Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s the GBH I found at my own little marsh near my house in Folsom. I had an enjoyable time watching this guy, though he didn’t move around too much. LOL. As soon as I left though, he flew over to very near where I was sitting. Doh!

The day after Christmas, my friend Rob and I made some plans to go out waterfall hunting. We decided to try Seven Falls near Oroville, a poison oak infested, steep cliff hanging, and brush scrambling ratfest, but an incredibly beautiful waterfall area. If there is one place that is worth getting a case of poison oak for, it is Seven Falls. We made the long, slow drive up there; tagging along for the ride was Rob’s daughter and her friend. I’m not sure Rob did such a great job informing them of what they were getting into on this hike. They seemed surprised when I mentioned what the hike was going to be like.

Well, we didn’t make it anyway. We surprisingly ran into a lot of snow on the road up past the Feather Falls area. Too much snow for my big 4 wheel drive SUV to handle. We had to turn around. In doing so, we managed to get stuck. It took awhile for us to dig out (fortunately, I had Rob and the girls to help me, or I might still be up there). We decided to head on back down and make the hike out to see spectacular Feather Falls instead. It was a good choice.

I was anxious to return to Feather Falls this winter for a couple reasons. The first is because of the huge wildfire that occurred here this summer, causing the trail to be closed for most of the summer. There was damage to the overlook as well as many fallen trees along the trail. The burnt areas were definitely noticeable, but it was certainly not awful. There were a few fallen trees but not too many, and the overlook was completely restored and damage was not noticeable except for a few burnt boards that were replaced.

The second reason I wanted to get back to Feather Falls was to determine its true height. I had read on Bryan Swan and Dean Goss’ world waterfalls website that they had determined that Feather Falls was not 640 ft. high, as is widely reported. Indeed, after examining the topo maps, it seemed to be more in the neighborhood of 400 ft. high. I wanted to measure it more officially with my laser rangefinder and clinometer to confirm this difference of opinion. I found that indeed Feather Falls is only 410 ft. high. It is definitely *not* 640 ft. high, and certainly nowhere near being the 6th highest waterfall in the U.S. (which is also widely reported). This came as a complete shock and big disappointment to me. I had always just assumed the 640 figure was accurate. Who came up with that figure and how? But the truth is now revealed: Feather Falls true height is 410 ft.

In other tidbits, Rob came oh so close to making it to the base of Feather Falls. If you’ve been to Feather Falls, you know how crazy that sounds and how sheer steep the cliffs around this canyon are. I thought he was crazy as well. I waited for him at the overlook while he made the scramble down. It didn’t seem too bad. I figured if he made it and didn’t die, I might try it as well. As it turned out, he came to one final section where the only way to continue was to grab onto some poison oak with his hands. He decided against it in the end, perhaps very wisely. As for the two girls with us, they talked a lot … about food. It made Rob and I very hungry. Fortunately, Rob had a solution. Stop at Jake’s Burger joint in Oroville on the way back. Man, they have some good burgers and shakes there. Waterfall bagged. Hunger satisfied. A good day indeed.

I’ve been antsy lately to get out to see some waterfalls. I get this way once the rain starts here. I love the rain. You may think I’m crazy, but to me, rain means waterfalls. I love hiking in the rain too. You may think I’m crazy about that too. The only thing that is a bit tough is taking photographs in the rain. After striking out waterfall hunting the previous weekend, on Christmas Eve, I was pretty much going bonkers. My wife let me (or kicked me) out of the house for a couple hours, and off I went to Traverse Creek Falls.

Traverse Creek Falls is a nice little 30 ft. high waterfall, close by, and fairly easy to get to. It is a good one for seeing how the waterfalls are flowing generally, because its flow varies so much. In the summer, it is completely dry. When it is flowing, it varies from a single segmented form (seen here), to a beautiful Havasu Falls type double segmented form, to an all out 25 foot wide torrent of water. I was hoping it would be in double segmented form, but unfortunately it was still in single segment form. We just need a little more rain.

But it has been raining quite a bit this month. We’ve gotten quite a lot of snow in the mountains, much needed for our water supply (and the spring waterfall season of course). Snow in the mountains usually means rain in the valley. And that means the valley and coastal waterfalls flowing again. On Christmas Eve it was raining in Folsom when I headed out to Traverse Creek. Did I say I love the rain? But fortunately, it was only drizzle by the time I got to the waterfall for taking pics, though I only took this one picture while I was here. But it was definitely nice to get out in the rain and see a waterfall. Merry Christmas everyone!

I found a very cool spot for bird watching and it is basically right across from my house! I could easily walk to it from my house, and although it is right beside a very busy street, it seems to be somewhat isolated from traffic. Well, you can see and hear the cars going by, but it seems not too many people walk down there. I had the place all to myself, and only saw one jogger going by while I was down there (but then again, it was a windy and cold day).

I’ve lived in Folsom quite a while, and have passed this spot (and have seen it) many times. But I’ve never had an urge to go down there until now. It is a neat little marshy area. The really nice thing about it is that you can get right down to the water easily (though it did require a bit of whacking through overgrown prickly brush). I saw quite a few birds in this area, including this egret, a GBH, a hawk, American Coots, another unidentifiable duck like creature, and plenty of smaller birds as well. I unfortunately scared off this egret when I got down to the water, even though I was trying to very quietly make my way through all the brush and branches. But I didn’t scare off the heron or the other birds. So I had a grand old time just sitting down there, enjoying the birds.

By the way, I did go out waterfall hunting this past weekend. But I struck out. It’s finally been raining like egrets around here. The waterfalls are flowing again (at least for now). I went out to try and find a brand new waterfall that someone had told me about in passing. What I found was a 20 footer along a small creek that wasn’t flowing too well. It’s one of those types of waterfalls that would only be decent during a raging flood. I didn’t even take a picture of it. I gotta start asking more questions when people tell me about waterfalls. How tall is it? What is it like … really ? So in the meantime, you’re stuck with wildlife shots for awhile. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get out and find some more (good) waterfalls over Christmas.

I found a family of beavers while I was out and about recently. It is “somewhere along the American River”. It is kind of a