Leon Turnbull Photography

I debated two options for going out on Saturday morning: Lake Tahoe or Curtain Falls in Oroville. I chose wrong. I wanted to try Curtain Falls again, but I knew there would be less than a 50 percent chance of being able to actually get to the falls (without swimming … and I had no intention to swim). Nonetheless, I had hopes of finding a way around the big pool at the base of the falls by scrambling on the cliffs. Worst case scenario, I figured I could at least take a long distance shot of the falls from the pool. Well, there was an even worse scenario then that!

I started early. The alarm rang at 3AM. It is a long 2.5 hour drive out to the Curtain Falls trailhead. The morning started out interesting enough as I opened the door to my house to hear a couple owls hooting away. I couldn’t see them of course, in the dark. The drive was uneventful enough and quick thanks to no traffic (going home was an entirely different story – man I hate driving through Lincoln!). I did almost run over a rabbit that decided to hop right in front of my wheels. Fortunately, I missed it.

It was still dark as I started the hike at 6AM. And it was slightly freaky hiking through the forest in the dark down to the river. I did talk to God a lot on the way down. That’s always a good thing. I didn’t see any critters except for a couple large moths that tried to punch a hole in my eye, as they were attracted to the light on my headlamp. As I approached the river, the sun was rising, though I still had lots of time before it got into the canyon.

Curtain Falls on the Middle Fork Feather is an incredible adventure to go to, but the hike can only be done in the summer when the river is low. I was very surprised to find the river flowing high and fast at this time of year (not spring flows of course, but still much much higher than I expected). I could hear the river well before I got to it, and when I did get to it, I realized there would be no crossing of it today. Dreamflows.com had told me the flow was low, 230 cfs, but it sure didn’t seem low to me. Nonetheless, I made my way up river towards the waterfall, in hopes of finding a way across. There are tons of very large boulders you have to negotiate your way up and around, which takes a lot of energy. I eventually came to a deep pool which I definitely did not remember the last time I was here. There was no way around this pool but to go through it, so I put on my water shoes and started across this pool under a large overhanging rock. The water came up to my feet, then my knees, then my thighs, then up to my waist! But that was as high as it got and I made it across this section. And yes, it was cold! After that section, more boulder hopping, then you come to the river crossing. There is no way to continue on this side of the river due to the sheer cliffs. The only way to continue to the falls is to cross the river, and then you eventually come to a large pool which must be swam. However, I couldn’t even get to that point because the river was just flowing too very deep and fast to cross safely. I was definitely not expecting to be stopped here. Maybe with two people linked in arms, it could have been crossed, but it would have been quite difficult and definitely deep. So anyway, I made the wise decision to return. I did get my camera out to take a photo of the river.

The hike back up to the top is slow and difficult, gaining 1600 ft. elevation. There are 31 switchbacks. I counted them, taking a drink of water on every even numbered switchback. Hey, it gave me something to do, and to take my mind off the agony. Actually, it wasn’t really too hard (I definitely remembered it being much harder the last time). It was a good hike even though I did not get to my destination.

Well … I did not find what I was looking for on my sunrise hike this morning (Saturday). I found something rather different.

After a late night on Friday, I did not want to go too crazy and get up at any ridiculous hour to go on a mega hike (that was Plan A). Plan B was to get up a bit later and just go down to Folsom Lake again for sunrise. The clouds did not co-operate, however. I’m glad I did get up, and I enjoyed a lovely morning hike down by the river/lake, and I enjoyed the sunrise on a very chilly November day, but I did not even bother to take my camera out of my pack.

With no photographs taken, I was hoping to see some wildlife on my way back to the trailhead. I thought maybe a bobcat or coyote would be pretty cool. I did not see any of those. I did see quite a few flycatchers swarming around the spot where I was at sunrise, but I did not bother to take my camera out to shoot them. I did think about it, but they’re so very hard to get close enough to photograph, and they’re darn fast. The trail back to the car followed the river up towards the old Salmon Falls bridge. There are some enormous (and very unsightly) houses hovering over the river along here, and the trail comes close to a couple of them, following right along the fence line of one. As I rounded the corner, enjoying the scenery of the river, I came smack dab into an amazing sight straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. More than 20 turkey vultures, all lined up in a row along the fence line, and they were very close to me. Okay, well this is definitely worth getting my camera out. The sun was right in my face though, so I had to work my way slowly around to get a better angle to photograph the birds. I counted 20 vultures in a row sitting on the fence posts, and there were more flying around. I stayed there for quite awhile, watching them and photographing them. Vultures are certainly not the prettiest bird you will see, and I normally would not bother to photograph them, but this was a special experience.

