Leon Turnbull Photography

It has been crazy and stressful at work recently. But this weekend, I was able to get out and go waterfall hunting. It’s been rain rain rain lately, thank the Lord, and the waterfalls are jumping. I just had to get out and see some.

It was Valentine’s Day too. Perhaps not a great day to go out hiking. But my wife and kids were up visiting the in-laws, and not coming home until later in the day. I had all morning to myself. My dog really really really wanted to come with me on this one too. She’s really good with those sad puppy dog eyes. But I couldn’t take here this time. State parks, unfortunately, don’t allow dogs, plus I figured I would be doing some tough scrambling. And I did.
And the day started out with a bang.

I was trying to find a couple new waterfalls in Coloma on Dutch Creek. I had heard about them from a couple different people, but I couldn’t find too much information about them. I knew that the trail was now on public land (in Marshall Gold Discovery State Park), and this is a recent development, as all the land around Mt. Murphy used to be private. A most excellent development indeed.

As I drove closer to Placerville, I found an interesting thing. Snow! Placerville does not often get snow, but there it was. And quite a lot of it (2-3 inches). As I turned up Hwy 49 to Coloma, I found more and more of it. And the road was not plowed, so it was quite slushy driving. Then I came to a tree that had fallen down, blocking half the road. Then another. Then another. Then I came to a really big tree down in the road with a policeman there, directing traffic. After that, I passed a couple more fallen trees. I was starting to think this was going to be a really fun morning. Then as I drove down into Coloma, all the snow disappeared. I was bummed. I wanted to do some hiking through the snow.

I found the trailhead easily enough. But parking at the trailhead was zilch. All private property along Bayne Rd., and “no parking” signs everywhere. Although I truly applaud the state in purchasing this land along Dutch Creek, I’m slightly miffed that they wouldn’t arrange a small bit of parking at the trailhead. I had to park way back at the bridge, and walk along the road to the trailhead. It was only a half-mile, no big deal. You cannot park anywhere in Coloma without paying the fee for the state park. But the museum was closed, and there were no parking slips anywhere. So I left a big note on my dashboard, saying “museum closed, cannot pay fee”. Hopefully, that would keep me from getting a ticket. It did.

Now I had heard that there were two 30 ft. waterfalls on Dutch Creek. But I found so much more. After about 3/4 mile hiking, I came to the first waterfall. I measured it to be 24 ft. high. It was possible to get down to the bottom of this one, so I did so, and took some photos of it. The creek was flowing well, and the spray from the falls made it difficult to take a photograph. After seeing this pretty little falls, I climbed up above it, thinking I would find one more 30 footer. Instead, I found two beauties, 87 ft. and 112 ft. high, located right where Johntown Creek and Dutch Creek come together. What an incredibly gorgeous location! But it was difficult to photograph these two waterfalls because of the steep terrain. I climbed up to the top of the falls on Johntown Creek, and had this great view looking over to Dutch Creek Falls.

It was a glorious day hiking. Happy Valentine’s Day to me.