Leon Turnbull Photography

Meet Double Falls. A brand-new waterfall I just discovered on Table Mountain in Oroville. And you thought there were no other good waterfalls on Table Mountain. This one is a beauty, 47 feet high and it was quite the adventure getting there.

I arrived at the trailhead just as the rain was letting up in the morning. Perfect timing. It should be great hiking weather now that the rain was supposed to be all done for the day. Yeah right.

I hiked first to Phantom Falls again. That waterfall was flowing a bit stronger than the week before. Everything was just a wee bit better this week (just like the Scottish – haha). I took more pictures of Phantom and then made my way across the stream at the top. I had to go even further upstream this time in order to avoid getting wet feet. The cow bones were still there. This time I found the rib cage of said cow, right in the middle of the creek. Freaky.

Hiking across the mountain, I made my way over to the top of Double Falls. I had to find a way to the bottom but of course I went down the wrong way. Being as it is so steep and cliffy here, I thought I should go down where the slope was gentler, and then hike back upstream to the falls. I accidentally scared up a bunch of cows on the way down. They took off like gangbusters down towards the cliff edge and then scrambled up the cliff to the top of the mountain. They thought they were mountain goats! Not kidding.

I made it down to the bottom, but there was no clear path upstream and it was very overgrown. I was hiking through a jungle. At least there was no poison oak (well, I didn’t see any but so then why did I get the itch after this hike??? ugh!!) Despite the crazy jungle, I finally made it upstream to the waterfall. It is a beauty, with two separate streams coming together and dropping off a cliff into a marvelous double waterfall. As soon as I arrived, it started to rain again. I thought the rain was done for the day! It is a difficult waterfall to photograph anyway but even more so in the rain, so I waited a long time for the rain to stop, but it did not want to. I finally gave up, hoping that I got a decent shot in the rain. Besides, I was getting far too wet sitting there.

Clearly people have been down here before, but I believe I am the first to document this waterfall. There was a path and on the way back I followed it up, going a different way back up the mountain. I was a bit concerned, because there was a very steep ravine that I saw on the way down. How would I get past that? It would suck to get halfway up the mountain, and then get blocked out and have to go all the way back down. It looked like that would happen as I approached the ravine, but then I saw the path continued and I was able to get across. It was actually much easier than the way I had gone down. No crazy jungle mass to hack my way through. It was a fantastic rainy day on Table Mountain.