Leon Turnbull Photography

I called the Foresthill ranger station and they told me the Foresthill Rd was now open to Sailor Flat. That means one thing and one thing only to me. Time to go to New York Canyon. I called up my friend Rob and met up with him out in Foresthill and off we drove to Sailor Flat.

Placer County has been plowing this road which is quite odd as it is not normally ever plowed. I think I have an idea why. When we got out to the area of Canada Hill we found an absolutely unbelievable amount of snow still on the ground. About four feet of hard packed snow, and not patchy snow. Solid packed snow everywhere. Are you kidding me? Last week I was at the same elevation over on Ice House Rd and though there was some snow there, it was not much and quite patchy. Not only this but the ranger station lied. The road was only clear to Canada Hill not to Sailor Flat. This is a HUGE difference. It is a 1000 ft elevation difference by driving a mile down Sailor Flat Rd. I cannot believe we would even consider hiking down to the big waterfall from Canada Hill but off we went hiking along the hard packed snow. We saw many fresh bear tracks in the snow as we hiked along. There were at least 3 separate sets of prints. (mama, papa, and baby?) I came up with a grand idea of taking a short cut so we would not have to go down to Sailor Flat and cross the creek above the waterfall. This way did involve scaling down a steep ridge, and it especially did not help we ended up going down the wrong drainage and on top of a cliff. Rob the mountain goat found a way down that worked for him. But not so much for me. My legs were shaking as I made my way carefully down but then it got a heckuva lot steeper. Too steep for me to continue. Rob wanted to continue down so we split up as I decided it would be better to go back up and down the proper ridge. Fortunately I told him not to wait for me. I climbed to the top of the ridge. It was a very tough climb and it took a lot out of me. I started back down the proper ridge until it became steep. I realized it was still more than 1000 ft down to the big waterfall. It was getting late, and I was already quite bagged. I might be able to make it down but I knew I would not make it back up. I decided to head back up and wait for Rob at the car. On the way I made a pit stop and went down to a different waterfall on New York Creek. That was probably not smart as it was a steep descent and I was already very tired. Nonetheless, I did go down to it anyway and I was glad I did, and although it is not a great waterfall, it is still a nice one. I tried to get to it last year from Sailor Flat but it was not possible from that side. From this side, it was much easier.

It was a tough climb back out of the canyon. I had an hour until sunset, and it should have been easy to get back to the car in that time, but I was dead tired. I have only bonked once in my life before, being so completely tired and spent that one literally cannot take one more step. I was about as close to bonking as I could have been. I needed to lay down and rest for a good half hour, but darkness was approaching, and I needed to keep moving. I tried eating some of my sandwich, but I could not keep it down. I could hardly drink water without feeling like puking it up. My legs were cramping. Essentially, I could only take about 10 steps, then rest. 10 more steps, then rest some more. Eventually, I made it up the hill and back to the car. It was a little past dark when I got back. Rob was not there. I thought he might have gone back the normal way from Sailor Flat, a longer route, but easier. There was nothing to do but wait. Fortunately, I had cell service at the car, so I was able to call my wife and tell her the situation. Finally, at 10PM, Rob arrived at the car. It took him 3 hours to climb out of the canyon, and he was as tired and beat as I was on the hike back out, if not more so. I had been a bit worried that something may have happened since it took him so long, but thankfully he made it back all right. It was certainly quite a day in New York Canyon.

Last week my friend Rob and I went on a walk along the Rubicon River in search of a waterfall. We were not able to get to the waterfall, but we did find these pretty flowers overlooking the river so we just had to stop and scramble down to shoot them. No waterfalls perhaps, but at least the evening wasn’t a total loss.

After work on Thursday I headed back up yet again to Ice House Rd. I knew it would mean getting home late (which is difficult since I need to get up early for work) but I couldn’t go out Friday (hockey game) and I had other hiking plans for the weekend, so Thursday was my best option.

I brought my bike with me. When I was up here two weeks ago the road was still snowed in. Even though the elevation is lower than Bassi Falls (which was open) snow seems to really linger on this road. I figured if it was still snowed in I could bike the rest of the way to the trailhead. I thought it might be as there was still a lot of snow along the side of Ice House Rd as I drove up, but the road to the trailhead was thankfully clear (but I am sure if I came the prior week it would not be – I timed this one perfectly).

Even though I could have hiked all the way I decided to bike the first part (and I’m so glad I did). It is a three mile one way hike, the first two are along a dirt road. It is uphill all the way but it is very gradual so it is quite do-able on a bike. Nonetheless it is a tough climb on a bike and would have been much easier hiking (but a lot longer, and coming back down on the bike was so fast and quick).

