Leon Turnbull Photography

My primary goal for the weekend was to photograph all 6 waterfalls in the Mammoth Lakes area in good light. That is not easy when it is bright and sunny every day, but I did manage to accomplish this goal.

But I really had second thoughts about this one. It is only a half-mile hike to the waterfall, but I was tired from the morning jaunt to Rainbow Falls, and I knew it was just a piddly little waterfall. Plus, it was getting late and I needed to get back to the fam at the campsite.Would it even be flowing? Was it even worth any effort to go see it? I doubted it. But nonetheless, I continued on to the falls. I am glad I did. It is a small one, but it is much prettier than I thought it would be. And although it is not on a main stream, it is spring-fed, and thus was flowing quite nicely.

The waterfall is called Sotcher Lake Falls, not Dinosaur Head Falls. But it should be called Dinosaur Head Falls. Doesn’t it look like the side of a dinosaur head to you? With the big eye in the middle, and nose on the right? I just think it is a hilarious looking little waterfall.

On a separate but semi-related topic, last night I was the guest speaker at the El Dorado Camera Club meeting in Placerville. Now for all you who know me really well, you would know that I abhor public speaking. It is really not my kind of thing. So how these guys managed to talk me into speaking at their meeting, is a complete mystery to me. Nonetheless, I did go and talk about waterfall photography, showing many of my photos on a projector screen. And I think I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself. It was fun, and I met some nice folks whom I had only previously corresponded with via email. I even learned of a couple new waterfalls in the area that I will have to go find now. 🙂

This was my bonus shot from the weekend. I wasn’t planning or expecting to photograph this impressive mountain range. But as I hiked to Rainbow Falls in the early morning, I could see that the sun was just starting to hit the mountains, so I looked for a viewpoint, but there wasn’t an obvious one available from the trail. Finally, I scampered off trail, up a little hill to the top of a ridge, and found this fantastic viewpoint of the Ritter Range. Someday, I’d really like to backpack up into these mountains.

It was a cold night camping at Devil’s Postpile. We made sure to bundle the kids up very warmly, so they were fine. My wife, though, didn’t pack enough warm clothes for herself. She was freezing all night. I don’t know why she didn’t ask me if I had an extra sweater (I did). Silly woman.

I trudged out of my warm sleeping bag at some unruly hour of the morning, and dragged my poor dog out of her warm spot as well. She wasn’t too pleased about that. The good thing about the cold in the morning, is the mosquitoes are not out yet. We hiked back to Rainbow Falls for sunrise. I did not have a chance the previous night to get down to the base of the falls, so I wanted to do that. There is a steep set of stairs from the top down to the bottom. It is pretty easy getting down, and my dog was down in two shakes and looking for a spot to dip in the water. She loves getting in the water at every opportunity. I, however, might have liked to have gotten in the water, but I had left my water shoes behind. They were completely frozen from being left overnight outside. The light at Rainbow Falls is rather flat in the morning. It is definitely better to be here for photographing at sunset, not sunrise, as the sun doesn’t get into the canyon until rather late in the morning. I was long gone by then.

Just a half mile below 101 ft. Rainbow Falls is Lower Rainbow Falls. It is one not as much visited as the upper falls, but really is a spunky little waterfall. It is certainly not the 101 ft. monster like its upstream neighbor, but it is a really nice 26 ft. high falls. It should not be bypassed so easily.

As I mentioned, we hiked down here as a family on our first day around sunset. The light was quite nice while photographing this waterfall. The kids and Tara were upstream by the base of the falls, throwing their rocks into the water (the kids, not Tara – but then again, maybe Tara was throwing as well). I got on my water shoes and made my way downstream to this viewpoint. I was right in the water while taking this shot, as far over as I possibly dared, before the water became too deep and strong. It was cold!

Welcome to the best waterfall in the Eastern Sierra of California. No question about it. Rainbow Falls plunges 101 ft. off a cliff on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. A magnificent sight indeed. I’ve been wanting to come here for a few years now. And finally this year, we made it out to see Rainbow Falls.It was worth the wait.

We arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon. As I already mentioned, I was disappointed to see there were mosquitoes about. Argh. Not too many, but I wasn’t expecting any. I hate those little buggers. If I were Noah, I would have squashed the two that made it onto the Ark. Sigh. Anyway, after setting up camp and eating dinner, we hiked down to Rainbow Falls to be there for sunset. It is a 3 mile round-trip hike to Rainbow Falls, and then Lower Rainbow Falls. My six year old, Jadon, had no problems on any of the hiking we did this weekend. He is quite the little hiker. In fact, he wanted to keep on chugging on the last day when the rest of us were all too pooped to do any more hiking (including myself). My three year old, Nekoda, did very well on the hike to Rainbow Falls. She hiked 2.5 out of the 3 miles (we carried her the remainder of the way). I was very proud of how well she did on this hike. The next day, though, she was a bit too tired and I had to carry her for most of the hiking we did. It’s not easy carrying around a 35 pounder on your back (especially one that doesn’t sit still too well). My wife didn’t really like carrying all my camera equipment either (which was probably only a tad lighter than 35 pounds).

We went down to Lower Rainbow Falls first (that pic will be posted later). It was getting late and I wanted to make sure I got down to that waterfall. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water, while I went to take pics. It is funny how kids can be so entertained by something so simple as throwing rocks in water. In fact, it is pretty much all they wanted to do all weekend. Ah, to be a kid again. After shooting the lower falls, Jadon and I whipped back up to the upper Rainbow Falls here, while Tara and Nekoda took their slow, sweet time hiking back. It was just about sunset, and the light was very nice shooting the upper Rainbow Falls. Sunset is definitely the best time to photograph this waterfall. By the time we made it back to the trailhead, we were hiking in the dark. It was a great first day at Devil’s Postpile Natl. Monument.