Leon Turnbull Photography

I was standing right on the edge of Secret Falls (aka Granite Lake Falls) to get this shot. My tripod leg was practically right in the stream, as I tried to get as close to the edge as possible to get the shot that I wanted. Don’t worry. It was quite safe enough. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to take any more steps to the right, but I didn’t feel I was in a dangerous spot at any time, even though it may not look like it from the photo (and that would be a good thing, because I was trying to give you the viewer a sense of vertigo or precariousness, looking down from the top of the falls). I always play things on the conservative side when I visit waterfalls. I am well aware of the dangers involved, falling on slippery rocks, or into rushing streams. Many people have died at waterfalls, and I don’t plan to be one of them. However, I do have nightmares about that, but that’s another story.

After my beautiful morning visit to Secret Falls, I still had some time to spare before I needed to head back to Cameron Park for the church service. I tried to find another waterfall, but this time I struck out. That happens more often than not, when waterfallin’. I was scrambling up a small stream off trail, and thought I saw a waterfall in the distance. It looked like it might be a pretty nice one too. I continued scrambling up to it, through quite a lot of brush, and when I finally got up to it, I realized it was just a small 5 footer. From the distance it looked like it might be a lot bigger. I was a bit bummed, it would have been so sweet to find a new waterfall, but at least I did get to one nice waterfall, sometimes I don’t even get that.

This is another one of those waterfalls I would never have known existed if not for some very nice person informing me about it. I am calling this one Granite Lake Falls, and it is a beauty, 33 ft. high. The stream is part of the outlet stream from Granite Lake, which dumps into Silver Lake. The other part comes from high up in the mountains at Summit Meadow Lake. In the spring, when the streams are flowing, this waterfall rocks. But how would one ever know this waterfall exists?

From study of Google Earth and topo maps, there is no indication whatsoever of a waterfall in this area. There doesn’t even seem to be any outlet to Granite Lake. Not to mention, the topography just does not look steep enough. “Surprise, surprise!” says God. There is indeed a waterfall, and a pretty good one at that. I probably would never have gone up here had I not known there was a waterfall. But I did not know exactly where it was, and I wasn’t expecting it at this particular point along the trail. I was guessing it would be further up towards Granite Lake, and I also wasn’t expecting such a nice one and such a big one (I was thinking it would be more around 20 ft. or less).

So on Sunday morning, I got up at 3:30AM and headed out to Silver Lake. It is a very short hike from Silver Lake up to the waterfall, and I arrived at the falls about sunrise. Needless to say, I was very happy to find this fabulous falls. I carefully made my way down from the top of the falls to the base (it was actually much harder going back up). There was quite a lot of mist at the bottom of the falls, but moving downstream a bit, I found this cool spot to photograph. It was a beautiful morning.

I continued up another 10 minutes to Granite Lake, but I arrived at the lake about 15 minutes too late as the sun was already up above the mountains. I must have awoke all the mosquitoes there, and I think they were not very happy about it. Or should I say, they were very happy. Breakfast! I quickly took a photo of the lake, then headed back down the trail, away from the mosquitoes, and still had plenty of time to make it to church.

On Monday evening, I made the very long drive up to Truckee to see Webber Falls. I had not been to this waterfall in quite some time, so I wanted to go back here, and get some better photos.

Although it was sunny and hot in Folsom, once I got up at the summit, I could see big huge thunderheads in the sky. I was happy about that because if was overcast, I wouldn’t have to wait for the sun to go down at Webber Falls. I arrived at the waterfall and was the only one there. The sun was in and out of the clouds, so once I made it down to the waterfall and set up my camera, I just had to wait for the next cloud to pass in front of the sun before taking the photo. Compositions are extremely limited at Webber Falls. The cliffs around the falls are very steep and very crumbly. I suppose it would have been possible to make it down closer to the falls, if I was extra careful. But frankly, I just wasn’t “into” doing very much scrambling around here. I didn’t really have as much time as I hoped, and I still wanted to go to a couple other places as well, and it was already getting late. So I just took the easy shot, and left. Just in time too. That thunderhead rolled over just after I got back to the car, and it started a huge downpour. Maybe it was good I didn’t scramble around too much.

We were totally busy all the long Memorial Day weekend working around the house. My wife was working inside, cleaning the house from top to bottom, and I was working outside in the yard: mowing, landscaping, trimming trees (we have quite a lot of trees in our yard). Whew! That is tough work. We had to do all this work this weekend because my parents are coming to visit next week, plus it was all very much needed work, and I am quite pleased with all we got done. But my poor kids were a bit neglected on the weekend, so much so that on Monday Jadon had had enough. He complained of being sick, but he was really just needing attention, so after I finally finished my yard work by about noon on Monday, I took the kids out to ride their bikes. Jadon is just learning to ride without training wheels, and he finally “got it” on Monday.

Afterwards, I really really wanted to get out and do some waterfallin’. With my parents here the next two weekends, I am not going to be able to get out of the house at all, so this was my one and only chance. I begged my wife to let me go, and she obliged. I decided to go up I-80 to the Truckee area. It was a bit late, and I didn’t have as much time as I wanted, but I stopped at Webber Falls first (will post that one later). Then, on the way home I stopped off at Cisco Grove in search of a “new” waterfall on Rattlesnake Creek. My friend Rob told me about this one that he “found” last year, so it was high on my list to visit this spring. Rob is a funny guy. He loves donuts, in fact he is kinda obsessed about them the way I am obsessed about waterfalls. So anyway, he decided to name this waterfall “Donut Falls”. Technically, it does not have an official name, and since he made the find …. well, it really is Rattlesnake Creek Falls since that is the creek it is on. But we’ll oblige Rob for a little while I guess. It’ll make him happy.

The waterfall is a spectacularly nice 24 ft. high beauty. It is surprising that no one knew of this one before, and that I had not heard of it myself. It is viewable from the road up to Fordyce Lake, but there is an easy path that leads down to the base of the falls. The only real problem with this falls is that I think it might be on private property. There is no sign at the path, and it is obvious that many people have gone down there, but I did notice signs all along the road and creek, so I have a bad feeling it may be private, and that would be a big bummer.

I was working in the yard all Memorial Day weekend. I did manage to get out on Monday evening to do some shooting. More on that later.

Here is one more from my recent outing at Bassi Falls with my son Jadon, and friend Rob.

I had taken off my boots and walked up to this little area in my bare feet. Jadon was sitting on a log watching me, trying to get his feet warm after I had dragged him across a deep section of the stream. Rob was who knows where. To get here, I had to walk through the water. It was ice cold! My feet were turning to icicles after only a few seconds in the water. I had to get out of it to make a photograph, so I climbed up on a rock. That helped a bit. Then it started to rain. Phew. It was a glorious day at Bassi Falls.