Leon Turnbull Photography

On Wednesday, I headed up to Oroville to check out some waterfalls on north Table Mountain. It was “supposed” to be rainy in the morning, but cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Well, I arrived in Oroville in the late morning and it was sunny! Sun may be a very welcome thing for most people, but not for the photographer. I had a big hike planned to see multiple waterfalls, and I really needed it to be cloudy to get some decent shots. Well, I started my hike anyway, first heading straight to Phantom Falls, undoubtedly the prime jewel of the many waterfalls on Table Mountain.  It was sunny when I arrived there, but I did take a quick snap anyway. I have never seen so much water flowing over this waterfall. It was amazingly spectacular. If you look closely, you can see it dropping in three separate segments. Normally, this waterfall is just a thin ribbon of water plunging over the cliff in a single segment. But not right now. Wow, what an amazing sight to see this one at high flow.

After stopping at the overlook for Phantom Falls, I continued on my 10 mile hike, past Phantom Falls. I was wondering how easy it was going to be to cross the creek above Phantom Falls. I was barely able to jump across the creeks for Hollow and Ravine Falls. I was sure I would need to get my feet wet at Phantom. And indeed, the creek was flowing wide and deep, a jump across would not be the wisest course of action on this day. However, after a little bit of scavenging upstream, I came to a fallen tree laying in the water. I managed to, with difficulty, hop onto a shaky log resting in the middle of the stream, then hop across to the other side, all without getting my feet too wet. It was interesting, but better than taking my boots off and wading across, and it was more fun this way as well.

I continued on to the two other “new” waterfalls (for which I will post photos later). When I got to them, the clouds had rolled back in over the area. So thank the Lord, I had my overcast skies back, and I was able to get good shots of all these waterfalls. The overcastness lasted the rest of the day, and when I got back to Phantom Falls, I had good lighting. I wanted to try to get some shots from the other, non-standard, side of the canyon. This view is different and unique. Just don’t look down. Across the canyon, I could see some other people at the main viewpoint. I think I heard one of them whoop for joy when they first came into view of the waterfall (and as I found out later, he is one of my Facebook contacts – haha, small world).

I really find this entire area incredibly fascinating. The canyons on Table Mountain are incredibly deep, the dropoffs are so sheer, and the landscape so very interesting. It is so neat how all the little gullies which start off as a gentle depression in the ground, then all of a sudden drop into a very steep canyon. They all have little streams flowing in them (in the rainy season), and many of them form large waterfalls, even the small streams. And interestingly, since the terrain is so similar, most of the waterfalls on Table Mountain have very similar form as well.  It is really a very amazing place.

Well we sure got dumped on this weekend. Lots of rain, and plenty of snow in the mountains (and it is still coming). I knew the waterfalls would be going crazy so I really wanted to get out. According to my weather reports, it looked like Monday might be the best day (it only said “showers”, not “rain”). That turned out to be quite wrong to say the least. It rained all morning long on Monday, and I got completely drenched hiking. Darn weather reports, anyway. You probably think I am a bit “squirrelly” to go out hiking in the rain, or if there is a possibility of rain. I suppose you would be right about that.

Anyway, I had a few different thoughts on where to go, but I decided on trying out a couple new ones in the Grass Valley area. This one here is Squirrel Creek Falls. As you can see, the waterfall is flowing pretty crazily. For most of the year this creek is dry, but after a lot of rain it gets going. And we had a lot of rain. And it was sure going.

The hike down to Squirrel Creek is pretty easy. It is actually private property, but it is open to the public for hikers and bikers (awesomeness). The road leads down to the bottom of the falls, where I found a lot of garbage (not so awesome). It is certainly a fabulous waterfall when it is flowing, and I measured it be 62 ft. high, but it was raining hard the entire time I was down there, and that makes it very difficult to take photos. I am not too happy with this one.  Oh well, perhaps I will just have to go back someday.

