Leon Turnbull Photography

Upper Bridal Veil Falls. This was one of the main waterfalls on my “to do” list for the Columbia River Gorge. I had heard the horror stories: epic steepness, major bushwhacking with no trails, extreme muddiness. But the rewards: stunningly beautiful waterfall off the beaten path in the remote Gorge, where few tourists have been before. Greg Lief, a friend of mine had informed me that so many people had been here in the past couple years, that there was now a pretty good beaten down trail leading down to the waterfall. There are plenty of crazy waterfall hunters in the Portland area, and it seems they had blazed a new trail where none had been before. I think Greg was one of the very first to go down to Upper Bridal Veil and when he went, he was doing extreme bushwhacking. But now, it was easy. What would I find when I went?

I drove in the early morning hours with my little Honda Civic up the steep mountainside. I was wishing I had my 4 wheel drive due to the steepness, but the grade was easy enough for little cars. At the trailhead (which is not really a trailhead since there is no trail), I found a small turnout on the side of the road, next to a very steep drop-off. The first thing I wondered was how I would ever turn my car around on this narrow, steep road. Well, no need to worry about that until after the hike, I figured. Now, where in the heck is that supposed newly blazed trail?

It was still dark and I wanted to wait a bit until it started getting lighter. While waiting, I walked up and down the road, looking for the “trail”. Indeed, I did find a path where people had obviously been down. This must be it. Once it got lighter, I started heading down. It was still fairly dark within the forest, which made the “trail” all that more difficult to follow. Nonetheless, I persevered, and as I came upon the edge of the cliff, I had found a pretty good “trail” after all. It was easy to see where the waterfall actually was, as it could be easily heard, and even glimpsed at through the trees. But the epic steepness of the cliff near the waterfall is something to wonder at. Anyone thinking he or she could descend near the waterfall would be in serious need of a brain transplant. The proper route is a bit further downstream, where it was steep, but where there was no cliff to fall off. The trail was indeed steep but it really wasn’t so bad. Nonetheless, it was a good thing to hang onto the sturdy ferns aligning the “trail”. I slipped and fell once, getting rather dirty in the process. I also managed to rip my hiking shorts. Doggone it, but fortunately, I had another pair back at the hotel. In short order, I descended down to the creek and got my first good view of the waterfall. It is certainly a stunningly awesome waterfall, dropping 80 ft. over a ledge.

To get up closer to it requires more effort. The only way to do this is to wade up the creek. This would be pretty much impossible in the spring and early summer. At this time of year, though, it is easy to do. I put on my water shoes and easily crossed the creek to get in position to take this photo. I had a very fun morning outing at Upper Bridal Veil Falls, and it was certainly worth the effort and ripped shorts.

Oh one more thing. If you go here in the near future, and you happen to find a silver Mickey Mouse keychain thing laying on the ground near the trailhead, my wife would be very grateful if you contacted me. And it would help get me out of the doghouse as well. Haha.

I just came back from a 4 day trip to the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. The purpose of the trip was to lead my first private workshop. The workshop went really well. We saw 19 waterfalls in 2.5 days, all of them in good lighting. My client, John, was a happy customer when all was over. We saw most of the main, easy access waterfalls in the Gorge, as well as a few unusual (but beautiful) ones.

I actually went to a few more, just by myself. I arrived a bit early to check out the conditions beforehand and go see some difficult, out of the way waterfalls, that I was anxious to see.  I ended up seeing a total of 27 waterfalls. Not too shabby.

I left very early from Red Bluff to make the long drive up north, arriving in the early afternoon. I did not find too many Fall colors happening in the Gorge yet, and that was something I was definitely hoping for. I also found things to be rather hot and humid. This is supposed to be October. What ever happened to Fall? Crikey-ness! I was sweating profusely on my first hike already. And the next day would be even hotter!

The first waterfall on my list to see was Upper Munra Creek Falls. Most people familiar with the Gorge probably know about Munra Creek Falls, as it falls along the trail to fabulous Wahclella Falls. But Upper Munra Creek Falls is off the beaten path. Yet, it is not so difficult to get to, there is an established trail leading to it. But since there are no signs, you definitely need to know where you are going. Thank goodness for the GPS.

Upper Munra Creek consists of a series of three small waterfalls, 22, 15, and 25 ft. high. This is the uppermost cascade. Munra Creek was definitely not flowing too greatly. That is as expected since it is so late in the year, yet I found that some of the other waterfalls in the Gorge were flowing greater than when I was here in September last year. It was definitely weird. Some falls had more flow, and some had less.  Munra Creek was one that had less flow. Oh well, it was still rather pretty.

