I took a four-mile hike out along a river in a national forest this morning to see a place I heard about called the "blue pool". Apparently a lava flow covered part of the river a long time ago, and the river now flows underground through the lava rock, and exits here. It's super blue (my pics below just don't show how goddamn blue it really is in person!).
This was what I found! It's beautiful. And it's so crystal clear that the depth is deceiving. It's really over 30-feet deep, even though it looks like it's just several feet. Oh, and though jumping in is popular here sometimes, I don't recommend it unless you have wetsuit gear.. Apparently the water stays around 37F year-around (part of why it stays so clear, because not a lot lives in that), and people have died from drowning after the shock of jumping into the colder-than-expected water here which causes them to gasp and inhale water without being able to control it.
It's bigger than it looks. Here is a pic I took of my brother who climbed down to the edge of the pool (I was too lazy to do the climb) to show scale:
And Here's another wider panoramic shot I took from a different spot that shows the river that flows out of the pool (the river we hiked along to get here):
All in all, it was a really beautiful place that I definitely intend to return to in the spring when all the colors are in full bloom and the water is flowing strongly!