Leon Turnbull Photography

This is another shot of mighty Palouse Falls from back in December.

I am currently out of commission for awhile. Injured. On the shelf. I had a great plan for a sunrise hike last Saturday. The conditions were perfect for the shot I had envisioned (and it did involve a waterfall). It would have been glorious. It is just too bad that I could not (physically) even get out of bed on Saturday.

I woke up Friday morning feeling good, eating breakfast, and getting ready to go to work. And then I somehow tweaked my back very badly. I’m not even sure how, exactly. I must have just bent over or something and the back went out. If you have done that before, then you know how painful it is. This has happened to me before, but my back has been excellent for well over a year now. But recently, I have been on a mission to lose weight, and jogging regularly. I think it must have been weakened from my jog on Thursday. That is the only thing I can think of.

So much for my hiking plans on Saturday. I spent the entire weekend laying down on the couch, watching the Olympics. If you are going to tweak your back, then I definitely recommend doing it during the Olympics! I watched a lot of curling for sure (and I enjoyed it too!). And I watched Canada lose to the USA in hockey (argh!).

Anyway, the back is much better now, but I won’t be jogging for awhile. I can walk and hike, though, and I think I’ll actually be able to get back out hiking next Saturday. I went for a 1 hour hike after work on Monday, and I felt very good, so it is definitely getting better.

In the meantime, enjoy this shot of Palouse Falls at sunset from my archives. I was on the shelf (literally) for this shot as well. It is a terribly long drop to the bottom, and I was standing right on the edge. Just don’t look down.

Lately I’ve gotten back into jogging after work along the American River Parkway. And on top of that, my wife has gotten me into this thing called the Daily Plate. I’ve never counted calories in my entire life until now. But this Daily Plate thing is kinda cool, and I do need to lose some weight. So all is good. So far.

After my jog the other day, I decided to stick around the river for sunset. The clouds were looking pretty nice and it was going to be a spectacular sunset. Yeah, right. It turned out to be a bit of a dud. Once I got down to the river’s edge, a lot of the nice clouds seemed to have disappeared, except for a few. And there was a fog bank or something on the horizon that I couldn’t see, so once the sun had set, the color died very quickly. Such is the life of a landscape photographer. This is the shot I got before the color was all gone. This spot is right close to where I work, and it is a nice one. I have tried this spot for sunset before, and no doubt will try again. The footing along the edge is a bit tricky though (especially with jogging shoes on), but I managed to not take a dive into the river this time.

Okay so I had heard there was a waterfall on Iowa Canyon Creek near Slab Creek Reservoir on the South Fork American River. Truth is, I did not remember much about it. Where was it exactly? What was it like? I don’t know. I had never been down to Slab Creek Reservoir before, so it seemed like as good a time as any to try it.

My son’s birthday party was at 1PM, so I only had the morning to go out and to make sure I was back in time. I considered going up to Tahoe for sunrise, but the weather forecast turned me off. It was supposed to be mostly sunny. If I had gone, there probably wouldn’t have been any clouds at all for sunrise (but considering that I didn’t go, it was probably perfect!). Anyway, so I decided to go to Placerville instead. It would be easier and quicker.

From studying my topo maps, I had mapped out the spot where I thought the waterfall on Iowa Canyon Creek would be, which was I thought a ways up the road from the dam. I arrived there around sunrise, and parked in a turnout, then got out of my car to take a look. I wasn’t expecting much, and I didn’t get much. What I found along the road was a pretty-ish little triple falls. It would be worth photographing perhaps, but it was clearly impossible to get down to it. The canyon walls there were a sheer steep drop down to the creek. Down the creek a bit, the terrain looked a bit better, and I thought maybe I could get down there, then scramble back up the creek to the triple falls. Not likely, but perhaps worth a try. I decided to first go on down to the dam and see what I could see down there, then come back to this spot later.