At the end of two miles you need to get off the bike and hike through the forest the rest of the way to the waterfall. At first the going was very easy but then the manzanita brush got a lot thicker. There was a bit of a path through the brush so I kept going. There was also quite a bit of snow still around, so I was able to walk on the snow over the brush (much easier than going “through” the brush). It took an hour to hike this mile through the forest and I arrived at the waterfall a bit later than anticipated. It was a beautiful and large cascade which I measured 251 ft high. Finding a good point of view to photograph it was difficult. Ideally I should have crossed the creek but I was not prepared for that. Plus I was out of time. It was 8pm, sunset was in half an hour. I quickly took some shots than literally ran back down through the forest, arriving back at my bike by 8:30. The bike ride back down the mountain was a breeze and I got back to my car just before it got dark. It was a great evening adventure (but I was sure tired the next day at work).

More info on North Fork Big Silver Creek Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=655

I was not intending to go to Grouse Falls again but my plan A did not pan out. There is still much snow at higher elevations. Most roads above 5000 ft or so are still inaccessible. I thought that perhaps I might be able to now get to the Beacroft trailhead on Foresthill Rd but I could not even get close to it driving. I need to figure out a way to get into these areas early in the season. Anyone want to donate their snowmobile to waterfallswest.com?

Well I decided to just drive out to Grouse Falls so as not to go home empty handed. Grouse Falls is at a much lower elevation but even so there was a slight bit of snow along the road. It is such a long long drive out to Grouse Falls and it is such a short short hike. It is almost pointless to go there. Except that the waterfall is utterly spectacular. A 504 ft high masterpiece in the middle of nowhere. The North Fork of the Middle Fork American River canyon. Such a beautiful canyon out here in nowhere land. The Beautiful Land. But so inaccessible. I suspect there are other waterfalls in this remote canyon too, but how to get to them?

In the past I have gone down to the bottom of Grouse Falls but was not prepared to do that on this day, so I just enjoyed the view from across the canyon. It was early evening, and the light was in and out from behind storm clouds creating rapidly changing conditions. I liked this shot with a bit of sunlight touching the waterfall and cliffs.

More info on Grouse Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=318

Part II of my grand master weekend trip to Yosemite and beyond was to drive down to Shaver Lake and finally get to Stevenson Creek Falls. Bryan Swan and Dean Goss (world-waterfalls.com) have been hounding me for years to go see this one. And for good reason. It is perhaps the last major major waterfall in CA that I had not yet seen. I’ve been wanting to go here for years but it is a very long drive from Sacramento. This year I finally made the effort to see this 950 ft. high monster.

I parked at the trail starting point overnight. I had a bite to eat and went to bed at 8pm. I was so tired, I dropped off almost immediately and slept about ten hours. No one disturbed me. Sometime during the night it started raining. Hard. And kept raining. I was thinking I did not want to hike seven miles in the pouring rain. Did I make this very long drive all for nothing? The only reason I came down here was to see this waterfall. Would I have to go home empty handed?

Around 6:30am the rain stopped and I decided I had better get going if I am going. I did not know if the rain would start up again, so I asked God to keep the rain away at least until I got to the falls. He listened to me (perhaps a little too closely).

I started hiking down the paved road called the Million Dollar Road. It would have been much better to bike this road, as hiking seven miles on pavement is not fun for the feet. Otherwise it was a pretty easy hike. Along the way I saw a couple other waterfalls that I did not know even existed, and the views of the San Joaquin River canyon were stupendous especially the further I hiked along. If I had to guess, I would say the road is called the “Million Dollar” road cuz that is how much it cost to build. In my view, it was an awful expense that should never have happened, there should only be hiking trails through this canyon. But at least S.C. Edison allows the public to hike/bike their expensive paved road, and it leads right by an incredible waterfall.

I could see the spray from the falls from 1.5 miles away. I am not exaggerating (though I could not see the waterfall until I got right up to it). I kinda figured this was a bad omen in terms of being able to photograph this monster, and I was correct.

The road goes right in front of the bottom of the waterfall and there was so much water it was crashing over onto the bridge and road. I could not even walk up to the bridge, I was literally blown back by the spray. Trying to cross the bridge would have been certain death, and unfortunately the best views of the falls were on the other side. I could only see the lower part of the falls from this side, and I got very cold and very wet trying to photograph it. I was bummed but there was nothing to do but hike back.

As soon as I started back the rain started up again. Hard. And hail as well. I was soaked from the spray and now I was getting colder and wetter from the rain. I was a cold wet dog (again) by the time I got back to my car. But on the plus side, God did hold back the rain until I got to the waterfall, just as I asked Him. Next time I think I’ll ask Him to hold the rain until I am done hiking. Haha.

I was very tired on the long drive home despite the ten hours of sleep. It took me two full days to recover from this short trip. I definitely overdid it this weekend, 20+ miles of difficult hiking and a heckuva lot of driving was just way too much. But it was a fun trip for sure.

More info on Stevenson Creek Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=1348