East Swim Beach at Del Valle Regional Park

Swimming at Del Valle is a great way to beat the heat during the hot summer months in the Tri-Valley.

It's been very hot in Livermore this August, with temperatures frequently climbing to the mid 100°F by mid-afternoon. We decided to make a morning trip to one of our favorite parks to check out the swimming area. It turns out that there are two, but we chose the East Swim Beach per the recommendation of the park rangers at the entrance kiosk. They suggested that this area was slightly more shaded than the West Swim Beach. The shade was mostly around the picnic area near the beach, so I was very glad to have brought our sun shade. We got there about 10:30 am, and there was no one there but us at first. It was very peaceful.

Eventually, the lifeguards arrived and soon followed other families with young children. The perfect peace of the beach was gone, but it was nice to see other children playing in the water too. We stayed until about noon, right after we had finished eating a nice picnic that I brought us.

The pros of this beach: the water was very clear and it felt great. It is so beautiful to see all of the lovely mountains around us as we splashed in the water. It is so much nicer than just going to a pool.

The cons of this beach: the geese also love this water reservoir. Whereas the rangers at Shadow Cliffs do a sweep of the beach in the morning to remove the goose poop, they do not do this at Del Valle. I had brought sand toys for my daughter to use, and I used these to clear a safe path for us to walk to the water without stepping in anything gross. I was disappointed that the beach was made of pebbles instead of sand, but that wasn't too bad. It's harder to walk on, but it's much easier to clean.

Overall, I really liked this experience and I would do it again, but it is not for the faint of heart, especially when it is extremely hot.