Leon Turnbull Photography

It’s snowing big-time in the Sierra Nevada right now (and very much needed too), but this one is from my Canada trip over Christmas … I was a bit bummed on this day because my planned hike to a different waterfall did not pan out. I was also very anxious to photograph “something”, and I knew that my wife wanted to take the kids ice skating at around noon, so I didn’t have an overly large amount of time. I thought to try Beaver Falls in Trail again.

Last time I was here in the winter, I found it far too dangerous to try to get down to the base of the falls. The surrounding cliffs at the waterfall are very steep, and in the winter it is treacherous to try a descent. This time I was determined that if I was going to go back here, I would attempt a descent to the bottom if at all possible. Why would I even bother, when I knew it would surely be impossible? Well, I knew that there was a rope from the top (not here last time I was here in the winter), and I was “hoping” that I could use it to descend the icy slope to the bottom.

As it turned out, I did not use the rope. It was there and I wondered about using it. However, there is a steep dropoff from the top of the cliff down to where the rope begins. It would be dicey at best to get down that first steep part and grab hold of the rope. If I missed a step, I’d be sliding all the way to the bottom (and very fast like).

I decided to follow the animals down to the bottom instead.

The route to Beaver Falls follows about a mile along the railroad tracks to the top of the falls. I saw many animal tracks along here. They looked like dog tracks, but they were not. There were no human tracks along with them, and although there were houses around the area, I did not think that dogs would just wander down here all by themselves and along the tracks for such a distance, plus there were quite a lot of sets of tracks as well, going in and out of the forest. Perhaps coyotes? foxes? bobcats? I followed the tracks all the way to the waterfall. Then I saw something rather unexpected. The tracks continued down the cliff to the bottom of the waterfall and then across the (partially frozen) creek before disappearing on the other side.

I decided to follow them down to the bottom (instead of trying the rope). The last time I was here in the winter, there was a lot more snow. I had to use snowshoes to walk along the railroad tracks, and the descent to the bottom was just too dicey. This time around, I did not need snowshoes as there was just a few inches of snow on the ground. But since it was so cold, I thought the cliff descent would be just a sheet of ice and again, too dangerous. It was a bit icy going down, but there were branches I could hang onto the whole way, so it wasn’t dangerous. Only the last section down to the creek did not have any branches to hang onto, so I just had to slide on my bum down that last part to the creek (getting back up that section was a bit tricky).

I was overly pleased to be able to get down to the bottom of Beaver Falls in the winter. It was so very cool down there. The waterfall was flowing pretty good, and partially frozen. The only thing I was upset about was the dirty ice around the waterfall (from muddy water flow), which is something I did not see here last time I was here in the winter (it is hard to see from the photo). Still though, it was very beautiful.

I worked my way up the creek closer to the falls, and as close to the creek as possible. I was not sure how close I could get to the creek before falling through. I used my tripod to test the ice underfoot, then took one step closer to the creek until the tripod poked through to the fast moving water underneath. Okay, I cannot go any further than that! I do wish though, that I could have moved over a bit more for this photograph. Perhaps if I was as light as the animals, I could have moved closer. Time to lose some weight, eh?

Traverse Creek Falls near Placerville has four different stages of flow: (1) dry, (2) single, (3) double, and (4) torrent. Today the waterfall was in full torrent mode.

Since I had Monday off work today for the holiday, I was kinda wanting to get out and do some waterfallin. But I was also kinda wanting to sleep in as well. I got up early and looked outside. It was windy but not raining. We are in the middle of a huge winter storm here in northern California. It was scheduled to rain and rain hard all day long. There was a lull in the storm, though, when I got up early and I could have gone out. But I just didn’t feel like going out. And I knew the rain would be coming soon. So I went back to bed instead. When I woke up later, the rain had started. We stayed home all day, a lazy day. But in the afternoon, it seemed to be letting up a bit. Possibly breaking a bit early perhaps. Or not. But I got some energy in me and decided to head up the hill to Traverse Creek Falls, rain or not.

When I arrived at the trailhead, I noticed two things: first, it was pouring down rain very hard. Second, there was another car there. Who else would be out in this rain??? I decided to walk on down to the waterfall in hopes that the rain would let up by the time I got down there. I could tell that the waterfall would be in torrent mode. When the small feeder streams that you have to cross on the way are full, then that means it is torrent for sure. Along the way, I passed the couple from the other car. They were not photographers, just a couple that enjoys rain and raging waterfalls, I guess. I said to them that I sure didn’t expect to see anyone else out here in this rain today. They laughed and said it was quite wet down there at the falls. No doubt. After that, it started hailing. That was interesting. I arrived at the top of the waterfall. It is a very steep descent down to the bottom, and no doubt slippery because of the wetness. Fortunately though, there is a rope that makes it fairly easy to descend.

Once I got to the bottom, the rain stopped! Indeed, it stopped just long enough for me to take two photos! Then it started up raining again. Well, that was perfect timing. But God is perfect, isn’t He. Thank you! If it didn’t start raining again, I might have considered crossing the stream to get a photo from the other side of the creek, but the creek was flowing pretty swiftly. There are only 3 steps to cross the creek, but they would be tough ones. I did bring my water shoes, but I didn’t feel like doing it in the rain. Too much effort.

I also noticed that someone had left a small stuffed cat down there. It was just sitting there on the rock, watching the waterfall. I stood there in the rain for awhile beside it, watching the waterfall as well. Then I let him be, and made the climb back up the wet path back to my car.

This waterfall shall remain nameless for fear of incriminating myself. ha ha, just kiddin. sort of.