After getting as close to them as they would let me, I finally retreated back to my camera bag and continued on. The problem, though, was that the trail now continued right beside the fence line where the vultures were all sitting in a row. They looked so happy just sitting there, I really did not want to disturb them (which I certainly would have, if I had continued on the trail proper). So I decided to let them be, and went off trail, down towards the river, and then back up and around the vultures. Aren’t I such a nice guy?

Here’s another one showing all the vultures lined up in a row along the fence:

I just feel like posting a waterfall image tonight. I am just getting too antsy for waterfall season to start. It happens every year at this time. I really want to go out hiking to a waterfall, but there is not any flowing around here at this time of year. Is there any place I could go this weekend? I’m just really hoping the winter rains start soon.

Anyway, this is from our recent trip to Lee Vining in October. This is the lower section of Lundy Canyon Falls taken from across a large beaver pond.

It was 3:45PM today (Sunday), and I was at the park with my kids letting them ride around on their bikes. I kinda noticed some clouds forming in the area of the setting sun, and thought it might actually turn out to be a decent sunset. So after the kids were done riding, we went home, and I took off to Folsom Lake for sunset.

My favourite shooting location at Folsom Lake is Old Salmon Falls. There is no lake there at this time of year. It is just a flowing river. I like it that way actually, flowing rivers are cool, peaceful, and soothing. Lakes are boring. But it is not really good, I guess, that the lake is so low. Well, it will fill up again soon.

Anyway, I found a nice spot by the river just in time for sunset. It wasn’t really much of a sunset and it really didn’t look like it would amount to anything really good, so I took some long exposure shots, then packed up and left. Well, as it turned out, I did leave a little bit early. The sky turned quite a bit nicer after I had left. Oh yeah, I should have known better. Now I am just determined to come back here again and get that better shot.

We arrived at Tamarack Lake just as the first light was hitting Ralston Peak. The lake was smooth as glass, providing a beautiful reflection. There was still a bit of snow on the peak from the latest storm, and there were even a few nice clouds hanging over the peak, which is a lot more than I was expecting. It was a glorious morning.

At this time of year, the sun is rising a bit more from the south east, so it actually rose a bit behind Ralston Peak, and we never did get the bright red colors on the peak. I should have known this of course beforehand, but I didn’t think it would be a big issue so I didn’t check it. It wasn’t really, we still had a beautiful sunrise.

There was even a backpacker at the lake, whom I think Rob and I woke up with our early morning arrival. But really, he should have been up anyway. Why would you backpack to such a beautiful location, and not get up to see the glorious sunrise? I’m just kidding. Who in their right mind would want to get up so early? Unless he was a crazy photographer or something. Anyway, I think we did wake him up a bit earlier than he wanted. Oh well.

After sunrise, we had some time so we continued on to Ralston Lake to check it out. It is only a short hike, but there is no well established trail to that lake, so it is difficult to find your way to it. Thank the Lord for GPS, otherwise we would have ended up in Nevada. ha ha. Ralston Lake is a lot smaller than Tamarack, but all the lakes up here are so beautiful in their own way.

After enjoying Ralston Lake, we boogied our way back to the trail head and our vehicles. It seemed to take much longer hiking back, though in reality it took the same amount of time. I had to get on to South Lake Tahoe to meet my family for lunch, as we were celebrating my brother-in-law’s birthday there. I arrived there in plenty of time. We had a late lunch at the Beacon Restaurant (pretty good), and then we drove on back home in time for the kids to go trick or treating.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you look at this photo closely, you can see a sliver of white in the center of the image, which looks like a waterfall coming down off Ralston Peak. It is not a waterfall. We couldn’t really determine if it was snow or white rock, though we eventually concluded it must be rock. But according to Rob the geologist, it is actually a petrified waterfall, the only such waterfall in existence. It is precisely 2.4713 billion years old, and was previously unknown to mankind until just very recently when it has been revealed due to global warming. Just kidding! (does anyone out there really read this stuff I write?)