Leon Turnbull Photography

Vernal Falls is one of my favourite waterfalls in Yosemite. It is not one of the more uncommon falls there, as I said that I was going to be doing more of this trip. But my hike on Day 2 was certainly of the uncommon variety. My plan was to hike about 15 miles in total, up past Vernal and Nevada Falls, all the way to Bunnell Cascade on the Merced River. Along the way, I would see 3 new waterfalls (not counting Vernal and Nevada). After hiking 9 miles the previous day, the big question was could I do it?

It was a cold sleep the night before. I had a campsite in Lower Pines campground, and was sleeping in my SUV. I had made reservations only a couple weeks before the trip, and was fortunate to get a site. I think I managed to snag the very last campsite in the valley. I wasn’t expecting there to be so many people at Yosemite in April. I should have known better. Anyway, I woke up at about 5:30AM, and I seriously considered staying in my sleeping bag, but I wasn’t warm even in my sleeping bag, so I forced myself up and out.

I made it up to Vernal Falls at about sunrise, and took a couple photos of my favourite waterfall, which was flowing as good as it gets. I knew it would be rather wet hiking up past it on the Mist Trail. The Mist Trail is perhaps the best waterfall hike in the country. It just doesn’t get any better than hiking up alongside a huge waterfall, getting drenched by its spray, and then continuing up to the top alongside another huge waterfall (Nevada Falls). The only problem of course, is the amount of people that go on this trail. But you would think that at sunrise, I would be the only one on the trail. Almost, but not quite. A group of older Japanese men were also up early hiking this day, and I met them up on the Mist Trail. The Mist Trail was a problem. Because it was so cold, it was ice! The steps were incredibly slippery. One missed step, and boom. You could easily fall and seriously injure yourself. I was extremely careful walking up the steps. I made it up without incident, and so did the Japanese men.

At the top, I left the Japanese and continued up quickly to Nevada Falls. I have yet to get a good photograph of Nevada Falls. The sun was already starting to crest above the top of the falls, and I figured I’d be too late again. And I was too late, but the bigger problem was all the mist at the falls anyway. I still do not have a good photo of Nevada Falls. Next time, I tell you, I’m gonna get a good one. No matter what it takes. I promise.

Well, I was quite cold by the time I got up to the top of Nevada Falls. My gloves were useless, because they were still wet from my blizzard hike the previous day to Chilnualna. Fortunately, the sun was out now, and hopefully it would warm me up. Once above Nevada, the trail becomes very flat as you hike up Little Yosemite Valley. That’s a good thing. I had to hike 4.5 miles (one way) up the valley to my destination. I felt very good, and was pretty sure I would be able to complete my intended hike, even though it would take all day.

I encountered snow along the trail now, at about 6500 ft. elevation. It was not difficult to hike through, but it does take more effort to hike through snow, and I would need all the energy I could muster for this hike. I also encountered a couple backpackers who were going up to Merced Lake (which is quite a ways past Bunnell Cascade, my destination).

The first waterfall I encountered was a surprise: Merced River Falls. A fabulous water slide along the Merced River, 58 ft. high. I did not expect such a big waterfall here, I was expecting something in the neighborhood of 20 or 30 ft. The river was just roaring down the slide, creating a cool rooster-tail at the top of it. It would make for a great water slide, if not for the water being so cold and you’d probably drown as well if you tried it. The sun was out and very harsh by this time, as I expected. I was not able to get good photos of course, but they are posted on my regular website.

About a mile above this first waterfall is Bunnell Cascade. I arrived at about noon. It is very similar to Merced River Falls, a long spectacular slide along the Merced River. It is just slightly smaller than the first waterfall, 53 ft. high. I think I preferred Merced River Falls over Bunnell Cascade, but both are amazing to see. I found another waterfall dropping off the cliffs near Bunnell Cascade. This was an unnamed waterfall on unnamed cliffs, and it just flows in the spring when the snow is melting. But it was a pretty interesting waterfall.

It was quite cold at Bunnell Cascade, and I had to find a secluded spot to eat my lunch out of the wind. After eating, I made the long trek back down. By this time, my back and shoulders were in a lot of pain from the heavy camera gear in my backpack. And my feet were also starting to feel very sore, and blisters were forming. I took my time on the hike back. Along the way, I encountered more backpackers and hikers. Once I finally arrived back at Nevada Falls, though, there must have been about a thousand other people on the trail. I hurried down from the top of Nevada Falls as fast as I could to get by all the slow hikers. My blistered feet did not thank me for that. I finally arrived back at the car at about 4PM, tired, sore, and hungry.

