BUENA VISTA, Va. – Panther Falls is a swimming hole just outside of Buena Vista. You’ll take Panther Falls Road for about three miles, then you’ll start to see cars lined up in the small parking lot. We had to walk down the road a little bit then we saw the information board.
The trail starts out going downhill for awhile, then as you get closer along the river it gets a little muddy. After about five minutes it opens up to a huge rock overlooking the swimming hole. The first thing we noticed was people jumping off the rocks.
We walked down along another rock, which was very slippery so be careful, to take a dip first. It was pretty cold but the more we walked along the river, the more we got used to it.
There was a lot of people when we went, and we noticed a group underneath the falls swimming through a cave. I was not about to do this, but a brave soul caught it on video for me.
On another set of falls, there were natural water slides into a pool. It was a beautiful sunny day, making this a hot spot for the labor day weekend.
To cap off the afternoon, we finally got the nerve to jump off the rock. It was so fun. I’m sad that I only found this place at the end of summer, but it will be the first place I check out again next year.