Leon Turnbull Photography

Bassi Falls was a must stop place at sunset for my private workshop on Ice House Rd. My client had not been to Bassi before (or if he had as a kid he did not remember). For me this was my third time here this year alone. Amazingly enough there was even MORE flow in the waterfall than when I was here a week earlier on July 4. Not much more but it was noticeable. Usually by July this waterfall is down to a trickle. Not this year!

We arrived about an hour before sunset. My client was thoroughly impressed with the magnificence of the waterfall. We spent our time wandering around the bottom of the falls working different compositions (of which there are plenty). By my experience I “knew” that Bassi gets beautiful warm light for a short time immediately before sunset. However … What I failed to recognize is that later in the summer this does not happen. The sun goes off the waterfall a half hour before sunset and it did not seem to get that really beautiful light. I should have known that but oh well. We still had half an hour of shooting the falls in shade which also works very well indeed. And the best part (and most surprising part) of the evening: No Mosquitoes!!

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South Fork Silver Creek is full of small waterfalls in addition to the big 64 footer. This 20 ft high falls is one of the nicer ones we found along the trail. It is a bit steep getting down to it but once down it offers quite a few different possibilities for compositions. I liked this spot lower down which shows the lower cascade and enchanting curvature of the stream.

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On Saturday afternoon I was leading a private workshop up on Ice House Rd. Our first stop was South Silver Creek at Ice House Reservoir. The light was crappy when we arrived (as anticipated) so we just worked on various techniques of dealing with the high dynamic range and compositions. There are not a lot of options at this particular waterfall for composition but for some reason I really liked the little nook in the rock here at the edge of the cliff and personally I worked it to death while my client moved around the area as best he could.

After spending time here we climbed up to the top of the cliff where we could see more small waterfalls called the Teacups. We saw a couple people up there and I was wondering what they were doing. Then I realized they were kayakers! We watched them come down the Teacups and stop at the top of the big waterfall. We thought they might come down the big waterfall so we hurried back down hoping to get some shots of them coming down it. South Silver Creek Falls is 64 ft high. It seems crazy but kayakers have come down this one before. These guys, though, after taking a long look at it decided not to descend. Bummer! I was not sure the reason but I was thinking it might have to do with a huge log at the bottom of the falls. As I found out later, one of the kayakers was actually someone I knew. He said the flow was just too high to do the big waterfall. Seems quite logical to me.

In the meanwhile the waterfall came into the shade so we spent a lot more time shooting the falls here and some smaller waterfalls on the creek before moving on to Bassi Falls for sunset. We spent more time here than I had planned but it really worked out well I thought. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow.

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I went up towards Donner Summit after work on Friday. I had initially intended to go all the way to Donner Summit, but I realized I did not have enough time to do the hike I wanted, so instead I stopped off at the South Yuba River at Lang Crossing. A friend had informed me about a waterfall in this area and I had to check it out.

The thing is I was not sure exactly where it was or how far of a hike it was. I was thinking it could not have been more than 2 miles, though, so off I went. At least I was sure I was on the correct trail, and it was pretty easy going. After only 1 mile of hiking I came to the waterfall. This is a man made waterfall, created by the dam at Lake Spaulding, which forms the start of the South Yuba River below Lake Spaulding. Even though it is man made, it is still quite a spectacular waterfall, dropping 278 ft. from the lake down into the bottom of the river bed. With the huge snowpack this year, PG&E are letting out a lot of water on the South Yuba, and although the view of the falls is from across the river, it is still quite an amazing sight. It would have been possible to get up closer to this one, but rather on the dangerous side as there are two upstream dams from here. To get down in the river bed for a closer view would be slightly foolish, and deadly if water was released all of a sudden from one of those dams. I did not have much time before dark to get any closer anyway. I did, however, almost lose my tripod. I took my eyes off it for a second, thinking it was stable, but it toppled over, stopping just before it went over the cliff. Geesh, that was a close one. Meanwhile, the mosquitoes were also in a frenzy here. I had to put on two doses of skeeter juice, and only that stopped them from biting me, but not from continuing to buzz around me while I took my photos.

This shot was taken zoomed in with my 100-400 lens. So although the waterfall does not look 300 ft. high from this photo, I assure you that it is. It is an easy hike to get here, and definitely worth going to see.

