Leon Turnbull Photography

I have been trying to get to Upper Bassi Falls for three years now. I finally got it. It is a tough one indeed! But I now bring you this exclusive new waterfall that has never been documented before by anyone else.

How do I even know about all these waterfalls anyway, you ask? I study topo maps. I study Google Earth. I find likely candidates. I search them out. More often than not, unsuccessfully. You cannot see anything on Google Earth for this location, but the topo map indicates a substantial drop here. It was going to be an epic waterfall. But could I even get to it? Finding an upper waterfall on Bassi Creek has been my dream for some time. It is almost as though I willed this waterfall to exist.

Two years ago, I made my first attempt. It seemed logical to me to make an attempt at this waterfall from the side or from above, since there is a well traveled trail. From there you are pretty close to Bassi Creek. And yet so far. However, the trail up to the top was much more difficult than I imagined, and took a very long time. There was also too much snow, so I did not venture over to Bassi Creek. Last year, I tried again. I biked as far as I could, in order to save time and make the hike quicker. Biking did not really save too much time (though coming back down was a bit quicker). I climbed up a ridge  to make my way down to Bassi Creek from above. However, the manzanita brush there is incredible. It is about two stories tall. No way to get through that stuff. I tried a second time that year, thinking I could come over to Bassi Creek from the side. Again, far too much manzanita.

This year rolls around, and I decide to make one last attempt at Upper Bassi Falls. This time I will hike in from below, following Bassi Creek up to the waterfall. I did not really have much hope. It seemed pretty darn brushy on Google Earth, in particular the last half mile or so. Well I thought, maybe if I could get within a half mile, I can just pound my way through that brush. And so I did.

The trailhead starts out at 6500 ft. I thought there might still be too much snow at 6500 ft., and in fact I wondered if I could even drive to the trailhead, but there was no snow at all. Indeed, there was hardly any snow on the entire hike up to the falls. This is very sad when you think about it. It is only May 10. The trail starts out very nicely. Most of the hike was actually quite fun. I was having a grand old time. Until I came to that darn brush. Then it was NOT FUN. It was pretty easy to follow along Bassi Creek at first. Like I said, I was having balls of fun. About 0.5 to 0.75 miles before the falls, however, it starts to get steeper, and then the brush comes at you. You can try to duck, it will smack you. You can try to jump, it will smack you. You can try to deke your way around it, but it will smack you. Seriously though, there was just one small section with this incredibly thick manzanita, near the bottom of a small waterfall. I thought if I can get through this brush to the top of this section, then the terrain will level out and it might open up. It was close. So close. The manzanita almost claimed victory, but I found a way through that brush and up to the top of that small waterfall. And voila, the terrain did open up. I was able to continue following the creek up to the waterfall without too much difficulty. Where there should be a massive waterfall. But alas, where I only found this 47 ft. high cascade. It was not the epic waterfall that I envisioned being here. C’est la vie. There is a large drop in elevation here, perhaps 150 to 200 feet in total, however, there are no substantial falls. The creek just cascades very uninterestingly down this part. This 47 ft. section was the only one that I would consider to be an actual waterfall. But still, it is a nice little cascade for sure.

The sun was a killer for me. According to my calculations, I had until 11:30AM before the sun would be on the waterfall. I figured I had plenty of time to get up here and thus I did not rush. However, when I arrived at about 8AM, it was already in the sun. What? How did I miscalculate that one? The sun was shining right in my face and right on the falls. Not a good thing for photography! The weather forecast had indicated it would be all sunny in the morning, and the clouds would not come in until the afternoon. Well, God is good and He provided a miracle for me, bringing in some clouds to cover the sun so I could take some decent photos of this waterfall. Thank you Lord. Awesome!

I continued to the very top of the waterfall and then upstream for another half mile. I thought there might be another waterfall possibility further upstream, and even though I was tired, I knew I will likely never be back here so I just had to check it out now. At the top of the falls, I finally hit the snow, and it was flatter, so hiking that half mile over the snow was pretty easy. However, there was no other waterfall up there. Ah well, at least I tried.