Okay … so Saturday morning the forecast was saying it would be cloudy and overcast. A perfect day for waterfall hunting. And a perfect day for hunting out a brand new waterfall that I have had my scope on for awhile. I get up early, but not too early (because it would be overcast, right), and head out towards Nevada City. But what to my wandering eyes appear, but stars and clear skies! Yes folks, that is correct. The weather man is wrong again. Shocker. We have a big storm coming into the area next week, starting tomorrow. It is supposed to rain all week and a lot. Next weekend should be awesome for waterfallin’ if what I hear is true. But today (Saturday) it should have been cloudy. Alas, it was mostly sunny today. And if I didn’t get to my destination in time, the sun would be wreaking havoc with my newly discovered waterfall while I was trying to photograph it.

But the sun was really the least of my problems.

I approach the trailhead on a very rough road where four wheel drive is definitely a necessity. I have been on this road before so I knew what it was like. But my destination today is different. The trailhead is gated. I knew this would be the case. There were plenty of signs here, such as “dangerous”, “bridge out ahead”, etc. I suspected there would be such signs here.

So I turned around of course and went home.

This was out in the wilderness. Up ahead was an old abandoned mine, thus the reason for the signs. It was the winter. The creek ahead was flowing high, and possibly not crossable (certainly it won’t be crossable two days from now). There was no one around.

And there was a waterfall ahead. Or so I thought.

First though, the creek had to be crossed. It was flowing pretty hard. As I drove over the bridge on the main road up to the trailhead, I could see there was a lot of water in it. The hike follows a road high above the creek and I could hear it roaring. I highly doubted I would be able to cross it up ahead. As I approached the creek crossing, I came upon an old abandoned truck. According to the license plate, it had been there for 12 years, but it looked like it still might start (except that the hood was up, indicating not so). I meandered around the old “bridge” which was now “out”, found a very old tram that crossed the creek (I definitely would not be using that), and eventually found a spot that looked crossable. I waded across. The water only came up to my knees. No problem whatsoever. But if the creek was too much higher it probably would not have been cross-able.

I continued up to the old mine. More signs around now. I saw one very old rust beaten car falling down the hillside – amazing how the miners could drive these cars up these 4×4 roads without 4 wheel drive. Lots of old mining buildings around too, seemingly abandoned. One sign saying “active mining claims” but it was very old. One sign saying “no shooting – people area” (and “thank you” on the back of it); that one was a bit unnerving. I came back to the creek, and saw a couple small waterfalls. Only a couple small waterfalls.

I heard about this place from the late Russell Towle. I would never have known about it otherwise or suspected there might be waterfalls here. He had indicated in his notes there was “a very pretty triple waterfall twenty feet high, and just below it another waterfall perhaps twenty five feet high”. Hmmm … all I saw were two small waterfalls both about 15 feet high. This was one of them, a nice pretty double falls, but not what I was expecting. I did explore further up the canyon. But as I look back at Russell’s notes now, I realize that I may not have gone far enough after all. There could definitely be (and likely are) nicer and bigger waterfalls further up the canyon. Bummer! That means I just may have to go back here someday after all. Hmmm …

In the winter, the town of Rossland BC is often steeped in fog for the entire day. It is gloomy, overcast, blah. Sometimes though, if you go up skiing, you will get above the fog and it will be sunny on the top of the mountain. It is a very cool thing to look down on a sea of fog from the top of Granite Mountain. Sometimes you do not even need to go up to the top of the mountain.

On this particular morning I just drove up the highway, and a short distance past the ski hill, I drove out of the fog and into the clear. I found a turnout and walked back down the highway to this spot (which is at the Hanna Creek drainage). There was a nice beautiful glow on the horizon prior to the sun rising. The sea of fog in the valley is just so incredibly cool. I’ve been wanting a shot like this for a long time. It would have been better if there was some nice clouds for sunrise, but this will do for now, I guess. The valley shown here is actually Warfield/Trail, you can’t see Rossland from this view (if the fog was not there, I mean).

After my great outing at Deer Creek Falls, I stopped at nearby Tulip Creek Falls on the way back. What a difference! Tulip Creek was almost completely frozen over. I could easily walk across the creek on the ice, and indeed, I was standing on the ice to take this photo. It was certainly a very interesting experience, and much different from when I have been to this waterfall in the past.

I was of course not surpised that the waterfall was frozen. The temperature in the area had been very cold for quite a while. When we arrived in Rossland, it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius). It did not get much warmer than this the entire week we were there. On this particular morning at Tulip Creek, it was probably even colder than this.

The cold temperatures did not stop my kids from having fun, however. They do not get to play in the snow much in California, and they took full advantage of the time they had at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Rossland. My parents have a great house with a huge backyard, and it has a steep hill which is great for sledding. I spent many many hours as a child sledding down that hill (and quite a few as an adult too). Both Jadon and Nekoda had a great time this Christmas going out to play and sled down that hill, especially Jadon. He went out every day we were there, no matter what the weather, or even if he was the only one out there. He definitely had a fabulous time there, and I am so happy he took advantage of his time up there.

We also took the kids out ice skating and snow skiing for the first time. They both did very well at both. It took Jadon awhile to get the hang of them, but Nekoda seems to learn things so very fast. In particular, she was a whiz on ice skates. It was as though she was born to skate, a complete natural. I was totally amazed at how well she was skating for the first time on skates (remember, she is only 4 years old). I really wish it wasn’t so expensive and difficult to skate (or ski) here in California, or we would no doubt go much more. It is just totally ridiculous how expensive it is compared to Canada. Ah well, what can you do.