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On Canada Day, July 1, I took the day off work (an extra long July 4 weekend), and went back out to New York Canyon in the afternoon. This time hiking in from Sailor Flat, I was determined, and made it all the way down to my favorite waterfall, New York Canyon Falls, a most spectacular 462 ft. high free fall.

There was still lots of snow at Sailor Flat. Placer County had plowed all the way to Sailor Flat and then no further. I thought for sure they would have at least plowed to Robinson Flat. Why stop at Sailor Flat? It makes no sense, but I am not complaining. With the incredible snow fall this year, there is a good chance that snow could remain on the road all summer long. It seems almost impossible, but true. There was about 3 or 4 feet of snow at Sailor Flat as I started walking down the road. It did not last long as I shortly descended past the snow onto the dirt road, now with small lingering snow patches. All this snow was melting directly into New York Canyon Creek. That was a good sign.

After about a mile of hiking and a 600 ft. descent (of which I would have to ascend later that evening), I exited off from the road onto Macklin Ridge. It would be another 1300 ft. elevation loss down to the big waterfall from here. Macklin Ridge is a secret route that my friend Rob Macklin and I discovered last year, so I was slightly surprised when I saw distinct footprints descending the ridge ahead of me. Obviously someone had been down here in the past couple weeks, and I knew it was not Rob. Who else knows about this secret route? Obviously someone does.

I had never been down Macklin Ridge before, only up, and I was thinking the last part was possibly a bit steep and dangerous. It was not as steep, though, as I thought it might be, and I made my way down to the creek crossing above the waterfall. I was also wondering about this part. Would the creek be too high and difficult to cross? Nope, not at all. There was even a log across the creek, so I did not even need to get my feet wet. After crossing the creek, I knew I was within range of the big waterfall. It is still a steep descent down to what the late Russell Towle called the Chert Knoll, an amazing little ridge right opposite the waterfall, but I made my way down fairly quickly.

The view of the big waterfall is incredible. You may wonder why I like this place even better than Yosemite, but if you’ve ever been here, I think you would agree with me. No other soul within miles, and such an amazingly beautiful canyon and location, with a stunning 500 ft. high waterfall all to myself. Wow.

It was still early, so I sat down in front of the falls and ate my dinner, waiting for the sun to go down. By my calculations, the sun would be off the falls right around 6:20 or 6:30pm. I was hoping it would be a bit earlier than this, though, because I had a steep ascent to make before it got dark. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to descend to the falls. I figured it would take at least 2 and a half hours to get back up to my car. I did not want to start any later than 6:30pm, but my calculations were spot on. It was right about 6:15 that the waterfall came into the shade, so I quickly took my photos and started back up at precisely 6:30.

Whatever you do, do not look up from the waterfall and see how far you will have to ascend back to your vehicle. I did not follow this highly recommended guideline. Wow, that is a long way up, 1900 ft. of hiking. I made pretty good time, though, and felt pretty good. But before I had ascended back up Macklin Ridge, I ran out of water. I suppose I should have filled my water back up at the creek, had I known, but I was shocked that I ran out of water so quickly. I must have been drinking a lot more than I thought I was. There were no more water sources up here, and I still had a long ascent ahead of me. But there were those snow patches back on Sailor Flat Rd, and as I got up to them, I scooped out a handful of (clean) snow and sucked on it. That helped me on the rest of the ascent back to the car. I made it to the car just a bit before dark (it took 2 hours and 10 minutes). Perfect timing.

All in all, it was a great day hike in New York Canyon. I felt that I did very well on the hike back up, but I was still dog tired. I had initially planned to stay overnight up on Foresthill Rd and go on another difficult hike in the morning, but I figured I should drive home instead, as I didn’t think I had the energy for another difficult hike in the morning. Plus, when I got back to my car, I downed two bottles of water, which were supposed to be for the morning hike, so I called my wife and told her I was coming home that night. She was quite happy about that.

Oh and one more thing. After I got back to the car and was getting cleaned up and ready to leave, I heard footsteps approaching my car on the snow. When I first glanced up, I saw something big and brown. My first thought was a cougar sneaking up on me. But then I took a second look, and saw it was just a deer. Ok then, Mr. Deer. You scared me a bit there. But I think I scared him too, as he leaped off in the other direction when he saw me.

More info on New York Canyon Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=322

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