Leon Turnbull Photography

Nine. Nine new waterfalls I have found so far this season (in the last two months). And the season has not really even begun yet (but it will very soon – our first big storm of the year is on its way). Anyway I think that is a huge accomplishment. Nine new waterfalls that most people had no idea even existed. And much more is on its way in the coming months. Of course, some waterfalls are better than others. And this one I suppose is on the lesser side of things.

At least it lived up to its name: Brushy Canyon Falls. I did not think it would. In fact, I anticipated this would be an easy hike (or fairly easy hike), and I would be able to see the waterfall from the main road. Upon Google Earth examination, it seemed the terrain was quite open, and there would be a pretty good view from the road. It was a 2 mile hike down to the supposed viewpoint, and even though you lose 1000 ft. in elevation on the road, I was up for that hike. The hike down was mostly uneventful, but when I arrived, I could see no waterfall from the road. There was much more brush than anticipated, and it was blocking all views of the waterfall. Well time to go down, then.

The problem, however, was there was a cliff in the way between me and the waterfall. It was steep, darn steep, scary steep. I did not want to go down, but I had no other choice. I descended carefully and slowly. I had to get out my rope to help me get down safely. I finally came to a little knob with this view of the waterfall. But again, there was brush and trees in the way, and a clear view of the entire waterfall was not possible. Only the top part could be seen from here. I had run out of rope by the time I got down to the knob, and it was still rather cliffy. Too cliffy to continue down any further. I may or may not have been able to get a better view further down, but there was nothing else to do but turn and go back up the mountain. Another day I suppose I will come back with more rope to try it again.

This was taken on Thanksgiving Day. Normally I like to go out hiking on Black Friday, but Thanksgiving Day is good too, and it worked out better this year to do it on TD. Surprisingly, there were a heckuva lot of cars out on the road so early in the morning. Why so many people out and about? Fortunately, I did not see anyone out on the trails. Of course, no one would have been on this trail anyway since no one knows about it. I had also thought this creek would have a lot more flow which is one of the main reasons I picked this one. But it was already on the low side, even after an inch or more of rain in the past week. Well, a lot more is on the way. Five inches perhaps, next week. Sweet galoshes. About time.

So we really have not had all that much rain yet this year. It does look like we are going to get our first really big storm next week God willing, but up to now we are actually below what we had last year at this time. We are actually a bit below average thus far; remember last year we had a very big November. The trouble last year was we didn’t get anything after that. I heard at least one news report saying that we have had more this year so far than last year at this time. Don’t believe everything you read folks, especially in the media.

And yet this waterfall, Plummer Creek Falls, was sure roaring last weekend. It is 113 ft high and it was magnificent … but darn near impossible to get to. And as you can see from the photo I still couldn’t get a completely clear view of it.

I have wondered about this waterfall for awhile. It is clearly labeled on the USGS topo maps, but no trail leads to it, a bright spot in the midst of nothing. It seems so inaccessible. I have serious doubts if anyone has been down here before (at least not the way I went down). This one is very strenuous and quite a bit dangerous too.

After studying Google Earth I decided to try it from the south side. It is a 1200 ft. descent to the river in only a mile, however I parked further up the road, adding another 500 ft. and 1.5 miles to my hike. I suppose I could have driven this last 1.5 miles but it was a bit muddy and steep so I decided to walk it. I also started my hike late in the day (11am). The highway out here has got to be the most agonizing highway in the state. There are so many twists and turns in the road, it is impossible to drive the speed limit (55) for most of it (reminds me of a song by Sammy Haggar). It is a long long long drive. I finally got out there and started hiking down an old dirt road but it soon became impassable and too overgrown. I almost turned back. But before doing so I decided to drop off the edge of the cliff down into the canyon – er I mean hill not cliff. And I just kept going down. When I got to the edge of the cliff – er I mean hill – overlooking the waterfall, I found I could not see it from there so I just kept going down down down. Near the bottom it got extremely sketchy with large drop-offs into the river. Not good. If I fell in I would not be getting out anytime soon. Again I almost turned back. But I was almost there, the waterfall was just around the corner, I had to find a way. The terrain was far too sketchy for my tastes but I did manage to get down to the bottom finally. All in one piece.