After shooting this, I ventured downstream. There is another waterfall on this creek far downstream. I wasn’t planning to try to get all the way down to it, but I was curious if there was a trail. There was a trail and I followed it for awhile. But it led right to a house. It was a newly built house, but there was no one around, and it was seriously out in the middle of nowhere. I could see NO roads going down to it at all. It seemed that they would have to hike into their house to get to it.  It was very strange. Anyway, I turned around here, and I’m not sure if I could have followed the trail more downstream or not. It might be something to try another day.

To see more information on this waterfall, including directions and maps, please see my website:
http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent

I was looking to go out on a hike before the huge storm (supposedly 5 inches of rain) expected this weekend. At first I was thinking I would go out Friday morning, but the weather forecast was saying the rain would already be started by then. Not that I do not like hiking in the rain. I do, and I am still thinking of going out in the rain this weekend (or at least, immediately after the storm). But it is difficult to photograph in the rain, so I wanted to go out before it all started. So Thursday afternoon seemed like a good choice.

I took my son Jadon along with me. Usually, he doesn’t like hiking with me, but this time he said yes. Awesome. My plan was to go to my favorite little waterfall in the greater Sacramento area: American Canyon Creek Falls. It is a moderate 4 mile hike, easy enough for Jadon as well.

As we started hiking down the trail, I could tell the creek was flowing high. Much higher than expected. This was before the big storm, which means after this weekend it will be craziness down here. But with a higher creek flow, that meant the creek crossings would be rather interesting. There are three creek crossings on this hike. The first two are in mellow sections of water, and usually you can easily rock hop across. For myself, I was able to do it without getting my feet wet, but I had to be careful because the rocks were wet and slippery. But for Jadon, it was a lot more difficult. But all this was perfectly fine for him. He just splashed through the water in his boots. I tried to help him across on the rocks so he wouldn’t need to get his feet wet, but he thought it was more fun to just splash across. The little bum.

The last creek crossing is right at the base of the falls. In order to actually see the waterfall, you need to cross the creek. But the creek was rushing a lot faster here, and it was much too dangerous for Jadon to cross here. So he had to settle for just seeing the very bottom of the waterfall, which was a bit disappointing. He waited for me while I crossed the creek to take some photos. It was very dicey for me to cross as well, and I thought about it quite awhile before picking my spot to cross extremely carefully. I made it. There is really only one vantage point and composition to shoot this waterfall, and it is a difficult position in terms of placing the tripod, and then standing up on the side of a rock outcrop on slippery rocks. My legs were shaking as I stood there taking my photos, and hoping they would not buckle under me completely. I only took two photos. I had wanted to take a longer exposure, but after two photos, I had enough.

Meanwhile, Jadon was waiting for me on the other side and yelling at me while I was taking the photos. I could not tell what he was saying over the roar of the water. When I got back to him, he told me he heard Indians, and then he heard a mountain lion sneaking up on him. How he could hear anything above the loud sound of the creek is rather interesting (especially a mountain lion!). He is such a silly boy sometimes.

Here’s another view of beautiful snow and ice filled Shackleford Falls. Aren’t those icicles hanging down so totally cool?

I was standing up on a big rock to get this viewpoint. If it wasn’t so freezing, I wouldn’t mind standing more in the creek to get a shot here. haha.

It seems not many people know about Oneonta Falls. It is not an advertised waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge, and in the past, it was often mistaken for smaller Middle Oneonta Falls. I think these days, more people know about it, and it is getting more traffic. It is off the beaten path, but it is not too terribly difficult to get down to. The first section is very steep, but there are plenty of handholds to use.

Oneonta Falls was one of the two waterfalls in the Gorge that I absolutely had to get to on this trip (the other being Upper Bridal Veil).  And I must say, it is a stunning location. I could have spent all day down there enjoying this one, and I really did not want to leave. It is tucked down at the bottom of a gorgeous canyon, it seems like you are in a separate world, and indeed, there will not likely be another soul in sight, and you will be able to enjoy this one all to yourself. There are plenty of photo opportunities down there as well, and you can even walk in behind the falls if you so desire. It is just a magnificent place.

On a final note, I have finally finished updating my site with all the Oregon waterfalls I visited on this trip. I have added or updated 26 Columbia River Gorge waterfalls on my site, and have added info for an additional 40 Oregon waterfalls to my site:

http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent