Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s one last shot (for now) from Canyon Creek. On the way back up the trail, Rob spotted another waterfall in the distance and we found a side trail going down towards it. I had never seen this trail before. We decided to take it. From Rob’s point of view, he figured he might never be back on this tough trail for a long long time, so he may as well try to get to all the falls now if at all possible. I knew I would be back someday. Plus, I wasn’t sure if this was one I had seen before or it was a new one. The trail sorta led down to the top of it, but we couldn’t get a view of it. We worked our way around along the cliffs where we could get a decent view. As it turned out, it was one that I had been to before (but from a different trail). I measured it being 23 ft. high. This is number 4 along Canyon Creek. But right below this falls was a different waterfall, a new one that I had not seen before. We were able to photograph that one as well. So it was very cool for me, to find a new waterfall along this trail.

There are at least seven significant waterfalls on Canyon Creek, all 20 ft. high or taller. The last one is located right where the creek dumps into the North Fork American River. This one is 26 ft. high, and definitely a pretty one. It takes a bit of work to get to it though. Well, not so tough getting to it, as it is downhill all the way. But whatever goes down, must go back up. That is Leon’s reverse gravity rule. It applies only to hiking. In this case, down was 1700 ft. in elevation loss over 2.5 miles. That means we had to go back up that 1700 ft. unless we wanted to spend the rest of our lives down by the North Fork American River (which might not be too bad, as it is the most beautiful river in the world – but … it might get a bit chilly). Rob did talk about bringing a raft down, then we could just hop in the river and take out at Colfax. Hmmm …well, not this day. After a good sandwich overlooking the river and waterfall, it was back up the trail we went. Somewhat surprisingly, I felt pretty good on the hike back up. I was tired at the end of it, but not overly tired. Maybe I’m finally getting back into decent shape.

Taking a break from Canyon Creek, and back to something a bit different from American Canyon Creek. This is below American Canyon Creek Falls, where the trail drops fairly steeply on its way down to the Middle Fork American River. There are many mini-waterfalls along this section, and it is possible to get down to some of them. This is one of those pretty little cascades. There are many photo possibilities along this creek, and I just couldn’t resist. Very gorgeous indeed.

It is my daughter’s birthday today. She is 4 years old. They grow up so fast, don’t they. It seems like only yesterday she was just a little baby. But she will always be my little baby, I think. 😉 We are going out for lunch today. Not Chuck E Cheese (which we did last week for Jadon’s birthday – man, their pizza is awful). Today it is John’s Incredible Pizza; supposedly they have better pizza but they are much more expensive. We’ll see.

Rob was giddy when we arrived at the Big Waterfall. He was running around like a chicken with his head cut off (I’m not kidding), looking for places to photograph the falls, of which there are plenty. I thought for sure he had been down here before, but apparently he had only been to the first waterfall. He was excited. So was I. The Big Waterfall is 134 ft. high, and it was flowing beautifully this day, much nicer than the month before. It is off the beaten trail too. You gotta know where it is in order to find it, which makes it all the more rewarding. Still though, I wanna come back here when the flow is about three times as much or more again. Then it’ll be really cooking. The last time that happened was 3 years ago. It could happen this year. I’m hoping so anyway.

This past weekend, my friend Rob and I headed on back to Canyon Creek Falls in Gold Run, a spectacular set of waterfalls that I had just visited last month. I was a bit disappointed then of the low flow in the creek, which is normally much more exciting. But after two solid weeks of rain, I knew the waterfalls would be ripping and roaring now, and I was anxious to get back to see them. So was Rob.

There were a couple things I wanted to try this time around. Firstly, I wanted to try to get to the bottom of the first waterfall, a gorgeous 42 footer that is best seen above from the trail, but entices you to want to get down to see it up close. It has been beckoning me for many years now. The second thing I wanted to do was go all the way down to the river (1700 ft. below our starting point). More waterfalls abound on the creek lower down, and I hadn’t been down to see them for quite a few years. It is probably my favourite trail in this area, but it is certainly no cake walk.

When we arrived in Gold Run at first light, we found quite a bit of snow on the ground. This was unusual. Gold Run doesn’t normally get snow. It also would make the hike a bit interesting. It is hard enough finding the route through the forest to begin with, but with snow on the ground, it would be almost impossible. But thank the Lord for the GPS. With this, I was able to get us through the forest with only one or two wrong turns. It would be easy getting back, we would just need to follow our tracks through the snow back to the car. But the snow was slushy. Our feet were totally soaked before we even made it down to the first waterfall.

As we arrived at the first waterfall, we could see that the creek was still not flowing as high as we had anticipated or hoped. But on the other hand, it was flowing much much better than when I was here a month ago. When the creek is high, an offshoot from the creek splits off and shoots off a wall in a second gorge beside the main drop, forming a second waterfall. The offshoot was running today. It is a really cool sight to see. But I wasn’t too sure about being able to get to the bottom. After talking to Rob on the phone the previous day, he had told me that he had tried to get down to the bottom on a previous occasion and he found it too steep to go down. I was bummed. I knew that if it was too steep for mountain goat Rob, it would be much too steep for me. But nonetheless, we tried to go down. And we made it. It was steep and tricky, but not too bad going down. Going back up though, we found was much more difficult. But it was indeed glorious down at the base of the falls.

After reveling in the glory of the first waterfall, we continued on down to the Big Waterfall. Then on down to the river and more waterfalls. We saw 6 waterfalls all together on Canyon Creek. I will be posting many more photos of our adventure in the coming days, so stay tuned.

On the way back up, we met a man and woman couple coming down the trail. This is unusual because I rarely see anyone else on this trail ever. But it was even more strange when the first thing she said as we approached her was “You’re Leon Turnbull”. Wow, I didn’t know I was so famous. It turned out to be one of my Flickr contacts. She must have recognized me from my hat (in truth, my hat is probably more famous than I am – thanks, Rob). It was even more strange because it turned out that Rob used to go the same church as them. It is such a small world sometimes.