Unfortunately, even after all this work, you can still only get a partial view of the waterfall. The bottom part is not viewable from this side and crossing was certainly not an option. There was also a lot of spray making it very difficult to take a photo. But I did the best I could. And it definitely is a glorious waterfall. I got back to my car about 30 minutes before sunset, extremely tired and with an aching back. It was a great day.

I had plans to go to something local this weekend right after the rain storm. However, at the last minute, my wife said she was going up north for the weekend. She did not exactly invite me, but I thought it would be a good idea to tag along, and go hiking up north for the weekend and check out some possible new waterfalls. There are tons of spots I still want to check out up that way, I just had to pick one. or two. or three. So I invited myself.

First up was this waterfall on Wells Creek. I have never heard of anyone going here before. I have never seen any photos, no one has documented this falls before, and I have never even heard anyone mention it. Even my in-laws who have lived here all their lives, and even camped in this particular area, had not ever heard of it. I wonder why that would be. That usually means it is impossible.

Well the road was sure impossible. Ok, not impossible, just ridiculous. Ridiculously slow, that is. It is a 14 mile drive on a dirt road, and it is SLOW. It is not bone-jarring awful compared to the Bowman Lake Road, but it is awful because there are so many potholes and ruts, and that means you have to drive slow, and for 14 miles of driving like that, I am a nut case by the end of it. On the plus side, there were a lot of bunny rabbits jumping out in front of my car as I drove up the road. Then a little later, there were a bunch of deer doing the same thing. Followed by a number of squirrels running across in front of me. I was waiting to come to the bear section, but I guess I never got that far. I sure drove far enough for it, you would think. The last mile or so, it did get a bit too muddy, and I decided to walk that last part. I suppose I could have driven it, but like I said I was a nut case by then, and I just had to get out and do some walking.

Finally, I got to the creek at the top of the waterfall. Wells Creek is a pretty small drainage, so I knew it would not be roaring, but after an inch of rain the night before, I figured it would be decent (ie. not dry). It probably was dry two days before this. Getting down to the bottom? Not impossible. Actually, it was fairly easy, all things considered. It is a steep descent to the bottom, but not difficult and then there is a little crook between the rocks that leads to the base of the falls. It is a gorgeous 116 ft. waterfall out in the middle of nowhere. And now you know it exists.

Yeah this one would be awesome if there was more water in the river, but I was still really really pleased to find it. Actually, I thought there would be a lot more water flowing in the river. Indeed, I was sure of it. Last weekend, the river was flowing very well, and we had some more rain during the week, so I was sure it would still be flowing. I’m really not sure what happened, but the flow was way down.

This is Emigrant Gap again, and it is the third weekend in a row I went here. The road will be snowed in for good pretty soon, probably even by next weekend, so I do like to get up in this area when I can. There were no hunters this weekend. In fact, I did not see anyone at all (just one truck, and that is all for the entire morning). This time my goal was the East Fork of the North Fork American River, specifically the upper reaches of this river.

I was not sure there would be any waterfall up there at all, but after thoroughly examining my topo maps and Google Earth, I thought there would be a possibility of a small waterfall, and it certainly was worth trying, especially if the river was flowing, which of course I figured it must be, based on how it looked last week. I also figured it would be a very easy hike, which also sounded good to me after the killer one last weekend.

Well you know me, the Waterfall Madman does not end up doing anything easy, and this was no exception. The hike started off easy enough, a simple 1 mile jaunt on a logging road over towards the East Fork. It was cold too, 32 degrees when I started out. And the wind was crazy wind. It was very brisk and cold, but it felt terrific. It made me feel alive. It was a splendid day to be out in the beautiful creation, and I needed to be out there this day. I absolutely needed to be out in the wilderness. Then the road ended.

So what do I do now? Do I cut down to the river and try to work my way upstream? Or do I attempt to traverse the ridge, and then hopefully find a way down the cliff when I get to the waterfall (if there even is a waterfall). I chose the latter, and it was a good choice. At first, though, it did not seem so. The manzanita brush was thick along the ridge, much thicker than I expected. It seemed so open on Google Earth. This brush could be a show stopper for sure, but I continued on, hoping for a path through it, and indeed I found one. It was tough going but finally the terrain became more open, more like what I saw on GE. I saw no trace that any human had ever been up this way before. That’s the way I like it. The only thing I found was a bear path leading me through that brush. They are good at trampling through that stuff. Thank you, bears. I love you.

The ridge came to an end at the start of the gorge, and fortunately not too cliffy. I made my way down to the river, and there it was: a beautiful 34 ft. high waterfall dropping over a rock ledge into an icy pool. The Madman was very happy, the first to find and document this waterfall. It was quite a lot bigger than I expected to find (actually I didn’t think I’d find anything), and all in all, it really was not all that difficult to get here. I love it when a plan comes together. I will certainly come back when I know the river is flowing well (which will probably not be until the spring), and it will be awesome.

I headed back up to Emigrant Gap this weekend with much determination on the agenda. The snow was gone of course, and traffic was less on Emigrant Gap road in the early morning hours but there were still other drivers out and about. This is crazy, I thought. Only I am this crazy! I even saw a couple hunters, but since deer hunting season is over, they should not have been out here. I was a little annoyed about that. Where are the deer police when you need them?

Well I ran into a mud pile before I got to my selected trailhead. I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of getting myself stuck in a bucket. This added four miles to my hike and about 1000 ft. of elevation. Oh boy. I already knew that my hike was going to be a tough one. From the trailhead, I would drop 1000 ft. down to the river. Now I would have to climb back up 2000 ft. instead of 1000 ft. I was not exactly prepared for that.

I also decided to carry my big heavy lens on this hike, bad back and all. I did not want to, believe you me, but I knew that most likely the only view of this waterfall I would get would be from far across the canyon, and I would need it. I did need it, after all, as expected, but my back sure did not thank me for it.

The North Fork of the North Fork of the American River Canyon has been a thorn in my side more times than I can count. There are multiple waterfalls in this canyon, and some dandy big ones too, but getting to most of them is ridiculous. Impossible. Deadly. Just give up already, madman. No sir, I cannot give up. But I have been turned back on multiple occasions. (last week, for instance was one such occassion).

This week, I was hoping to get a good solid view of Middle North Fork Falls from across the canyon. I Google Earthed this potential route. Getting down to the bottom of it is totally out of the question, but all I really wanted was a good viewpoint. However, it did not look promising on Google Earth, due to the forest tree cover. I could not see a good potential unobstructed viewpoint. But I hoped for one anyway. Surely there would be.

From the “trailhead” at the end of the road (where I would have parked if there had been no mud piles), I descended into the forest. Down down down. 1000 ft. down. From time to time, I caught glimpses of the big waterfall across the canyon, but no viewpoint materialized. There were a couple spots where I would have had an amazing view of it, except for one or two trees in the way. If I could just cut those trees down, I thought. Huh. I kept going down. I was getting close to the cliff. The point of no return if I was not careful. Maybe from the edge of the cliff, there would be an unobstructed view. I came to a particularly steep section and the ground was rather crumbly, and sat down wondering how I could get down. Do I need to get out my rope here? Then I looked beside me and there was a rope. It was as though it magically appeared. I don’t think the bears put that there. Obviously someone had been down here before, but the rope ended and did not go all the way to the bottom. Then I saw it. There was a rock outcrop directly across from the falls, and it looked open. Could I get to it? I made my way over, climbed up onto the rock, and voila, I had my viewpoint. The sun was starting to get into my scene, unfortunately, since it took so long for me to get down there. But I had my viewpoint. It was indeed, basically, right on the edge of the cliff, directly across from the top of Middle North Fork Falls. The picture here is only the top part of the waterfall. The total height of the falls is 231 ft., and the top section shown here is about 100 ft. It continues for another 131 ft out of view. I did find a viewpoint of the entire waterfall, but it was a partially obstructed one. This was the best I could do for this waterfall but this was a sweet sweet place, and even though I couldn’t see the entire falls from here, I was a happy camper. I also got a long distance view of Burnett Canyon Falls, another waterfall in this crazy drainage that is impossible to get to.

Well enough of all that, it was time to head back up the mountain. My back was killing me when I got back to the car, but I survived. I wish I had brought my lunch though, it was noon and I was starving. I was not expecting this hike to take so long. It was an hour drive back to Auburn, where I re-fueled with a triple Western bacon cheeseburger. Yes, you heard that right. Triple. It was a very good day.