Once down at the dam, I could see a different waterfall off in the distance, dropping down into the river (not on Iowa Canyon). It was a nice one (on an unnamed creek), and it looked like it would be worth trying to get to. I made my way down to the river, and determined that the best way to access this waterfall would be on the other side of the river. I crossed the river on a footbridge, and started making my way down river. A lot of rock scrambling was involved in this process, but the going was good at first. Then I came to a dead end with a sheer cliff dropping right into the river’s edge. No way to go forward except to swim. I actually did find a spot where I might be able to rock hop across the river and then continue on the other side. But … I was in a danger zone, downriver from the dam. If I had crossed the river and they made a release from the dam, I would be trapped on the other side with no exit route. You may think that the risk was very minimal, but it was exactly one week prior I was hiking back from Dutch Creek in Coloma, and I saw that the flow in the river was double from when I started hiking that morning. If they released water from the dam last week, it was certainly possible they might release again this week. A double amount of flow in the river would make it uncrossable. So what could I do? Well, I decided to try to climb up above the steep cliff. I started making my way up through yucky prickly brush, and poison oak (but I didn’t get the “itch” this time). I found an old trail, which may have been human or bear, and followed it up. I went up, way up above the river, and I wasn’t making any progress getting around this cliff. I eventually gave up, and made my way back down to the river. Strike out.

Back at the dam, I decided to make my way down to Iowa Canyon Creek to take a look see. I am glad I did! There was the waterfall I was looking for! Right near where the creek enters the river. It was a pretty one, 50 ft. high. But … getting up to it was a bugger! There is a ton of prickly brush along the creek here. I made my way through it with great difficulty, crossed the creek, and made my way up through more of the brush to the waterfall. But once there, I could not get in a decent position to see the falls. There was just far too much of that prickly brush to get up close to the falls. I found that the best view was from up on the cliff above, quite a distance from the falls, and that is where I took this photo from. I think I will need to return here with my water shoes and just splash my way straight up the middle of the creek. Maybe I can get up closer to the falls that way, but I just don’t know.

Ugh, I hate poison oak. I didn’t see any on my hike up to Dutch Creek, but I must have tramped through it at one point. Now I have the itch! I didn’t even wash myself with Technu when I got home because I didn’t think I was in any. Stupid Leon.

This is Lower Dutch Creek Falls, about 20 ft. high. It is a nice little spot along the way to the main waterfalls on Dutch Creek. It was in very pretty double form this day, so I couldn’t resist going down there to photograph it.

Apparently this little guy liked it as well. I was worried that I had partially stepped on him because he looks squished with his back arched up like this. I did not see him. He was not moving at all, and I could see he was breathing hard (well, I’ve never seen a newt breathe hard before, so I’m just guessing). These newts are impossible. They always like to hang out on the trails because they blend in more with the dirt and brown leaves. They are difficult to see. But they don’t get out of the way when you are about to step on them. You would think they would say something like, “oh there is a huge monster about to squish me to kingdom come. I should get out of here, move, jump up and down, scream, do something!”. But no oh no. They just sit there, still as a doorknob. Of course I know why they sit so still, to hide from predators. But geez, come on guys. Anyway, I think this guy was okay cuz after I had photographed the waterfall and came back up, he was gone.

Dutch Creek in Coloma is truly a magical place. It is certainly one of my favourite places in the greater Sacramento area. In the winter when the creeks are flowing, Dutch Creek and Johntown Creek collide in spectacular beauty, twin waterfalls each about 100 feet high, side by side, in a steep narrow canyon, joining together in a glorious display of splendor, force, and fury. It is magic. No, it is Creation at its finest. Only a God of power and love could create something so magnificent.

Ah, but of course it is also a dangerous place. Such beauty and magnificence must only come with peril as well. Anything truly worthwhile getting to must come at a price. C’est oui? The canyon is precipitous, the dropoffs are deadly, the paths are narrow and slippery. A place for children, not. A place for the timid of foot, not. A place for the faint of heart, not. But for the brave, the valiant, the rewards are stupendous, the scenery breathtaking.

When I first laid my eyes on these waterfalls a year ago, I was in awe. The beauty was undeniable. I was not expecting to find such an astounding scene. I have returned many times since then and I have seen the falls in full flood, and when only trickling. But I think they are best like they are right now, showing their full splendour and form, and accessibility is perhaps a tad easier.

But how to photograph such beauty? Johntown Creek Falls in particular, is one that I have not yet solved. It is tucked away in a narrow canyon and difficult to view, let alone photograph. From the main trail at the bottom where the two creeks join, it is partially visible. The first time I was here, I worked my way down to the creek and took a long distance, unsatisfactory, photograph of it. Getting up close to the falls seems impossible, even when there is no water in the creek at all. The photo shown here, above, is from the brink of Johntown Creek Falls, with Dutch Creek Falls in the background. This was seriously as close as I dared approach this monster, this beast. A mountain goat could, perhaps, get a better view of it. I love this photograph, because I think it does show the beauty of this canyon, as well as the danger of it. But one day I will have to return again, and try to find a way to shoot the ever elusive beast of Johntown.