Elliott Singer, News Editor

Tevas? Check.  Camera? Check. Beer and towel? Double check. 
We weren’t sure but we figured that those would be the essentials on our first outing to  Arroyo Seco, a place where high jumps, warm water and a seemingly endless supply of crawdads are a reality. 
Arroyo Seco can be an oasis away from civilization and the throngs that congregate at Big Sur hotspots such as the Big Sur River Gorge and Andrew Molera. 
The water is deeper too.  The Gorge at Big Sur River has had a record year for accidents, with one fatality and several injuries due mostly to a particularly dry year.  Arroyo Seco has pools that are so deep that a diver can’t touch the bottom without fins or special equipment.  A potential jumper should always check their landing before plunging off anything and know not to accept every dare to go higher than before.
Our first trip took us down highway 101 near Greenfield and down Arroyo Seco Road.  We paid our nine dollars and parked in one of the first parking lots on the right after the person at the gate denied any knowledge of a gorge.
We put on our backpacks and started up the river.  After about two hours and three beers we found our deepest pool, about 13 feet deep with boulders about 15 feet over the water. We had heard about a water slide cut straight into the rock but were not able to find it.
We came back happy, tired but feeling like we had missed something because we had not found the slide.
We had another rock slide free trip a few days later.  We walked about a mile up a fire road and walked down a narrow footpath surrounded by knee high yellow grass.  Epic jumping and swimming ensued but we still had not reached our goal and we vowed to return.
About a week later we took another trip and followed the fire road all the way to the end and found our fabled slide.  Due to our dry year the water was not exactly the roaring slide that we had imagined, but we did manage to find a pool which featured rocks with 40 foot drops into the water.  Several three second hang time jumps ensued until we ventured into the next major pool which came after walking over several large rocks and swimming through a narrow crevice that was filled with deep, warm water. 
It then opened into a huge round pool that faintly resembled the Grotto at the Playboy Mansion.  There are also the tattered remnants of a swing calmly swaying over the pool which somehow seems like a fitting symbol for a place that never seems to age.