Leon Turnbull Photography

On Thursday I returned yet again to Table Mountain in Oroville. This was my fourth time there this winter. I really am obsessed with the place this year, so it seems. I just love it there. The terrain and landscape is so amazing. And there are so many waterfalls there.

This time my goal was to go back to Ranch Falls. I wanted to try to get down and see the lower plunge of the waterfall. From the last time I was here, I figured the best way to do this would be on the south side of the creek (opposite of where I viewed the falls last time). I arrived at the cliffs on the south side of the creek at the top of the falls looking for a way down. Along the edge of the cliff is a fence (supposedly there to make sure the cows don’t take a big plunge off the cliff?). I was able to get around at the end of the fence, being very careful, as one missed step could prove rather disastrous, then I walked back along the fence looking for a way down. I had to walk further than I anticipated, but I got to a less steep spot that proved promising and worked my way down. There was actually a trail leading down, and I’m sure it wasn’t a cow trail (unless they are more dexterous at getting around fences than I had thought), so obviously people had been down this way before. There was also a lot of … you guessed it … poison oak. As I worked my way down and back towards the waterfall below the cliff, I saw a rock ledge that looked promising for a view of the waterfall. The trail seemed to go right to it as well. I climbed up on the ledge and worked my way back to the far end, as far as possible to get the best view of the waterfall. About 10 more feet would have been perfect, but then I would be flying in mid air. So this is our view of the lower section of Ranch Falls. I measured the entire waterfall to be 157 ft. high. From this side, I could see no way to get any closer to the falls. The trail ended as far as I could see, and it was far too brushy to continue. But as I looked across the canyon, it seemed that it actually might be possible to get down much closer to the falls on the other side, though it might be a bit on the steep side. Time for a fifth trip back to Table Mountain?

Unfortunately this last storm did not drop too much rain. I estimated the flow in the falls about half as much as when I had been here a couple weeks ago. Ranch Falls was still flowing quite nice but Coon was just trickling. On the plus side, the wildflowers on Table Mountain were just starting to come out. Another month, I think, and they will be spectacular.

More info on Ranch Falls:
http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=952

I really like this shot. It is a super crazy angle, looking down upon Ranch Falls (aka Long Falls). From this freaky viewpoint, you can see the top 74 ft. high cascade section of the falls, and then where it starts a big plunge of another 70 ft. or so. The bottom plunge is not possible to see from here, though I did try. There is a rock outcrop here with deathly dropoffs on either side of it. There is also a small tree that you need to crawl under the branches to get up to the end of the precipice and view the falls. Did I mention that it was super windy when I was here? and extremely cold. My hands were freezing as I stood here taking my pictures. I suppose I should have left my gloves on, but sometimes it is hard to photograph with gloves on.

Anyway, I think it might be possible to get down to the bottom of Ranch Falls and see that lower plunge, but probably better to do it on the other side of the creek. Though not straight across, because as you can see it is very cliffy on the other side, but I think there is a way. And I’ll be back here to try it. It is a really cool waterfall (when it is flowing).

By the way, I have good news. After being out of work for 9 months and taking last summer off and spending most of my waking hours seeking out new waterfalls, I finally have a new job. So the bad thing is I won’t be able to go out hiking as much, but I do need to feed my family I guess, so I am grateful to God that I will be employed again. We are planning to take one final vacation fling next week as I don’t start for the new job for a couple weeks. I am thinking Big Sur. 🙂

More info on Ranch Falls here:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=952

Well we were supposed to get snow Friday night in the Sacramento area. I was expecting (not really) to wake up to a winter wonderland Saturday morning in Folsom. It would have been nice. But I did anticipate that Auburn would have a nice dumping Friday night. It did snow there on Friday morning I guess, but they were supposed to get more Friday night and that did not happen. When I arrived in Auburn first thing Saturday morning, all the snow was gone. I was hoping to get some snowy shots down at the Confluence, of the No Hands Bridge along the river, and I was also planning to go to the Black Hole of Calcutta Falls, hoping for some snow there as well. With no snow, the No Hands Bridge was out of the question. I considered going to the waterfall, but I already have a good shot of that one, so I nixed that idea. Time to implement Plan B.

Plan B turned out to be an ideal choice. And a fantastic adventurous one as well. My idea was to try to get to a waterfall on Clipper Creek, about 1.5 miles upriver from the Confluence. I did not really think I would be able to make it. I was certain there was no trail, that it would be too brushy, too tick infested, too poison oak infested, and worst of all, much too cliffy to get up that far. But hey, I am always up for an adventure and a mad scramble through brush and poison oak. There certainly was a lot of poison oak. I knew that, and I anticipated that, but that was the least of my worries, so I thought. When I tried this route last year, I got turned back by ticks. In the spring, this whole area is infested with the buggers. I have said it many times, I can handle the poison oak, but I cannot handle the ticks. But I figured this was a good time to go, with the recent cold weather, perhaps they would not be lurking about. And I was right again about this. I only had to pluck a single one of the little beasts off me today.