My only thought was to get some hot food for dinner. I stopped at Curry Village, and ordered a medium pizza. While waiting for the pizza, I called my wife to talk to her and tell her I survived the killer hike. As I was sitting outside on the deck, a darn squirrel came up and pecked me in the leg! What the hey? I don’t even have any food yet, squirrel! Then it came at me again. This time, I kicked it in the head. Don’t worry, all you animal lovers out there. It was just a very gentle nudge! But he left me alone after that. I’m sure my mother-in-law will not be happy with me, as she is a huge squirrel lover. Anyway, the pizza was sooooo goooood, and I ate 6 of the 8 pieces, I was so hungry. I think that’s why I actually gained weight this weekend, instead of losing weight from all the hiking I did.

By the time I got down from Chilnualna Falls back to my car, the storm had broken. And it was late. I knew it would be a great sunset back in Yosemite Valley, but I wouldn’t make it in time. Oh well, what can you do. I was happy to have gotten up to Chilnualna Falls, even though my photos didn’t turn out great because of the blizzard.

I made the drive back to the valley, where I was camping for the night. As I got near Tunnel View, I came upon this scene. The sun had already set but there was still much color in the clouds over the valley. I quickly made a U-turn and stopped along the side of the road. I thought of just continuing to Tunnel View, but I figured there’d be a thousand photographers there, and that is the one big thing I wanted to avoid this weekend. This looked like a dang good view too, and no one else was around. Plus, there was very little time before the color would be all gone. I quickly got out my camera, set up, and took my photo. Yes! Thank you, Lord!

My big plan for the first afternoon in Yosemite was to hike up to Chilnualna Falls at Wawona. 4 miles one way. 2500 ft. elevation gain. I was already tired before I started thanks to the scrambling I did at Foresta Falls in the morning. Not a good thing.

The hike starts out with a bang as you quickly come to what I am calling Lower Chilnualna Falls. It is not the actual Chilnualna Falls, but it is a fabulous waterfall in its own right and deserves its own recognition, as it is about an 80 ft. high falls. Chilnualna Creek was roaring like all the creeks in Yosemite, it seemed more like a river than a creek. And once again, Lower Chilnualna Falls was very difficult to photograph because of all the mist.

After the lower falls, the trail begins to climb, and climb, and climb. But to be perfectly honest, I did not find this hike very hard. It was up hill the entire distance, no doubt about that. But it was a very gentle up hill climb for the vast majority of the hike. I kept expecting the trail to get a lot steeper, but it never did.

Nonetheless, it was a long up hill trek. When you first come into view of the actual Chilnualna Falls, you have two thoughts. The first is “Wow!” What an awesome waterfall! The second is “Crap!” Look at how far up I still have to go! Maybe those two thoughts will be reversed for you. Slowly, ploddingly, you make your way up to the brink of Chilnualna Falls.

But well before I made it up there, it started to snow! It was the end of April, and it was snowing! What’s up with that? At first, it was quite light and was not sticking. I much prefer snow to rain, and I was dressed warmly enough, so I was not worried too much about it. I met one other hiker coming down from the top, who said it was snowing more up there, and he had to turn around at a creek crossing. I checked my map to see which creek he was referring to. I wondered how difficult it would be to cross it when the creeks are all flowing so heavily. I didn’t want to get up there and not make it to the falls. I also didn’t want to have to take my boots off to ford a creek in the cold and the snow. I continued on.

The trouble with the Chilnualna Falls hike is that you can never actually see the waterfall. The trail comes to the brink of Chilnualna Falls, but there is no way to view the falls. The cliffs are much too steep. I imagine that some people have scrambled down to the brink and looked over at the roiling, massive, falls. But that’s way too out there for me, especially in the middle of a blizzard. Yes, it was an all out blizzard when I reached the top of the waterfall. The snow was sticking too, about a half inch it ended up leaving on the ground.

But all is not lost. There is another excellent cascade just upstream. I continued on up the trail to the creek crossing that the other hiker was telling me about. Yep, I’d have to get my feet wet to cross it. But wait! There’s some logs I can walk across on. No problem whatsoever. I crossed the creek and made my way back over to Chilnualna Creek where the waterfall is. This cascade is what most of the guidebooks call Chilnualna Falls, which is quite incorrect. Nonetheless, it is a fabulous 80 ft. high cascade. But the snow was blowing like crazy when I was here, directly into my face. None of my photos turned out at all, which is quite unfortunate.

