Leon Turnbull Photography

Back to Canada. After my early morning jaunt to Perry Creek Falls, I noticed that the clouds were becoming quite overcast and it was threatening to rain. The weather was pretty crazy the whole time we were up in Canada this year, and changing constantly. Overcast skies are a great time to shoot waterfalls, so I figured it would be perfect to go to Marysville Falls before it started to rain. I stopped off at my sister’s house, asking if anyone wanted to come with me. I had two takers: my wife and my 3 year old daughter, Nekoda.

My sister lives in Wycliffe. It was overcast in Wycliffe and threatening to rain. Marysville Falls is in the small town of (you guessed it), Marysville, which is only a 10 minute drive up the highway. In Marysville, it was completely sunny! What the heck happened to all those clouds? I really couldn’t figure it out at all. I thought, oh great, I’m gonna have to come back to this one again, to get good light on the falls. But anyway, we made the little hike down to the waterfall since we were there. Marysville Falls is located right in the middle of the town, you can’t miss it, it is well-signed, and there is a short, easy, boardwalk leading down the creek until you reach the viewpoint of the waterfall. My 3 year old had no trouble at all on this short walk.

When we got to the waterfall, it was actually still in shade. My wife said, “hey honey, the waterfall is in shade. That’s good, right?”. I was already quickly setting up my camera gear. I answered, “yes, but it won’t last for long”. The sun was already starting to peak through the trees, and it wouldn’t be long before it started to hit the falls. I managed to get in a couple nice shots before that happened. Now I wouldn’t have to come back to this one later.

Marysville Falls is an interesting one. It is “officially” listed as being 100 feet high. There is no way it is even close to that height. I measured it at 45 ft. high, which seems a much more reasonable figure. How do you get 100 feet from this one ? Geepers. Sounds like a big marketing scam directed at tourists. The other thing is, people jump off this waterfall. If it was 100 ft. high, no one would be jumping off it. I don’t really understand how anyone would jump off this falls anyway, no matter what its height is. It “looks high”, too high to be jumping. Plus, the canyon walls are very steep, and I don’t know how you’d climb back up once you were down at the bottom of the waterfall. I think maybe that people somehow climb down the canyon walls and jump off from a lower point, and then somehow climb back up. Seems pretty crazy to me.

Another interesting tidbit I learned about the town of Marysville from my sister is this … it is historically the location of the largest lead and zinc mine in the world, operated by Cominco. In past years, Cominco did a great job of polluting the town from its mining operations, sometimes dumping sludge and pollutants into the creek while people were swimming in it. Apparently, the soil around town is still polluted, and you don’t want to necessarily be eating vegetables that your kindly neighbor gives you from their garden. This is just stuff my sister told me. I couldn’t verify any of it, but it is probably true. Despite this tidbit, the town does seem to be well cleaned up now.