Leon Turnbull Photography

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.

I haven’t been out waterfall hunting at all the last couple weeks. I’ve been feeling rather lazy lately. The one time I did force myself to get out, I didn’t end up finding anything anyway. So I don’t have anything new to share. This shot is from about a month or so ago. I’m not perfectly happy with how it turned out. It was awfully misty at the base of these falls.

I did made a new waterfall discovery on my hike down the American Canyon Creek trail a few weeks ago. I found this splendid 37 ft. high waterfall on the creek, just a bit before it joins up with the Middle Fork American River. Now I have been down this trail a couple times before, and I definitely noticed more cascades along the creek below the 15 ft. scenic falls on American Canyon Creek (posted earlier). In fact, there is another significant middle falls in between this lower falls and the upper one. But there is no way to get down to that one, as the canyon walls are far too steep (and believe me, I looked for a way). This time, though, as I walked down the trail, I noticed another path leading steeply down to the creek. I hadn’t seen this before, and it was obvious people had gone down there. So I went down there too, and much to my surprise, I found this beautiful 37 ft. high waterfall, dropping in two tiers into a nice little pool. What a treat! It was difficult to photograph because of the spray from the falls, but it was sure a wonderful discovery.

Here’s some more of those cool white popcorn flowers. I found these at Folsom Lake, on an outing the other day with my family. I was looking for the lupin (lupine? lupin? whatever) that grow there in abundance, but they were not yet blooming. They always seem to take longer to bloom there, and they probably need another month. I did find some other wildflowers, including these popcorn dudes.

Speaking of Folsom Lake, it is actually a lake right now. In fact, it is higher than I have seen it in many years. The latest reservoir statistics say Folsom Lake is at 74 percent capacity, and about 120 percent of average for this time of year. And don’t forget there is still plenty of snow in the mountains that has not melted yet. So that must bode well for our drought and summer water supply, correct? We’ll have plenty of water and more to make it through the hot summer months, correct? Well, actually …… no. According to the Folsom Telegraph, the powers that be are actually planning to drain the lake quite soon, and slap us Folsom residents with a stage 4 water alert for the summer! What? You gotta be kidding me, right? Nope. Apparently, they need to do this to flush the Delta so southern Californians don’t get salt water from the ocean in their water supply and also to help out all the fishies. Well, I wonder how necessary this drastic action really is, it doesn’t seem right to “waste” all that water. If it is so necessary, I don’t really have a problem with the concept of flushing the Delta. It is something that would happen naturally every year if there was no Folsom Dam. The real problem I have is with the city officials that have gotten us into this mess in the first place. They have built and built and built over the past 20 years or so, dramatically increasing the population here, but have not taken into account the water supply for all these new residents! Not one drop of new water has been added. So even though God has adequately supplied us with water this year, we still need more! An “average” year of water is no longer enough to satisfy all the people that live here now. I just can’t believe that the city planners could not understand this fundamental concept when they were doing all their building. Okay, end rant. Enjoy the flower picture. I’ll try to find a waterfall for my next post. 🙂

Here’s another view of Linda Falls in Angwin.

After Devil’s Punchbowl, we took a break for free champagne at Mumm’s Winery, where George is a member (the frequent flyer club of the winery?). George is rather funny. He and his wife buy about 4 bottles of wine a year, but the only reason they are a member of this winery is that they have an Ansel Adams art gallery here. We walked through the art gallery first, which was very nice. But it was rather funny because we were definitely the 3 scrubbiest looking people in the entire place. Then we sat down and drank a glass of the free champagne, another reason George likes being a member here: the complimentary drinks. Our waiter was also rather personable, asking about what we had been doing that morning. He surprisingly knew exactly where Linda Falls and Devil’s Punchbowl were, and had been there himself too.

Okay, so then it was off to Silver Creek Falls in Foote Botanical Preserve, another piece of land owned by Napa County Land Trust. It was the afternoon, and the sun was out, so pictures weren’t going to be very great. But I still wanted to see this waterfall, because it would probably be my one and only chance to do so. I wasn’t overly impressed with the falls.

The hike down to the falls was easy and pleasant. Many wildflowers were out. It is a beautiful area. The trail ends at the top of the waterfall, about a 100 ft. drop off a cliff. The reason I wasn’t impressed though was because the creek was just barely trickling. I had expected quite a lot more water flow in the creek, more like Linda Falls. But this is a much smaller drainage, and it had not rained here in about 10 days. This is a waterfall that must be seen immediately after a heavy rain. Another (small) problem is that you cannot actually see this waterfall. At all. The surrounding cliffs on both sides are incredibly steep with many trees and foliage blocking any view of the falls. We tried scrambling around to get a view of it, any view of it, but were quite unsuccessful. The only photo I was able to get of the falls was a very long distance view with my 400mm lens from the other side of the canyon.So instead of posting that awful photo, I’ll just post another one of Linda Falls. Much better.