This is the Best Swimming Hole in California and it's in...Croatia?! (RANT)

The best swimming hole in California. There's only a few problems with it. The first one is, this swimming hole isn't in California at all. So recently, this article from iheart.com popped up in my news feed on Google, and I was immediately taken by the title, The Best Swimming Hole in California. And when I saw the main cover image that they were using for that article, I knew right away that there was a big problem with this article. But that didn't stop them from publishing it, and this article has been syndicated across several other sites. iHeart is a radio corporation, they own hundreds if not thousands of radio stations around the country, and they syndicated this article on like six or seven, maybe even ten different individual local radio station websites. The biggest problem with this article, The Best Swimming Hole in California, is that the picture they used, the clickbait picture they used to draw in the viewer, is not in California at all. In fact, it's not even in the United States, it is a picture from Croatia. I knew immediately when I saw that picture that it was, one, not in California, and two, most likely looked like something in Croatia. And in fact, it is in Croatia, in the Plitvice Lakes National Park. But despite the issues that this picture brings up in terms of clickbait journalism, fake news, all that stuff, the picture they chose to use was only the first of several different problems. The second major problem that this article has is that the location they chose to name as The Best Swimming Hole in California, it's just not. Colby Canyon is what they named as The Best Swimming Hole in California. Take it from me, I'm someone who, as far as I know, made one of the early, if not only, videos of this adventure hike to Colby Canyon. It is a tough bushwhack. I got lost. There's not a well-maintained trail, so to say that it is The Best Swimming Hole in California, opening it up to masses of people to potentially go find this difficult adventure hike where you need tons of experience and route-finding and navigation skills is a huge screw-up on the part of this company that put this thing out. The third big problem is that Colby Canyon, while a great hidden swimming hole for Southern California, compared to the rest of the state, is not all that special. And if you've never lived in Southern California, you won't really understand what I mean when I say this. Colby Canyon is special because it is a hidden swimming hole in the dry, drought-stricken SoCal, which is notorious for just waterfalls which are just trickles and pools which are only ankle-deep and they're kind of like a brownish-green colored water lake. The difference between SoCal swimming holes and Northern California swimming holes and even the Sierra swimming hole is tremendous that most people, if you've never gone hunting for hidden waterfalls in SoCal, you don't really understand the gravity of the situation. You don't understand the gratitude when you find a little trickle flowing into just something that you could submerge your whole body in that nobody else knows about. Because the four or five most popular waterfalls in SoCal on the weekends, especially in the summer, they get pounded with hundreds of people. And so when I made my Colby Canyon video, in the description I wrote, it is one of the best hidden swimming holes in Southern California because when I found the Granite Bowls area of Colby Canyon, there was no one else there. Unlike Switzer Falls, unlike Eaton Canyon Falls, unlike the Punch Bowls of Santa Paula, there was no one else there. It was a very hard spot to get to, therefore it was hidden. And in terms of hidden swimming holes in SoCal, it ranks high up there. However, to say that it's one of the best in the entire state of California is just not true, man. I mean, you have Rock Creek, you have Seven Falls, you know, Plumas National Forest, you have the entire Bass Lake region of Sierra National Forest, you know, Devil's Slide, the amazing swimming holes on that river. Not to mention the Sierras, not to mention Big Sur. Big Sur is full of amazing hidden gems. So the audacity, the just shocking audacity to one, use a picture from Croatia, and two, say that this tiny little hole in Southern California is the best in the entire state of California is just ridiculously horrible journalism. Terrible. Absolutely a fail on so many levels. And really, it got me mad. It got me mad because as someone who's been hunting for hidden waterfalls in SoCal, as someone who understands the community of people that go looking for stuff like this in SoCal, it's just a slap in the face to imply that what Colby Canyon actually is isn't good enough. You know? It's not good enough for what it is. It has to be this world-renowned Croatian national park. It just doesn't make any sense. So there's so many layers to this. There's the clickbait journalism layer. There is the whole brings up the issue of the digital leave no trace thing, which I'm probably going to make a whole separate video on that. But it also, it sets the expectation disproportionate to what is reality. In a way, it says, oh, what it is isn't good enough. Like, oh, you SoCal waterfall hunters, or you people who live in SoCal, what you have is so piddly, and oh, compared to the Sierras, it's nothing. Compared to the rest of California, it's nothing. It's just these little mud holes and the water's stagnant, and this and that, and it's like, if you have not lived in Southern California, you will never appreciate the hidden treasures of Southern California. And so I made this video to just kind of vent a little bit, because I'm super frustrated by this. I'm super pissed that they made this. The only reason I knew about this, I said it had popped up in my newsfeed. That isn't entirely true. I noticed a huge spike in my views on my Colby Canyon video, and I was like, what is driving that? That's strange out of nowhere. And that is how I came across this article. It didn't pop up in my newsfeed. I went searching for it. Why is this? Because some other site had called Colby Canyon one of the best swimming holes in California. Not true. There's probably hundreds that are better, but that's for the entire state of California. When you're talking the region of SoCal, particularly Angeles National Forest, Colby Canyon is up there, man. It should be good enough. And if you're from SoCal, if you spent any time out in Angeles National Forest looking for stuff like this, you know it is a true treasure that the people of SoCal value. There's no need to compare it to NorCal, to Oregon, to New Zealand. I mean, it's just, there's no comparison. What we have in SoCal is we have gratitude for these tiny little drops, little pools. If the water is not crystal clear blue nowadays, it's not media friendly. It doesn't make a good clickable thumbnail. It doesn't make a clickable clickbait article picture. But you know what? Those people that are only enticed by that clear blue water will never know the joy of going to look for a hidden oasis in a desert and finding it. And it's those people that are always like, oh, I need the GPS coordinates. Oh, I need to know the exact location. And if you don't give them the exact location or coordinates, then you're suddenly a gatekeeper. Now guys, I feel like if I go find something, it's up to me whether I want to tell people where it is or not. I'm not trying to be a gatekeeper, but I feel a lot of people are just feeling super entitled, super lazy. And they say you shouldn't be a gatekeeper to a hiking trail. First of all, this is not a hiking trail. This is an adventure hike off trail bushwhack. And when I took some of my subscribers to a hidden waterfall, one of them ended up in the emergency room at the end of the day. I can't just give out locations to people I know nothing about their fitness level. I know nothing about their skill level, their experience level. How do I know they're going to bring enough water? So I could just be sending someone off to die in the woods if I gave them the exact location of a lot of the places that I have personally found. You know, a lot of people accuse me of doing things for clout or just doing it for social media so I can have some sort of reputation. And that couldn't be further from the truth. I love exploring, finding hidden gems, and I love to inspire others to do it. So guys, if you're in SoCal this summer and you're looking for hidden swimming holes and waterfalls, keep pushing. Keep looking for that hidden stuff. I know for a fact there's plenty of hidden gems. People need to just get out and explore and if you're not willing to do that, you're going to miss out. I'm sorry. Sometimes I might drop some clues. Like still, as far as I know, no one has made it out to Treasure Hunt Falls in Malibu. It's your loss. I'd wait for after a big rain. Los Padres National Forest, full of amazing hidden gems. Nobody has the desire to go explore and look for those. Obviously, with the fires, it makes it more difficult. But guys, there are plenty of hidden gems in SoCal and everywhere around the world for you to find. Don't be discouraged by something like this. When I see something like this, it just motivates me even more. Oh, they think we have to go to Croatia or we have to use a picture from Croatia? No, we've got epic stuff right in our own backyard. So get out there. If you guys want to know how I find hidden beautiful places, check out this playlist right here. A series with all my best tips and tricks and hacks on how I find amazing, beautiful hidden swimming holes, waterfalls, etc. Have a great summer. Get out there. Find your adventure. And be infamous. Infamous.