As for the rest of it, I was pretty much completely wrong. And that made me ecstatic. What I mean is that there was indeed a trail to follow. And it went from the Confluence all the way up to Clipper Creek and beyond (likely, all the way to Lake Clementine). It was an old trail, and certainly overgrown, but hey, it was a trail. No bushwhacking through thick brush and along steep cliffs. That was my next worry, as I knew there were steep cliffs on this side of the river. But the trail seemed to bypass these cliffy sections quite perfectly. There were no dangerous sections along the trail at all. It was certainly not an easy hike, that is for sure. But it was definitely an adventurous one, and one that I will do again for certain.

As for the waterfall, well it was a dandy. It was smaller than I expected. The topo maps seem to indicate a waterfall in the neighborhood of 60 ft. or so, and I measured this one to be 27 ft. high. I was a bit surprised at that, as it seemed quite a bit bigger than that, but hey, 27 ft. is not shabby, and it definitely was worth the effort to get to this one. As Arnold says, I’ll be back.

http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=628

We have not had much rain here in northern CA lately. January and the first part of February was quite dry. This was not good news as we really need more rain this winter, and it meant the waterfalls had pretty much dried out. But last week we got a big dump, and that got the waterfalls flowing again (for now). After the big storm I decided to head back up to Oroville and Table Mountain. There are still a few waterfalls up there that I have not been to believe it or not, and I wanted to get some of them off the bucket list. I only had a few hours, so I chose three to visit: Coon, Ranch, and Crevice Falls; all of them are fairly close together and can be reached on an easy 5 mile round trip jaunt across Table Mountain.

I arrived at the trailhead (though there is of course no trail), and it was still dark, so I got out my head lamp and headed across the field, watching out of course for the many cow pies along the way. In addition to the cow pies, I had to watch out for the many puddles as well from the recent rain. I was trying to look down at my feet for the cow pies, and at the same time look up for the upcoming puddles. It was Saturday morning, and the rain was “just” beginning to stop, in fact, it was still lightly raining when I headed out. After scaring away some cows (I am sure they don’t see too many people walking out in the night with headlamps on them), I arrived at Coon Falls. It was still well before sunrise. Rather than wait for the light, I decided to head on to Ranch and Crevice and come back to this one. Coon was flowing fairly decent (it does not have very much drainage), so that was a good sign. When I got to the creek crossing for Ranch Falls, I had trouble crossing it. There was a lot of water flowing in that creek. I continued on to Crevice Falls and shortly reached the viewpoint. It is an interesting viewpoint to reach. I had been here last year with my friend Rob when Crevice Falls was dry. We found a somewhat scary viewpoint where you need to cross over a bit of a “crevice” (not the “crevice” that the waterfall is on), and you are somewhat unsure if the ground is going to be steady because there is a humongous dropoff just to the left of this “crevice”. But in fact the footing is secure, and after crossing it, you walk out on this ledge with incredible dropoffs to either side of you. At the end of it, just stand in amazement.

I was amazed for sure. Crevice Falls drops through a huge crack in the cliffs of Table Mountain, mostly hidden from view. You cannot see the entire waterfall, only the top part of it and some of the bottom. I looked around for other viewpoints of this waterfall, but this was the only good view of it. I should say, actually, that there was another ledge that could have provided a better view. But to get onto it, I would have had to JUMP across a gap onto a very narrow rock ledge, and across a 150 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon. Umm, no thank you.

What really amazed me here though is finding a second waterfall beside Crevice Falls. Indeed, it is more spectacular than Crevice Falls itself, plunging 129 ft. off the cliff. I had no idea this second waterfall even existed. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. I am quite sure it only flows at all after periods of high rain, so you really need to be here to see it immediately after a good rainfall. And I highly recommend doing so. It is a very magnificent place.

http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=953

Here is another shot from our trip to the Sacramento Zoo a couple weekends ago. I have been busy busy busy working on projects at home lately. Not much time to get out hiking. But I did go out today. After a very dry month and a half, we finally had another winter storm. The creeks are all flowing again (for now). I went back again to Table Mountain in Oroville, and got to three new waterfalls there (Coon, Long/Ranch, and Crevice). I have now finally gotten to all of the many waterfalls on Table Mountains, except for perhaps one (which is on private property). I will talk about more of this hike coming up soon.

In the meantime, it is my son’s birthday tomorrow, and my daughter’s next week. We are having a combined birthday party for them both today. It should be quite fun for them. Now I gotta run so I am not late for it. heh heh.