Ash Creek Falls is one of the most spectacular waterfalls dropping off majestic Mt. Shasta. It is approximately 330 feet high, and an amazing sight especially with the mountain as a backdrop. Getting to the waterfall, though, is no picnic.

I knew of a couple possible different routes to the waterfall, neither of them very easy. I was looking for an easier route, and I thought I had found one. Indeed, via my new route, it seemed that I could drive to within a mile of the falls, then make an easy trek up the ridge to the viewpoint. I had everything mapped out and ready to go. I made the long drive up from Red Bluff and got to my road, upon which I found that the road was blocked by a fallen tree. Doh! Oh man, did I drive all the way up here for nothing? I got out my maps again, looking for another route. And I found one. This road would take me within a couple miles of the falls. But again, as I got to the road, I found it blocked by more fallen trees. Doh again! Well, as it was, I was within 3 miles from the falls already. What if I just walked up this road to its end, then try to make my way up the canyon to the falls? Time was running out in the day if I wanted to get there and back before dark, but I figured I would have enough time to do it. Maybe.

The first part was easy. Just walk up the logging road to its end. After that, things got a bit tricky. It was not particularly difficult to hike through the forest, up the ridge alongside Ash Creek Canyon. But there were no trails, and it took some time trouncing through the forest. But I was making pretty good time nonetheless. Then I came to what seemed like a dead end. The canyon walls came to a convergence on the elevation level that I was on. In order to continue, I would have to climb up a very steep ridge to get onto the next level above me. However, I thought I had run out of time, and I seriously considered turning back as it was getting rather late in the day. But I decided to give it a try. I had 30 minutes to get up this ridge and over to the falls before I figured I should turn around. Getting up the ridge was steep, but it was not as difficult as I anticipated, and once at the top, it was less than a mile of semi-easy trekking to get to the viewpoint. So I made it. And I was very pleased that I made it. It is certainly a magnificent waterfall, even from such a distance away. If I had more time, I think I could have gotten a lot closer to the waterfall, and I also would have liked to stay here for sunset. But I sure did not want to hike back down through the forest in the dark by myself. So I quickly took my pictures, then retreated back down to the car, arriving just before dark.

Here is a closeup shot of the falls with my 100-400mm lens.

This one is from last month. On this particular day, I managed to talk my son to come hiking with me. This is a small miracle in itself as he usually doesn’t like coming with me. I had to pick something relatively easy, so I chose Caples Creek Falls at Kirkwood. I wanted to go back there for two reasons: I noticed that Caples Creek was flowing pretty good when I was up at Kyburz a couple weeks earlier, and I also wanted to explore Caples Creek more downstream from the falls as I think there might be more waterfalls.

Caples Creek Falls is just a small little waterfall, really not very interesting. That big log hanging down the middle of the falls makes it even a bit ugly. While there, I was considering if I could possibly remove it, but it looked to be lodged in there pretty darn well.  The creek was also significantly down from when I saw it a couple weeks ago, making me think that waterfall season in California is officially over now. Considering it is August, that is actually very good. We had a great waterfall season this year, thanks to the above average snow pack we had last year. Now I just pray that this coming winter will be just as good.

Jadon and I did explore a bit downstream. We found a trail, but it was highly overgrown. Jadon was not happy about this and complained most of the way. There is one nice cascade just down from the main falls, and  I think it would be definitely worth photographing (if the creek flow was a lot higher). I did not get downstream as far as I had hoped though, because it was getting too late. The trail was a lot more slow going than I anticipated and we had run out of time (and I knew Jadon had enough anyway). So back up the trail we went, stopping at the main falls so I could take my photos, then back up up up the trail to our vehicle. I think Jadon had some fun hiking with his old man.

Here is a huge waterfall for you. It was so big I could not even measure it with my laser rangefinder. I guess it must be 1000 ft. high at least. Or is that 1000 millimeters? Since I have moved down to the USA, I have forgotten all my metric. Ah well.

Anyway, huge waterfalls aside, this is definitely a very pretty little spot I found along the North Fork of the North Fork American River. I did not get to where I wanted to go today, and was not even going to take any photos, but I happened upon this scene and could not pass it up. The river is just so beautiful and amazingly green.

Although I did not get where I intended, I did get a good hike in this morning. It was my first hike since my surgery more than 2 weeks ago, and I am happy to say it went great and I am back in the groove (for hiking). It is a pretty tough climb out of the canyon, so it was definitely a good test for me.