A few years ago an issue of Backpacker magazine included articles on both McCart Lookout in southwestern Montana and Grand Gulch in southeastern Utah, two places I just love.   I was both pleased and dismayed:  pleased that the magazine agreed that these two wonderful spots were worth writing about, but dismayed because I didn’t want the whole world to know about them.    I wrote to them about this, and concluded my letter by saying, “I haven’t yet seen a feature on my third favorite place, and I hope it stays that way!”   The truth was I really didn’t have a third “favorite”, and didn’t have a specific place in mind when I wrote the letter.

So, when one of the editors e-mailed me and asked if I would tell him what the third favorite place was, I had the chance to choose.   I wrote back and told him that it was Chaudiere Pool,  a lovely deep freshwater pool in the middle of the rainforest on the north coast of Dominica.    The magazine published the letter, and the editor added a note about my third favorite spot, but he said they wouldn’t tell the readers how to get there.   Silly, since you can google “Chaudiere Pool” and have no problem finding it.

I’m not sure that the pool is actually my “third favorite” spot  (how do people rank their favorite spots, anyway?) but the north coast of Dominica is incredibly beautiful, and absolutely list-worthy for these who like to do that.   And by they way, the people of Dominica are just charming, so if you do go, I’d recommend riding the buses as much as you can!

Here are some views of this incredible island, starting with Chaudiere Pool: