Leon Turnbull Photography

What is all this white stuff? I haven’t seen it in years in California, or it sure seems that way. Well, in truth it was just a very small storm, but very welcome. The snow pack in California is currently at under 20 percent of average for this time of year! This is horrendous, and it is much worse than last year. Even though we have had some rain and the reservoirs “seem” to be doing ok, we have not had the snow, so there will be no melting snow pack this year to help fill the reservoirs in the spring and summer. This is the fourth year of drought now, and it is the worst year by far. But this little storm is something, and we have another little storm coming next week. What about after that? We can only keep praying.

I really felt like getting up into the snow this weekend and seeing a snowy waterfall. It was something I just absolutely had to do. But where could I go, and what would be flowing? Well, it was back to Cisco Grove and Rattlesnake Creek for the third time this winter. It was absolutely gorgeous up in the Sierra with the fresh snow. I arrived at Cisco Grove and found 6-7 inches of white stuff on the ground at 5600 ft. elevation. This was a lot more than I was expecting to find. This storm dumped about twice as much as the forecasters said there would be. I am not complaining! It was a bit tricky navigating my vehicle into the parking space with all that snow, hoping I would not get stuck, but I managed to do it successfully. I was just hoping the plows would not come along and box me in later.

It is a quick short hike up to Lower Rattlesnake Creek Falls, 24 ft. high. I did this without snowshoes, though I really should have put them on. It was a bit tricky getting down to the falls, and climbing up along the rocks to get up close to it, but it was certainly incredibly gorgeous with the fresh snow on the ground. I took my photos and then got back to the car and was ready for the next part of my weekend adventure. Another long hike (with snowshoes), and I ended up finding a marvelous new waterfall; it was interesting, surprising and awesome. Stay tuned, because that post will be coming up next.

I was hoping my son would come along on my hike this weekend, but he was sick so he wimped out. I was sick too, but I am not one to wimp out so easily. I don’t blame him though. He was sicker than I was. In a way, it’s a good thing he didn’t come. The road to where I was planning to hike was blocked by a huge tree fallen across the road. Well that pretty much settled it. Plan A was out of the question. I could have still hiked to the waterfall, but it would have been 12 miles round trip, and I was not up for a long hike. Plan B it is then.

I drove into Lassen Volcanic NP. It was extremely windy and extremely cold. The thermometer was at 20 degrees. There was a large group of people getting ready to hike up Lassen Peak – at least I assume that is where they were going; it is somewhat popular in the winter to hike up there and ski down. But the snow was complete ice today, and with the awful cold and wind, it didn’t seem like a smart thing to do. Especially the skiing down part. That would be suicide.

Well after using the facilities, I drove back out to the Brokeoff trailhead where I found another early morning riser, this crazy one was planning to hike up Mt Brokeoff. My destination, however, was down, not up. There was quite a lot of snow at this elevation (6500 ft.), and of course it was all ice. I got on my snowshoes and followed the stream downwards, and with the snowshoes on, it was easy enough. There was just one unmarked drainage I had to cross that gave me a lot of trouble. Firstly, the slopes along the creek were steep and icy, and I could not find an easy way down to the creekside. When I finally found a spot to get down, I couldn’t see any way across the creek without getting wet, and I did not want to get wet in this icy cold weather. I took off my snowshoes and with much difficulty, I rock hopped across successfully. On the way back up later, I tried to bypass this creek crossing by going straight up, but it led in a wrong direction, so I eventually had to cross it again anyway, and also with much difficulty. However I did not take my snowshoes off on the way back – crossing on a big log with my snowhoes still on. That was highly entertaining (for the squirrels watching me). That little unnamed creek sure gave me a lot of troubles … but I shouldn’t be too upset with it, because it added quite a lot of flow to my waterfall.

And downwards to the waterfall. When I came to the steep section near the falls, the snow disappeared. That was good because there is no way I could have descended that part on icy snow, period. But without snow, it was easy to do. Unfortunately, I had my winter boots on instead of my hiking boots, and they have worse tread (why didn’t I wear my hiking boots – that was stupid, Leon), but I made it down successfully, without going over the cliff, and that was tricky because the cliffs are crazy steep around here, and the ground crumbly. You sure don’t want to get too close to the edge, but fortunately, there is a fabulous viewpoint of this waterfall that does not require too many crazy cliff hugging maneuvers. And it was gorgeous! I was not expecting to find such a beautiful vertical drop, and to top it off the flow was quite decent (thanks partly to my unnamed creek nemesis). I measured the falls to be 103 ft. high, which makes it the highest vertical drop that I have yet found in Lassen Volcanic NP (Kings Creek Cascades is a bigger falls, but is not vertical). I have to say this is perhaps the most beautiful waterfall in Lassen I have seen, and yet this is another one that no one seems to know about, and I did not find any trace of path or human activity down here. It is an unnamed stream, but it does have good flow in the spring. Winner winner pumpkin eater.

After hiking back up to the snow line, I continued on across the ridge over to West Sulphur Creek. I wanted to see if I could see the upper falls from this side of the canyon. I was not planning to do this initially, but I realized I was pretty close and so I decided to go for it. It was easy enough hiking over to the cliffs above West Sulphur but there is no view of the falls from there, so once again I had to find a way down.  I took off my snowshoes again and went down down down. Eventually, I did find a view of that waterfall, but the bottom of it was obscured. Perhaps if I went all the way to the bottom, I could find better views, but there was snow down there and it would have been dangerous, and both the upper and lower falls were already in the sun anyway. I will have to save that one for another time. It was a very marvelous and very cold day in Lassen.

