in the 19th century.
The springs were once called Mescalero Springs after the Apache groups who long used this water source in the Chihuahua Desert. Today families from across West Texas drive here to swim in one of the few permanent bodies of water in an otherwise dry region.
The park limits daily visitors to 900, so arrive early in the morning during busy periods. Divers and snorkelers find several areas in the pool with different depths, with the deepest section reaching about 8 meters (25 feet).
The spring releases between 83 and 106 million liters of water daily, so the pool never needs chlorine treatment. Some of the fish living in the pool are descendants of species that have been in these waters for thousands of years.
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