Leon Turnbull Photography

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Last week I took the family on a drive in a hunt for wildflowers. It has been warm and sunny here in California, the wildflowers are a popping now. We found this nice little place near Ione, a beautiful field display of poppies and white popcorn flowers. The kids had fun playing amongst the flowers, and my wife had fun taking pics with her iPhone. It was a lovely evening.

I love finding new waterfalls. Have I said that before?

Well, here is a new one that I found today. I had heard about a waterfall on Panther Creek near Tiger Creek Reservoir, off Hwy 88. I had no idea where it was exactly, or what it was like, or if it could be accessed. So off I went in search of the truth.

As is my custom, I get up bright and early, get a quick breakfast, make some coffee, and set off driving in the dark. About 30 or 60 minutes into the drive, using the restroom becomes somewhat of a necessity. Thus, I stopped at the Shell gas station in Sutter Creek to use the facilities. A sign on the restroom door, however, said “Restroom is for employees only”. Crap! Is there no public restroom here, I thought? I turned around to go ask the clerk, and that is when I noticed a hunter dude standing by the counter. He gave me a nod and a wink, and pointed back at the restroom, indicating it was perfectly fine for me to use the restroom. He sure didn’t look like an employee, but he did look like he was in the know, and that gave me assurance it was okay, so I turned around and went back inside. After I came out, I went to go buy a drink, and I noticed two boys come in the store to use the facilities as well. The hunter dude was still standing there, and did the same thing for them, giving them a nod and telling them it was okay to use the restroom. I wondered if he just stood there all day doing this. Anyway, I went up to the counter to pay for my drink. The clerk was an East Indian man, very friendly, and after giving me my change he told me, “You have a wonderful day, and God bless you.” Wow, I just thought that was so incredibly nice, and it totally made my morning.

Anyway, onto the waterfall. I drove up to Tiger Creek Reservoir, and continued up Tiger Creek Road, to the place where I anticipated the waterfall to be, after my study of the Topo maps. For once, it was in the exact spot I anticipated, and it was even visible from the road. Getting down to it, however, was quite another matter entirely.

A very steep drop-off from the road made it impossible to get down to it. I tried scrambling down a gulley, hoping I would get a view of it from lower down. It was treacherous, the slope was crumbly, and I made my way down incredibly slowly and carefully. Getting to the bottom was out of the question as I came upon the top of a cliff. I made my way over to a possible overlook, but I found it would be much too dangerous to get right up to the overlook. I also saw that even if I could get there, I would not get any decent view of the falls. Dang! I came all this way and cannot even get to see this waterfall. I took a quick snap of the obscured waterfall view, and made my way back up the steep slope to the road.

Once back at the top, I went back down the road a short distance and that is when I saw another possible descent, much gentler than the first one. I made my way down and found that I could pretty much get all the way to the bottom. I came to this fabulous unobstructed view of the waterfall. I measured it to be 78 ft. high. A stunning waterfall in a remote location. I think it would have been possible to get even closer, and possibly all the way down to the creek, but I decided that I would save that for another day, as there were more spots I wanted to try to get to, and the sun was already close to shining down into the canyon. So back up I went again, and back to my car.

My second quest for the day was to try to find a waterfall on nearby Tiger Creek. But this time I struck out. I really had no clue where this one would be. I was hoping to see it from the road, or possibly try hiking up the creek from the powerhouse. However, access at the powerhouse was all closed off, so that was out of the question. So instead, I opted for a different sort of hike. Following a trail from the powerhouse, I climbed up to the Tiger Creek Forebay, which is a little reservoir that PG&E has created. Why would I do this? I just do not know. In fact, it was kinda crazy cuz it was an incredibly steep hike up there, and took me a full hour to climb the mountain. At the top, there were no views at all of anything (except the uninteresting little reservoir). It also required some very agile footwork to avoid the hundreds of ticks I saw along the trail, just hanging off the grasses, waiting to attack an unsuspecting traveler. I think I could be eligible for some sort of dance trophy, because I managed to avoid getting any ticks on my body whatsoever.

This is Dutch Creek Falls from the middle on the other side of the canyon. It is in a beautiful little spot in between the two waterfalls (Dutch and Johntown). To get here requires a crossing of Johntown Creek above that waterfall, and a tricky descent on the other side. It is not for the faint of heart. But the views are spectacular. From here you can see down the canyon, the bottom part of Dutch Creek Falls joining up with the bottom slide from Johntown Creek. It is an amazing location.

