Leon Turnbull Photography

Why do I do the things I do? I don’t understand. Someone please help me. What sane person would scramble down impossibly steep terrain, though bushels of poison oak, all to see a partial glimpse of a 23 ft. high waterfall? Apparently, I would.

This is the main waterfall on Rush Creek. It is not visible from the trail and bridge over the creek. I had been here before and knew this. But it was probably about 7 years ago that I was here, and I didn’t remember what it was like. I had written that it was “too dangerous” to get down to the lower falls. But I reasoned that I had gotten more daring in the past 7 years, and what was too dangerous then would be a cakewalk now. Ha!

As I approached the bridge over Rush Creek, I saw that the canyon was a lot steeper than I remembered. Did it get steeper in the past 7 years? I wondered how I had gotten down to where I was the previous time? The terrain looked pretty treacherous, and my “too dangerous” annotation looked fairly accurate. I tried looking for a way down on the far side of the creek first. I saw a possible descent from the bridge, but I could see a wall of poison oak blocking the way, and not to mention a mound of bushes blocking any possible view to the waterfall. It did not look very promising.

I returned to the near side of the creek. It had looked too steep at first, but as I re-examined it, I saw a possible route down to where I “might” possibly have a view of the lower falls. I decided to go for it. It was steep, but it was do-able. But there was a big swath of poison oak I had to go through. No possible way around it, I had to go right through it. I tried not to touch it with my hands, and I thought I had succeeded, but two days later, the “itch” has appeared on my arms and legs. Ugh! Well, I continued down the steep terrain, and then I came to a dead-end. It was definitely impossible to get right down to the creek. I had a view of the falls from where I was, but it was obscured through the trees. I took a photo from this location, and I think it would actually be a decent view if it weren’t for the two bushes blocking the top part of the waterfall. Well, it was the best I could do. Was it worth the effort? Am I just insane? You be the judge.

Last weekend, we had plans to go visit my brother-in-law and family in Grass Valley, as it was the 1 year birthday of my nephew.

I thought I would have time to go up early for a hike beforehand. I chose Rush Creek because I had not been there in many years, and it would be easy enough to get to in the time that I had.

There are three small cascades along Rush Creek. The upper cascade is 15 ft. high, shown here, and is the only one that can be seen from the trail. I was hoping to get to the bigger cascades downstream from the creek. Stay tuned for my next post to see if I succeeded or not.

This upper cascade is somewhat pretty, but partially obscured from the viewing platform. I wanted to get a little closer to it, so I hopped over the platform railing, and ventured out on a big, slippery rock in front of the falls. There was poison oak barring my way. I tried to get through it without touching it, but to get right down to creek level, I would have had to work my way through an entire forest of poison oak. No thanks. Not for a 15 footer; maybe for a 115 footer, I would do that. This overlooking rock would suit me just fine.

I was surprised there were so many tracks in the snow along the Upper Truckee River: hikers, snowshoers, and even skiers. I didn’t realize this was such a popular route in the winter. There were even lots of animal tracks: rabbit, deer, bear, cougar. I’m kinda kidding, I don’t know how to tell one animal track from the next, but I do think I saw a cat track at one point.

I followed the trail along the river up above the first falls. My co-worker had told me of two more waterfalls upstream. I found the first one quickly enough, at least I think it must have been the first one he was talking about. It was just a small cascade though, kinda pretty but not a significant waterfall. I continued on, with high hopes. The trail eventually started heading away from the river. I have no idea where it was eventually leading but I think it might join up with the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes through this area. I did continue along the trail though, as far as possible. I had my GPS marked where I thought the waterfall would be, and when I got to about that elevation, I just headed off trail through the snow, directly back to the river. It was easy going through the snow, and I arrived back at the river shortly, and bingo, there was the waterfall! It was a beauty too, about 70 ft. high, dropping in two tiers, and was much nicer and bigger than the lower falls. The photo here just shows the lower section.

I call this one Upper Upper Truckee River Falls. That is a bit of a mouthful. But hey, it works. There were no other tracks at the waterfall, except for some rabbit tracks. Despite the popularity of the trail at the lower falls, I was the only one here this winter enjoying the beautiful upper falls.

I made my way down to the bottom of the falls to photograph it. There was a snow bridge there, and as luck would have it, the middle of the bridge is where I wanted to be to make my photograph. I tested the bridge gingerly, but firmly. It seemed quite sturdy enough, so I carefully made my way out and got my camera set up in position to photograph the falls. Essentially, the river was flowing right under me as I took this photograph. Don’t worry, I was careful. The worst thing that would have happened is that I would get a little (or a lot) wet. But the bridge held up, and I got my shot. Instead of returning back up to the main trail, I just followed along the river back to the bottom. It was a very fun day hiking through the snow at Tahoe.

Last weekend I ventured up into the mountains to search for some snowy waterfalls. Amazingly, I had not even been up to Tahoe this winter yet. I was hiking in the snow earlier this winter up in northern CA, but not in Tahoe. This is odd for me because I always like to go up to Tahoe in the winter.

Anyway, I almost didn’t make it this time either. It seems that whenever I plan to get up very early and go out hiking, I have a lot of trouble falling to sleep the night before. This time was no exception. I had an awful time getting to sleep on Friday night, and in fact, got so little sleep that I almost considered turning my alarm off. And I would have turned it off, except that I missed out on hiking the last two weekends previously already. So when 4:30AM finally came around, I forced myself to get up and dragged myself out to the car.

My goal was Meyers, so actually not quite all the way to Tahoe. I considered going to Eagle Falls for sunrise, but since there were no clouds in sight, I knew it would be a boring sunrise there. I do want to go back to Eagle Falls and shoot it at sunrise again, but the conditions will have to be just right. So instead, I ventured out to the Upper Truckee River in Meyers.

When I arrived in Meyers, I stopped at the gas station there to use the facilities and get a drink. That is when I realized I had left my wallet back home! Geepers, I sure am having trouble with my wallet lately. Remember, I almost lost it hiking a few weeks ago. This time, I forget it completely. Well, at least I knew where it was this time. I was able to scrounge up enough change in my car to get a drink, but the lady in the gas station was sure unfriendly. Was it because it was too early in the morning and she had not had any coffee yet? or was it because I was giving her too many nickels and pennies? Who knows.

I was expecting there to be more snow melting here because of all the warm weather we had in March. I was glad to see there was still lots of snow around, but it also meant the waterfalls would not have as much flow (but they were still quite good). I had to walk through the snow to get to the falls, and though I had my snowshoes with me, I did not need them. The snow was hard and just perfect for walking on. I carried my snowshoes though, just in case I needed them later. I also was carrying all my lenses. Don’t ask me why. My load was very heavy, and at the higher elevation, I was huffing and puffing on the hike, and quite tired by the end of the morning.

I have been to this waterfall on the Upper Truckee River before. It is about 20 feet high, and is very easy to get to. It is a nice little waterfall when the river is flowing, but later in the summer, there is just not enough flow in the river to make it interesting. I wanted to return here though to see what it was like in the winter, and also because a co-worker informed me of another couple waterfalls on the river upstream from here. I will talk more about that in my next post. As for this one though, I had a very enjoyable time photographing it. All the snow makes for a very pretty setting.

This one is from the top of 31 ft. high Linda Falls, looking down. It is somewhat of an interesting perspective anyway. Not sure it works well as a photo, but it was definitely cool standing there at the top of the falls looking down to the bottom. With the lower flow, it was quite easy and in no way dangerous to walk right across the creek at the top of the falls. If we had been there a week earlier, I think it would’ve been impossible to do this.