White Pine County Aquatic Center-Updated

 We have some relatives visiting, and we couldn't wait to take them to the new White Pine County Aquatic Center in Ely, Nevada, which opened just last week.

 Inside we found two pools, a 1-foot deep kids' pool and a 25-yard, six-lane lap pool from 4-feet to over 9-feet deep.

 Regular starting blocks were installed at the deep end, so here's hoping that there will soon be swim teams using these! I remember my swim team days (from age 6 to 19) with great fondness, and made many lifetime friendships with my swim team companions. The other great benefit from many hours of swim team practice was building muscle memory that I still use to this day.

In order for kids to swim in the deeper pool, they must either wear a life vest or pass a swim test. Because next to the swim blocks were a couple climbing walls that you couldn't use a life vest to climb, Desert Boy immediately wanted to do his swim test. We asked the lifeguard what he had to do, and it was swim one lap of the pool. He had recently done this in Cedar City's Aquatic Center, so he knew he could do it. He jumped in one end and started doggy paddling, but quickly turned over and started doing backstroke/float. And sure enough, he made it!

So then it was off to the rock climbing wall. He didn't get very far up his first attempts, but after awhile made it about half way up.


Of course I had to give it a try!

Back in the kiddie pool, the kids were having an excellent time. The pool had some water buckets supplied to make for some great pouring fun.

And because pouring on the side of the pool just isn't good enough:

The aquatic center also had lots of ducks, which a couple of the little girls really loved.

Don't come between a girl and her ducks!

The pool was really attended on a Saturday afternoon. 

So when can you come enjoy this watery wonderland? I couldn't find a website or Facebook page yet for the White Pine County Aquatic Center, but here are their hours for the first month:

Update: And they do have a Facebook page.

And the phone is now installed and is 775-289-7700.

Here are a few more details for the summer 2014 season:

 Don't forget that July 18th is Pirate Night. I'm sure that will be a hit!

I was pleased to see that the aquatic center will have extensive hours for open swim and lap swim, as well as swimming lessons and aquacize class and senior swim.

Go check it out! The White Pine County Aquatic Center is really nice, and we hope to be there often.