Leon Turnbull Photography

Well, there was no craziness to get to this waterfall. It is actually a very easy one to get right up to, and it is a beauty, towering 173 ft high.

This is an interesting location. The creek funnels right into the powerhouse here, just below the waterfall. Whenever I am here, I always wonder if anyone has ever slipped into the creek here. If they did, there’s a good possibility the creek would flush them right into the powerhouse. That would be rather freaky. I sure wouldn’t want to be that person. Of course, if you just stay on the proper trail, there would be no risk of that happening. But who wants to do that?

Sugar Pine Creek Falls is a doozy of a waterfall to bag. If you’ve been down to Jay Bird Canyon Powerhouse, you know that the canyon walls are incredibly steep here. Almost unbelievably steep. And you’ve probably noticed this waterfall on Sugar Pine Creek from across the canyon. But how to get up close to it?

The third time is a charm for me. The first time I was here, last year, I didn’t really do much exploring cuz the light was quite bad, but I noticed that the route down from the road looked way too steep to try. So I didn’t. The second time, I tried going up Silver Creek from the powerhouse. I almost made it, but I came to a dead end and could go no further. I realized the only possible way to get a view of this waterfall was to scramble down from the road. I decided to try it again this past weekend. I even brought rope, thinking it might help me get down if it was too steep. When I arrived, I found that it wasn’t nearly as steep as I thought it was. There was an obvious route down from the road to a viewpoint overlooking the falls, and I didn’t even need the rope.

I made it to the viewpoint, took a couple photos, and then thought it might be possible to go even further, maybe all the way down to the bottom. I decided to try going further. Well, that’s when it started getting much more dicey, and the poison oak decided to make an appearance as well. Going further required putting my hand right in the stuff, and the terrain got quite a lot steeper. I made it to a second (and better) viewpoint, and took another photo (shown here).

From there, I decided not to continue any further. I had gotten to a great view of the waterfall, and felt I had bagged it. I didn’t need to get to the bottom. Plus, it looked a lot steeper further down, with lots more poison oak, and I didn’t need to push my luck any further. Though, maybe someday I’ll return and try it. Who knows. Sugar Pine Creek Falls is a huge waterfall, about 600 ft. high. This is the lower 100 ft. of the falls, dropping into Silver Creek. The upper sections of this massive waterfall are not really viewable, but this lower section is definitely a beauty.

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.