Wow. What a find this one was. Happy Valentine’s Day to me!

I actually wasn’t even planning to go here. As I was falling asleep on Friday night I changed my mind to come here instead of my original plan. I figured the other one would be a waste of time with probably not even any waterfalls. Good choice Leon. I love it when a plan comes together.

The trail (logging road) starts at about 7000 ft. There was snow on the ground but not much, so I figured I wouldn’t need my snowshoes. Of course there should be 8 feet of snow right now, not six inches. Sigh. As I descended there seemed to be a bit more snow but it was hard and easy to walk on. Actually it was completely icy in places which made the steeper parts a bit treacherous to walk on. I wish I had brought a sled. That would have been fun. Instead, I just walked along very gingerly, hoping I would not slip on the ice and slide 100 ft. down the mountain. I didn’t, but there were a couple “almosts”.

The last part of the hike is off the road with a big descent down to the river. It was steep but a piece of cake really. No snow. No treacherous terrain. When I got to the river all I could say was WOW.

I arrived first at the upper sections of the waterfall – Middle Fork Cosumnes River Falls (shown here). You can see this upper part on Google Earth but it doesn’t look all that big. I wasn’t expecting to find much here at all, a 30 ft high falls at most. What I found was a 322 ft high falls. Yes you heard that right. These upper two tiers are 200 ft. high, with two more tiers below (120 ft.). It is all one gigantic waterfall. Of course, you cannot see all four tiers in one shot. But that is all right. I spent a long time here taking many photos from all sorts of angles and spots. I could not get right to the edge of the water, as it was too treacherous. One bad slip and I would be at the very bottom of the falls (in pieces). Who knew this waterfall was here? No one that I know of. It is not documented anywhere, yet it is such a major waterfall. Needless to say it was a tough climb back up the mountain, over a thousand feet back to the car, but it was well worth the money. I saw two more waterfalls as well today (more to come about that later).

My wife thought I should name this Valentine’s Falls because I found it on Valentine’s Day (and the name Middle Fork Cosumnes River Falls is just way too boring – those are her words, not mine). Valentine’s Falls sounds good to me. Does it sound good to everyone else?

I had no intention whatsoever to go back up to Upper Rattlesnake Creek Falls. I only wanted to go back to the Middle Falls because I did not have a good photo of that one. It was in the full sun last time I was up here a couple weeks ago. As I started the hike this was what I fully intended to do.

It was cold and snowy in Cisco Grove. This was a bit surprising because it was not supposed to snow at this low elevation from this storm (5600 ft.). There was not much snow on the ground, but it was blustery and I was already wet from my previous hike to Canyon Creek Falls. This would be a fun hike. Not.

Actually though, I warmed up quite quickly. The sun was even making a concerted effort to come out (and potentially ruin my photo taking). When I arrived at the bridge over Rattlesnake Creek, I found it to be raging. My thoughts about not going to the upper falls changed pretty fast. Resistance was futile! The more I climbed up the mountain, the more I started to feel it. The upper falls would be spectacular, and it is only about 1.5 miles past the Middle Falls. I might not get another chance like this in a long time, so I arrived at the Middle Falls in due order (which was stupendous – picture coming soon).  The sun was still hiding behind clouds, so I took my photos and continued the climb up the mountain. There were tons of little side streams and cascades coming down the mountain and across the road, over the road, and under the road, and along the road. Nothing really picture worthy, but certainly very interesting. At the upper falls (6400 ft.), I was hiking through snow. There were a good few inches on the ground, and more water and streams flowing along the road, making my feet very wet. The upper falls were crazy. It was impossible to get up close to it this time, so I had to take my photo from further back, standing carefully on a slick rock beside the raging creek. The sun came out shortly after taking my photos, and I made the hike back down to the car, rather starving by the time I made it back because it was well after noon by then. It was an awesome day in the Sierra.

So after my hike at Mile Hill Creek, I decided I just had to go see 144 ft. high Canyon Creek Falls after all. I am still looking for that monster flow at Canyon Creek. Would I finally get it?

It was wet and rainy, a perfect day for a hike. The rain was mostly light though, so I did not get too wet … until I slipped on a log while crossing over a stream, and ended up with both feet planted right in the water. Doh. Why I thought that flimsy log would hold my weight, I have no idea.

It is a pretty easy hike down to the overlook at Canyon Creek, and I made it in good time, picking up a couple ticks along the way – which I promptly sent along their way, over the cliff. I hope they had a nice flight.

It is a bit difficult to know exactly what the river flow was when I arrived because there is a delay in the water reaching the gauge at the North Fork Dam. The North Fork American River peaked at just over 10,000 cfs from the Rain-Ocalypse Part II, but that was in the middle of the night. By the time I got down here, I estimate it was around 6000 or 7000 cfs. We picked up 8.5 inches of rain in the Northern Sierra foothills, but it was all spread out. The river level was up and down all weekend. The river looked to be raging and much higher than when I was here in December (when it was around 4000 cfs), but Canyon Creek Falls looked exactly identical to how it looked in December. I could not even tell any difference from comparing my two photos. I guess I was hoping it would look a lot more impressive with higher flows, but it seems not. Nonetheless, I will still keep coming back here in the future. It is an amazing place. Unnamed waterfalls were streaming off the mountains. I could barely make out Lovers Leap in the distance through the fog. The Big Waterfall itself was almost in fog and I was fortunate that I was able to see it. It was an incredible day in the North Fork American River canyon.