FOGGY CHRISTMAS EVE

On Christmas Eve I headed up to Downieville. My goal: Attempt to get down to the monster waterfall on Cherokee Creek.

I had little hope for success. On Google Earth, it looked incredibly steep, cliffy, brushy, and it did not look like there were any open views to the waterfall. It was worth a shot though, of course. 😉

I arrived at first light. It was steep but not cliffy or brushy (yet). There was a lot of poison oak on the descent, however. Once again though, I seemed to have managed to avoid getting the big itch. I’ve been doing well at that lately (knock on wood). I continued the descent, deftly avoiding touching anything of the oak variety. I came to the spot where I hoped I could get a view of the thing, on top of a cliff overlook. Oh, but there were just too many trees in the way. It was so close. It would have been a magnificent view point if it were completely open. If I hung my body out over the cliff, whilst holding onto a flimsy tree branch, then I could get a pretty clear view (but uh, no thank you on that one). I thought I was done for, and there would be no further entry down the mountain. But then I saw that I could continue down further without any death defying maneuvers necessary. Just a little further down and I came to this spot with a clear view of Cherokee Creek Falls. This plunge shown here is 79 ft. high. Just as I got here the fog rolled in, completely obscuring my view of the waterfall. But I absolutely could not leave here without a good decent photo. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. Finally, the fog cleared slightly. Just enough to take a decent photo.

There is a lower tier of this waterfall, about the same height as the upper tier. I was able to continue further down the mountain, but I could not find any clear spots to photograph the lower tier. The terrain got too cliffy to go much further, so I headed back up the mountain. I still had more waterfalls I wanted to visit this morning and I had already taken much longer than I wanted at Cherokee Creek, but it was worth it. What a magnificent waterfall.

7 Comments

7 Responses to “FOGGY CHRISTMAS EVE”

  1. kerri Says:

    Very nice. Probably the right choice to not risk life or limb. We look forward to more wonderful photos in the future!

  2. Kristina Says:

    beautiful

  3. leapin26 Says:

    thanks Kerri and Kristina

  4. Robin S. Kent Says:

    Wow, that is a really beautiful cascade. Welldone!

  5. Leon Says:

    Thanks Robin

  6. Robert J. Says:

    I was hoping you might be able to tell me the coordinates of this falls?
    I have looked through many a google search and cannot narrow this one down to anywhere…

    Thanks!

  7. leapin26 Says:

    Hi Robert, sorry for the late response. See my website. I have complete details:
    http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=cherokee-creek-falls-1861

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