Very pretty blue. Looks to me like MasterTile Venetian series in my catalog, which (I think) is the Bellagio series online, in Indigo. It even looks like something I might want. Must be that the sample my designer had was seriously off-color or looks more "stone" in real life than I was wanting. Not sure why that tile's not in my lineup.

cda, a couple of posts above yours, she answered your question, but to someone else. Here's her response: David: The river rok is a mixture color. Its the lycan (spelling) blue with the gray color. erictac: The pool builder was Pulliam Pools in Katy. I couldn't be happier! And the cost was mid-50k's. A bargain in my opinion for the equipment (hayward) they used, how clean they were and how efficient and fast)! LOL I can't say enough great things about them. Ask for Chris if you use them and tell them Crystal sent ya and he will give ya a better deal! ;)

We are almost finished building our pool in a very similar setting. Our lot is a heavily wooded acre and slopes steeply towards the back, just like yours. We also didn't want a huge retaining wall along the back of our pool as we have to access the rest of the back yard via a pathway immediately behind the pool. One PB wanted $35,000 just dig the hole for the pool and build a 9 ft. high natural rock retaining wall along the back side of where the pool would go. The pool (standard kidney shape gunite) would be an additional $50,000 to $60,000. We didn't go with that option, as it was like they were trying to force an ordinary pool designed for a flat lot into our unique setting. The design we ended up choosing is a two-tiered pool, incorporating an infinity edge/waterfall which spills from the upper pool into a lower (smaller) pool that we can also use as a hottub. Our design uses lots of natural boulders and stone veneer. Instead of one gigantic retaining wall across the back, we have two tiers of retaining walls, with a planting bed between the two levels. There were existing dry stack retaining walls on the property that we incorporated into the design of the pool and new patios. We were able to place the pools in such a way that the waterfall goes from right to left as seen from the house. There is also a lower patio that will face the spa and waterfall. One obstacle we had was that our ground is solid rock, so the excavation for the pool and patio area was an additional challenge ($$$) on our site. Here is a picture of our pool. Here is a link that might be useful:

Well, now we are just waiting for the Archetictural Review Board to review our plans. The ARB is kind-of a joke because we only have 3 houses in our neighborhood. Anyway, we went with a 7.5' spa. I though 7' was too small and 8' was too big. I "borrowed" some of all of your suggestions and ideas and went with all stone surround added a step, all Pentair and 400,000 btu. Still trying to decide on 7', but the ARB does not care about that. Thank you for all of your help! I'll post more pictures once we get started.