I figure I should leave you with a little something more from Chilnualna Falls. There are many fabulous cascades along this creek worth a look and a photograph. This one is just up from the brink of the main waterfall.

Cascade Creek and Tamarack Creek collide together at the top of a huge waterfall.

After scrambling around at Foresta Falls, I headed down into the valley. Along the way, I made an unscheduled stop at the turnout for The Cascades. There is only one way to describe how the waterfalls were at Yosemite when I was there. They had gone completely nuts. The snow was melting, all the waterfalls were roaring mad, and the Merced River was hog wild. I have only been to Yosemite once before at this time of year when the waterfalls are going crazy like this. It was completely awesome, but it also makes for very challenging photography. When I went to the base of the Cascades, it may as well have been pouring rain, because I was totally drenched standing there. I tried to take a photo, but it did not turn out at all. At the top of the waterfall though, it was a different story. I scrambled down in between the two creeks to where I could get a vantage of them colliding together. I didn’t really want to do too much more scrambling around this day because I had done enough of that at Foresta and I had a killer hike yet to do in the afternoon. More on that later. Nonetheless, I ventured down to this view point, and took a shot. It was not difficult, but you wouldn’t want to fall here, that’s for sure.

I just returned from a marvelous and very quick weekend trip to Yosemite National Park, a much needed time for me to get away from the grind. I am tired, sore, and I have a zillion pictures to process. My goal this trip was to visit “different” waterfalls in Yosemite, ones that are off the beaten path, and ones that I have not seen before.

First up is Foresta Falls. Actually, this is Lower Foresta Falls. The vast majority of visitors to Yosemite do not know about Foresta Falls, which is a 40 ft. cascade on Crane Creek near the settlement of Foresta, in the northern end of the park. Those who may know about it wouldn’t bother to visit it because it is not very exciting compared to the waterfalls in the valley. Of those few who do know about Foresta Falls, only a small fraction of those know about Lower Foresta Falls, which is just down the road a short distance from the upper falls, and is a much bigger waterfall. All in all, Lower Foresta Falls is about 200 ft. high. Still nothing to sneeze at compared to Yosemite or Bridalveil Falls, but a fabulous cascade nonetheless. The reason most people would not know about Lower Foresta Falls is because it is not marked on any map. In fact, there are three guidebooks published dealing exclusively with California waterfalls. All three mention the upper Foresta Falls, but none of them say squat about Lower Foresta Falls. I find that rather amusing. It is only another mile down the road.

Anyway, onto my story. I woke up at 2:30AM in the morning, after about 3 and a half hours of sleep. I was planning to leave at 2:45AM to get to Yosemite by sunrise. Astonishingly, my wife had not gone to bed yet! She often stays up late, but this was a bit ridiculous. Why are you still up, honey? She said she was staying awake until I got up, because she didn’t want to wake me when she came to bed. That was thoughtful of her, but arck, she wouldn’t have woken me up. So anyway, I grab my coffee, and I hit the road. 2:45AM.

As I arrived in Yosemite, it was raining. The weather forecast did not call for rain. I don’t really mind the rain as long as it’s not so bad that I can’t take photos, and it wasn’t raining very hard. Just off and on. I get down to the first waterfall, the upper Foresta Falls. I wasn’t sure if I could drive on the road, or if I would have to walk to it. The road was very narrow and a bit rough, but I managed it with my SUV. I just wondered how I would turn the beast around on this narrow road. The upper falls is kinda nice but nothing too special. It was quite difficult to photograph from the bridge (which is the only spot it can be photographed from), due to all the mist from the falls. This would be the theme for my weekend. Too much mist to photograph.

After the upper falls, I continued on down the road. Now I was really unsure if I should just walk or continue driving. I decided to save my energy (which I would need later in the day), and drive. The road was very rough and very narrow. Again, I made it down to the lower falls without incident. Once down at the lower falls, I had to turn the beast around on the narrow road. Not an easy task. Think Austin Powers (except with a 200 foot drop-off on one side of the road). I think I came pretty close to getting stuck.

Lower Foresta Falls is about 200 ft. in total height. About half of the falls is above the bridge and the other half is below the bridge. I did scramble down to the bottom of the falls, which was quite tricky. It was worth the effort but it was difficult to photograph the falls from the bottom due to obstructing trees and bushes. I liked this photo much better, which is just a small portion of the falls above the bridge. It was a good start to my weekend.