Leon Turnbull Photography

Episode 3? What happened to episodes 1-2? Well, it is like Star Wars when you see episodes 4-6 before 1-3. But were 4-6 better than 1-3? And what about 7? I will not get into that debate with you, but I will say this: I still remember the day in 1977 when we went to see Star Wars in the theater (I was 9 years old). Anyhow, in this case, episodes 3-4 *are* better than 1-2 and that is why I am posting them first. It also fits because this is my third attempt at hiking to these waterfalls on Rancheria Creek. Don’t you just love all the subtle nuances?

Today the big hike begins. The waterfall madman awakens from sleeping in the car at the campground. I got almost 11 hours of sleep the previous night. How sweet is that. I needed it, and I was in no big hurry to get started. I got up, made my breakfast, drank my coffee, and drove out to Hetch Hetchy to pick up my wilderness permit.

Five minutes into the hike, my belt buckle broke. I had not even gotten to the dam yet. I had Krazy glued it before I left, and I did not expect it to last through the entire backpacking trip, but five minutes??? It was still workable, but if the rest of it broke off, I would be in dear trouble. I prayed it would hold up for the trip. I guess I will need to buy a new backpack for next time, but they are kinda expensive, and I do like the one I have. I have had it since the year 1977 (or something).

The reservoir was not full, and yet they were releasing a lot of water from the dam. It made for a nice rainbow, but why are they letting out so much water? Are those SF’ers really that thirsty?

The flow in Wapama Falls was ok. It was pretty much the same flow as when I was here last year. This is exactly what I expected. I did not get wet at all crossing the bridge. (remember that statement)

Then I remembered something critical: I forgot my first aid kit back in the car. Doh! How stupid is that?? It is obviously much too far to go back to get it now. Would I need it? It is a long trip. Can I take a chance that I will not need it? What was in there that I am going to need? Well I swear that almost immediately after remembering this stupid mistake, my toe started hurting and I was starting to get a blister. Would you call that a psychological blister? I never get blisters in these hiking boots. And now I am on a long hike, and getting a blister on the first day, and nothing to treat it with? How am I going to manage this?

I finally arrived at Rancheria Falls. My wife pronounces it ranch-er-EE-a, but I have never heard it pronounced that before. I have only heard it pronounced ranch-EER-i-a. That must be correct, then. Sorry, Tara. There are two absolutely fantastic waterfalls here, and they are both much much more impressive in person than in photos. I was not expecting either of them to be as big and majestic as they are. Wow. There is also a third one as well (I will get to that later – in Episode 3.5).

Rancheria Falls is an extremely popular backpacking destination, and there is a large area for camping, and most of the sites are all shaded. There was no one else here when I arrived, and I had the place to myself. I was surprised at this. I picked out what I thought would be the best spot, but the problem is that there were mosquitoes everywhere here, and obviously they were going to be a lot worse in the evening. I had hoped that by going in early May, I would not have to deal with stupid mosquitoes. Apparently, they get a much earlier start in Yosemite than elsewhere, much to my chagrin. I dropped my bag and made a search for a better spot. I went to the top of the main falls. There were no camping sites up there. I went down to the bottom of the upper falls. Nothing there that did not have mosquitoes. I continued on down to the lower falls, going to the bottom of that waterfall. Still no good spots. Then finally back to the top of the lower falls, and there it was. It took about a full hour to find this spot, but I found it. It was breezy, there were no mosquitoes, it had a little bit of shade, access to water at the top of the falls, and it was secluded (not that it mattered with no one else around anyway). It was the perfect camping spot. I went back to retrieve my pack, and dragged it back down to my new spot, set up camp, relaxed for a bit, nursed my very painful toe with nothing to nurse it with, and watched as the thunderstorm clouds started rolling in. I was a bit exposed in this spot. There weren’t supposed to be any thunderstorms today, but it was nothing to worry about, the clouds hovered over the reservoir and stalled there. They did not look very menacing anyway (famous last words?)

Anyhow, around 4pm, I went over to the top of the falls to get some water to make my dinner, had a wonderful baked lasagna meal (well – freeze dried – is that wonderful?), and set off with my daypack back down to Tiltill Creek. Huh? Well there is a nice 40 ft. falls at the bridge over Tiltill Creek you know, and of course I wanted to get a good photo of it in good light. What I did not realize is that it is quite a walk from Tiltill Creek to Rancheria, and a big ascent. For some reason, I thought it would be much easier to get back and forth between the two. I had planned to shoot Tiltill, then the three waterfalls on Rancheria all on that same evening. But they are all much further apart then I thought. Tiltill Creek is not very easy to photograph. In fact, it is impossible to get a clear view of it. That seems to be the norm with all these waterfalls (except Lower Rancheria – pictured here). After Tiltill, I went cross country over to Rancheria Creek. I hiked up the mountain off-trail to get back to Lower Rancheria Falls. It was actually quite fun. Way over back on the trail, I noticed a large (noisy) group coming in to Rancheria for the night, the only other group that came this day to Rancheria. They went right to the spot I had initially chosen to camp (with the mosquitoes). I’m sure glad I did not setup camp there. I took many photos of Lower Rancheria. It is a fascinating waterfall with a 40 ft. drop then fanning out in an amazingly wide 60 ft. slide. I think it would make for an amazing water slide, and you might actually survive it, as long as you are certain you can get out of the water at the bottom of it, before you get to the big waterfalls below it (episode 3.5 spoiler alert). I’m not certain you actually could get out with the way Rancheria Creek was raging this day. When I got back to my campsite at the top of the falls, I went back over to the creek to my water spot, and I found it was completely flooded. The creek had risen this much in just a few hours. The next morning, it was flooded even more. I knew it would rise during the day with the warm weather, and I could not tell how much it had risen exactly, but it seemed a lot more than I would have thought, and it had me a bit concerned. But more on this in Episode 4. I fell asleep listening to the soothing roar of the creek.