Friday morning I took some time off work to go back to Dutch Creek in Coloma. I knew I had to work late Friday night, so I was able to take the morning off for a hike.

My goal: Get to the base of Johntown Creek Falls. The one waterfall in this fantastically stunning area that has eluded me thus far. Surrounded by steep cliffs and dangerous drop-offs, these beautiful waterfalls are difficult and deadly to get up close to. Would I be foiled again?

It is spring time in California. We have not had rain in a couple weeks now. The flowers are blooming. And yet, Dutch Creek was still flowing rather strongly. I was surprised to say the least. It had a bit less flow than when I was here last time, but still very nice. I was definitely worried it would be down to something not much more than a trickle. It is also very nice along the trail right now with the wildflowers blooming. I saw many sorts, and do not know the names of them all. But I do know poppies, and there is quite a beautiful display of them on Murphy Mountain. Definitely these would be worth seeing even with no waterfall. And the poison oak along the trail is most definitely in leaf now, and it is extremely abundant. Last time I was here, it was not in leaf and thus very difficult to see. Now I could see that it is just all over the place up here. It is not surprising that I picked up a rash last time I was here, because it is difficult to avoid even when you can see it.

My friend Rob recently was here and showed me pictures of Johntown Creek from the base. How did you get down there, I asked, incredulously. He told me that he crossed the creek above Johntown Creek Falls, and scrambled down a path on the other side. I was skeptical, knowing that the terrain is very steep on the other side. But he told me that “it wasn’t too bad”. Yeah right. So anyway, that was my plan, to follow in his steps. I crossed the creek without even having to get my feet wet (though I had brought my water shoes in case needed). I found a path on the other side where people had obviously gone before (and many more than just Rob), and it looked fairly easy at first. Then it started to get steeper as it descended down to Dutch Creek Falls. I proceeded very carefully now, not wanting to fall. It got steeper and steeper the lower I descended. Finally I came to Dutch Creek Falls, and found steep drop-offs all around. No way to proceed any further. Not too bad, yeah right. I know Rob is part mountain goat, but did he really descend this cliff? That would be just incredible. Well, no way was I going down this cliff. I took pictures of Dutch Creek Falls from here, then turned around to go back.

As I turned around, I noticed a rock outcrop over towards Johntown Creek Falls. I decided to go take a look see. As I got there and peered over the rock outcrop, I noticed a path down to the bottom! It was hidden behind this rock, but it was very descendable. Aha, so this is how Rob got to the bottom! I followed it down, and it was steep, but not too bad, just like Rob had said. At the bottom, you can go back over to Dutch Creek for a nice view there, or over to the base of Johntown Creek Falls. I did both, but first went over to Johntown Creek. It is so beautiful at the bottom of this waterfall, as it is tucked into a lovely little cove area. I measured this main drop of Johntown Creek to be 48 ft. high. The waterfall is bigger than this though, as it continues down in a large slide below this main drop, but it is difficult to see the bottom slide from here. This is such a spectacular location, even though I have the pictures I want now, I will definitely be returning here again someday.

Spring is definitely in the air here. The rain is gone. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming. I do not think I have heard the following words/phrases at all this year in California: “drought”, or “water restrictions”. And yet, as of March 1, we were only at 90 percent of normal snowpack, according to the DWR. With no more rain on the horizon this month (it seems), we will probably end up being right around average for the year. Folsom Lake is currently 50 percent full, and when the snow melts (and it is definitely melting right now), then it will fill up, so we will certainly be okay for this year. However, considering it is an El Nino year, one would have expected (and hoped) that our snowpack this year would be very well above average. That just did not happen. It will be another short waterfall season here, this spring, I think.

And yet, because our precipitation this year was well spread out over the winter, it looks like it is going to be a very good year for wildflowers in California. Spectacular, even.

This is a shot of some of those pretty flowers on Table Mountain in Oroville. And a waterfall in the background to boot. Is that sweet or what?

The waterfall is Hollow Falls, one of the many on Table Mountain, and one of five I got to on this day. I had not been to Hollow Falls before, and it is a pretty nice one. You can even get down to the bottom of it fairly easily.

The flowers on Table Mountain were just starting to come out when I was here (that was a couple weeks ago, now they are probably quite nice). The one exception to this, however, was right at Hollow Falls, where I saw these really nice ones. I tried to get a shot of them with the waterfall in the background. I am rather fond of this one.