Dominguez Canyon Swimming Hole Hike - Grand Junction, Colorado

Colorado never ceases to amaze me. Every time I go somewhere new, I am blown away and I swear that it is my new favorite spot. Dominguez Canyon is another Colorado landmark that left me absolutely dumbfounded and is undoubtedly one of the greatest places in Colorado. 

I only explored a tiny fraction of the canyon, and I am convinced that this will always be one of my favorite places in Colorado. ​If you want to see the entire road trip I visited this canyon as a part of, please check out my Western Colorado Road Trip blog post HERE!

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The map at the Dominguez Canyon trailhead.

My dog, Maria, and I hit the trail in the late afternoon on a Saturday in June. Even though it was late in the day, there was only one other couple at the trailhead and fortunately, a storm had rolled through the day before, so the ground was nice and cool and a massive wind was whipping through the canyon.

You can see more from my entire afternoon in the canyon on my YouTube channel HERE!

​The canyon is pretty large and has several different trails. I set out with intentions of getting as far as I could and hopefully finding one of the swimming holes I had seen online located inside of The Big Canyon.

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Crossing the Gunnison River and Rio Grand Railway.

​The trail follows along the Gunnison River and eventually crosses it and the parallel Rio Grand Railway. The crossing is about a mile into the trail, and from there, the trail splits into the Big and Little Dominguez Canyons. I opted for the Big Canyon. Once we were on the other side of the river, we were about one mile from the mouth of the canyon. ​

We had been looking at these rocks from afar, but they were even more glorious up close. I could see all of the cracks and crevasses that break the rocks into pieces, yet they hold together so tightly that it seems magical. The canyon was created by Dominguez Creek which feeds into the Gunnison River. Once we were in the canyon, we followed the creek to a swimming hole.

An old horse corral right off the trail.

​Suddenly, the rocks opened up below our feet into a tinier version of the canyon we were standing inside. Below us, a flowing stream of water spilled into a large pool of water. We scurried our way down the rocks and immediately hopped in. At first, we had the hole to ourselves for about 20 minutes. ​

When another group showed up, we decided to pack up. The other visitors said that there were more swimming holes further into the canyon, and that there are petroglyphs carved into the rocks along the trail. I noticed how low the sun was getting and made the choice to save all of those incredible-sounding things for another trip. On the hike out, I saw lots of rafters setting up camp, so I decided that my next trip to the canyon needed to be an overnight backpacking trip!

I left this canyon happier than I could have ever imagined. I felt like I had found a secret gem that very few other people had seen. I am sure this wasn’t true, but I don’t know anyone who’s been. Now, I can’t wait to share the magnificence of this place with John and my other friends!

You can watch even more from Dominguez Canyon on my Youtube channel here!

​Similar Links:
​Western Colorado Road Trip - Rifle Falls, Dominguez Canyon and Colorado National Monument 
Renting UTV's to Aspen, Colorado's Crystal Mill
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