Snorkeling Topless in Austin's Barton Springs Pool

No. That is not me snorkeling in my swimming pool. The snorkeling took place down in Austin, in Zilker Park's Barton Springs Pool.

Barton Springs is a man-enhanced natural springs. In the 1920s Austin dammed the springs to create a bigger swimming hole. And added sidewalks and other park-like features.

In the 1940s a bathhouse was added.

You can go swimming in Barton Springs Pool all year long. Just like my pool. Only Barton Springs stays warmer. The temperature ranges from 68 in winter to almost 72 in summer.

Admission is free from November til the Ides of March. A fee, ranging from $1 to $3, is charged from mid March til October. Barton Springs is open from 5am til 10pm. The admission fee starts getting charged at 8am. That gives early birds 3 hours to swim before paying that big entry fee.

On Thursdays Barton Springs Pool closes from 9am til 7pm for cleaning. Once a year Barton Springs is closed for several weeks with the floodgates fully opened so the pool totally drains for heavy duty cleaning.

Barton Springs closes during heavy rain due to Barton Creek being prone to flooding and overflowing the diversion dam.

Barton Springs, in addition to swimming and snorkeling, also provides a nice sunbathing zone on the green slopes that surround the Springs. And, with it being in liberal, free-spirited Austin, topless sunbathing is permitted for both genders.

You'll need to go to another Austin location, Hippie Hollow if you feel the need to go both topless and bottomless.

Watch the YouTube video below to see what it is like to go snorkeling in Barton Springs. Notice the big eel that is snorkeling with you in Barton Springs Pool...

Murder At Hippie Hollow Nude Beach In Austin Texas

Hippie Hollow Park, down in Austin, Austin being the capital of Texas, is the only legally recognized clothing optional public park in the State of Texas.

Austin is about 180 miles south of my Fort Worth location. That's a long ways to drive if I get a hankering to go skinny-dipping. By the time I drove all that way the hankering to skinny-dip would likely have passed.

So, when I get that particular hankering I have to find myself a not legally recognized clothing optional place to dip skinny.

Denniger Bolton has written a book titled Hippie Hollow - Murder on a Nude Beach. The story takes modern day Austin, stirs in murders at Hippie Hollow with a collection of Austin Weird characters, all investigated by an ex-rodeo cowboy, ex-Austin cop, B.B. Rivers, who is Austin's newest private investigator. The book is described as a "wild ride, humorous, irreverent and contemporary. Carlos Castaneda meets Hank the Cowdog."

I don't know how I came upon this Hippie Hollow book. I really need to start taking notes as my memory continues to fade.

Below is a semi-amusing YouTube video about the book and Hippie Hollow. The video is basically a 5 minute commercial. But, like I said, it is semi-amusing....

Big Butts, Ugly Women & The Hippie Hollow Nude Beach

I've mentioned before how there are strange patterns of search strings that bring people to this blog. The last couple days, once again, it's been a world-wide search for the "Biggest Butt in the World," that people are looking for more than anything else.

From the blog stats I can see that people in Saudi Arabia have a big butt fixation.

This morning I saw three people came to this blog after Googling something like "insomnia caused by ugly fat woman." I thought to myself, why would my blog come up with that search string? So, I typed "insomnia caused by ugly fat woman" into the search window and was appalled to see my blog comes up as #1 when someone searches for "insomnia caused by ugly fat woman."

I'd forgotten I'd blogged on this subject after I had a nightmare of being chased by several scary, ugly, fat women. The scary, ugly, fat woman, who was the source of the nightmare, bears an uncanny resemblance to the guy in the picture.

I'm likely going to have an insomnia episode tonight due to this subject being brought back to the forefront of my consciousness. I hope it doesn't turn into another sleepwalking trauma.

Speaking of traumas, I can see people are looking for info about Hippie Hollow, likely looking for something different to do this Memorial Day. If you've never gone to a nude beach, this might just be the different thing to do that you are looking for. If it weren't such a long drive to Hippie Hollow I might go there on Monday. Nothing I like better than communing with nature.

Which means I think I'll go pedal the mountain bike trail at River Legacy Park today.

Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin

I've been working hard on trying to overcome my pathological shyness. So with gas prices so low it seemed like a good idea, at the time, to burn some driving down to Austin.

Why Austin, you ask? Well, near Austin there is a body of water called Lake Travis. And on that body of water there is a place called Hippie Hollow, where a human body visiting this particular body of water is not required to wear clothing, as in it is a clothing optional type of place, meaning people of all sizes, shapes, ages and gender are naked.

There are warning signs to caution those who might not realize they are entering a naked zone, as in signs saying "NOTICE: NUDE SWIMMING OR SUNBATHING ME BY OCCURRING BEYOND THIS POINT."

Now, yesterday was not the first time I've been naked. I take at least one shower every day and don't wear a swimming suit to do so. Yesterday was not the first time I've been naked outdoors. I have skinnydipped a time or two, among other things.

Hippie Hollow had some things viewable that I probably would have preferred to not have imprisoned in my memory. But there were some things viewable that I don't mind having seen. I'm hopeful the bad memories will fade.

A visit to Hippie Hollow is not free. In addition to the gas you'll need to burn to get there, you'll also have to pay a fully clothed park ranger 10 bucks before you can take your clothes off.