Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s a bigger waterfall for ya.

This past weekend I took a special trip up to Lassen Volcanic Natl. Park. The primary purpose was *not* to see Kings Creek Falls, believe it or not. More on this in my next post. But since I was here anyway, and since I really really wanted to get back to Kings Creek Falls, I decided to get up extra early and make the trip out to see it.

So I got up at the very lovely hour of 3:30AM and drove out to Lassen, arriving at the trailhead at 5:30AM. It was still dark. A friend told me the light hits these falls very early after sunrise. So I started hiking in the dark in order to get to the waterfall by sunrise. I was a bit early though, however, and it was still dark once I reached the falls. That was quite all right though. Better too early than too late. My friend also told me that this area of the park is a haven for bears. They like to wait in the meadows along this trail for unsuspecting early morning hikers passing by. Yum, juicy humans. Just kidding about the juicy part, but it is true that bears frequent this area. But alas, I saw none of the beasties on my hike this morning.

Kings Creek Falls is not the biggest, but certainly one of the prettiest waterfalls in northern California. I’ve been antsy to get back to it for a couple years now. Finally, I had a good opportunity to do so. In case you’re wondering, I was right down in the creek to take this photo. And yes, it was darn cold.

Now I just had to toodle around the park until 5PM. And try to get a good nap in as well. Easier said than done. Stay tuned.

For those of you who have been desperate for me to post a waterfall shot, here you go. It is a whopper. Five feet high. It’s only a baby one, but maybe it will just tide you over until the weekend. If all goes well, I’ll have plenty of waterfall photos to share within the next month. Hundreds maybe. Much more than you’ll be able to stomach, I’m sure.

Okay so on to my story …

If someone tells you about a nice, little waterfall somewhere, what would you think it would be like? I’m thinking it would be about 15 to 20 ft. high minimum. Indeed, I would be quite reluctant to call anything under 10 ft. high a waterfall at all. So this was my situation. Someone had said these words to me, but I did not know exactly where this supposed nice, little waterfall was, except it was somewhere on a certain road. I checked my topo maps and came up with a few ideas of where it might be, and so off I went. Well, I did not find any nice, little waterfall where I thought one might be. But I saw a couple walking along the road, so I stopped and asked them if they knew of any waterfall in the area. Now, guys don’t normally ask other people for directions (especially me), but hey, I was desperate. And this guy did indeed know of a waterfall. He said to go down to the bridge over the (North Fork) Cosumnes River. Actually, he called it the Consumsnes River, but since that didn’t exist, I figured he meant the Cosumnes River. He said to just hike downstream from the bridge a bit, and there is a big bend in the river, and then you will see a “BIG WATERFALL”. Not a nice, little one, but a BIG one. All right, I thought. Now we are talking. I was excited. So I drove down to the bridge, started walking downstream, saw the bend in the river, looked around the corner, and saw a whopping 5 foot high waterfall (pictured above). And 5 feet is being really generous. A 5 foot high waterfall ??? This is supposed to be a big waterfall ??? I figured the real waterfall must be further downstream, so I continued hiking down river for quite a distance, but found nothing else at all. Was he just being sarcastic with me? Was he just deluded? More likely, I think.

Anyway, so I decided to take a photo of it, if for nothing else, than I could share this story with you on my blog.

Back at the bridge is a campground, and I did some more asking around there. (I was just in the asking kind of mood that evening). And as it turns out, this 5 foot high monster really is the big waterfall and only waterfall in the area (if you even want to call it a waterfall, which I sure don’t).

This shot of a snowy egret was taken at Limantour Beach at Pt. Reyes Natl. Seashore. There is a nice little pond/lagoon at the beach here, and there were quite a few birds there getting breakfast. It is definitely a great spot for bird watching, if you like that kind of thing.

This is sunrise on Tomales Bay, last weekend.

The sun forgot to drink her coffee on this morning. She was rather grumpy and didn’t want to get out of bed. In fact, she was about 25 minutes late getting up. I know you don’t believe me, but it is true. I was waiting around an extra long time for the sun to rise this morning. And I hadn’t had “my coffee” yet. And I was getting quite hungry as well. Finally, the sun made her appearance. I was beginning to wonder if she would. I took my shot, packed up my camera, and hurried on back to our lodge to get some breakfast and coffee. My family was still all sleeping! My wife always likes to sleep in, but the kids are usually up at the break of dawn, so I was quite surprised they were still in bed. Time to wake up people! Gotta get out and enjoy the sun, she might decide to go to bed early today. 🙂

Pelicans are such interesting birds. Their beak obviously is strange. But also their face and eyes are really fascinating to look at. I love how they fly so low along the ocean just above the waves, and often in groups.

I had lots of opportunity to photograph these birds on our weekend trip to Pt. Reyes. We were at Limantour Beach one morning, and there were plenty of pelicans flying up the coastline along the shore. I got out my 100-400mm lens and just started shooting away from the shoreline.

This was my favourite, but here are a couple more: